Customer Reviews

The Reaper

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Otis Joy is the popular and handsome young rector of St. Bartholomew's Church in Foxford, Wiltshire, England. His bishop has just accused him of embezzling church funds and ordered him to resign. The rector has no other choice other than the murder of the bishop and the cleverly designed disposal of the body to render a suicide verdict when it is discovered. If his parishioners would only keep to his plans, Joy would not have to resort to murder again. Unfortunately, they don't and he does. With a devilish plot, Lovesey encourages the reader to sympathize with the Rector Joy who only seeks an ordered life. Hilarious, wicked, and twisted, The Reaper is not to be missed! Peter Lovesey is the author of twenty-one celebrated mystery novels and the recipient of the 2000 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in recognition of lifetime achievement.

The Reaper is a humourous, but elegantly written story of a homicidal rector who somehow secures the reader's approval while radically culling his flock in a Wiltshire village. His first (?) victim, Bishop Glastonbury, is found in a deserted quarry with a naughty girlie magazine close at hand. The Bishop's last telephone call was to a 'Miss Whiplash' hotline. Meanwhile, Otis Joy, the guilty rector, is disturbed by Rachel Jansen, a parishoner, as he parades around his home dressed only in an apron! Getting the picture?

This book is a great fun read as the bodies begin to pile up and the reader is the only one who knows who's doing it. There's no mystery involved - Otis Joy is guilty of more deaths than the bubonic plague. We even learn Reverend Joy's motives. What holds the reader's attention is the lasting question, will he be caught? People are getting suspicious, and tongues begin to wag. And, of course, there's Joy's possible relationship with Rachel Jansen after her husband suddenly 'dies'... Will it happen? Can it succeed?

My only reason for not giving 'The Reaper' a five star rating, is because I felt we weren't given quite enough characterization of the main roles. If there'd been a four-and-a-half button, I would have pressed it. Nevertheless, 'The Reaper' earned Peter Lovesey the Cartier Diamond Dagger award and should not be missed. His other books (over twenty of them) include 'Rough Cider' and 'The Vault' - also well worth space on your bookshelf.

'The Reaper' is a very well-written book, not that long to read, and evokes its desired ambience of a quiet English village quite satisfactorily. The plot is well executed. It's the characters that did it in for me.

The book is not, in my estimation, a mystery, though that is where I found it at my local booksellers. There is murder and mischief aplenty, even some suspensful moments, but we know from the very outset whodunit. This puts it in the 'Columbo' league, where we know the identity of the killer, and the fun is supposed to be watching them squirm. While I enjoy that genre of suspense, it is not done as well as it could be in the case of 'The Reaper'.

The story concerns young and handsome Reverend Otis Joy, who has newly come to preside over St. Bartholomew's Church in Wiltshire , England. The first chapter shows him murdering Bishop Glastonbury, and the subsequent disposal of the body. There are certain mysterious elements regarding Joy's past which come up, but then they are discarded for a little too long before being picked-up later on in the novel. A young, unhappily married woman named Rachel Jansen attends Joy's congregation, and is in love with him (in her own convoluted way). Their relationship makes for the bulk of the story. I say "their relationship", whereas it is more Rachel's inner thoughts regarding the ever-murderous Reverend Joy.

And that is what bothered me the most about this book. There was no protagonist. No one to "root for". On one side we have Otis Joy, who murders people as though he were swatting flies, and then Rachel Jansen, who is overly-obsessed with the reverend to be of any sympathetic interest to the reader. She borders on being flaky, and I found it hard to readily embrace a book with a remorseless killer and an in-love flake as its protagonists. *This also, by the way, differs 'The Reaper' from being completely like a Columbo, as in Columbo, the star is the protagonist, the anchor to the ship, as it were. There really isn't such an anchor in this book.*

'The Reaper' does serve up a surprise or two (one very big one, as a matter of fact), and it is written well. I just wish that there had been a driving force of good somewhere in it - a Holmes, a Wimsey, a Poirot, a Marple, a Dalgliesh.... heck, even a Columbo.

I've read a dozen or so Peter Lovesey crime novels and never know quite what to expect from one book to another. In one book he may tell the story backwards, as in "Waxwork." In another, people "wobble" to death. In this book, "The Reaper," a nice young rector in a cozy English village is cadging funds from the church and has to kill people to cover it up. First off is the bishop, found at the bottom of a quarry, an apparent suicide. It gets worse.

The villagers are cozy, for certain, but a disparate lot, mostly of women who are much taken by the handsome rector. The atmosphere is one of church services, bake sales, council meetings, etc. with a little murder mixed in to hold the reader's attention. What is fun is that we, the readers, know who is doing all the killing. What we don't know is whether or not the rector will get away with it. He's very clever in covering his tracks, but is there some flaw, some crack in his perfection that will do him in? One almost hopes not.

The book is funny, pleasant and kept me reading well into the night. I would recommend Peter Lovesey books to any reader of crime fiction.

Face it, you've got to be in a certain frame of mind to read a book where you're supposed to root for a serial killer. After a bad week at work, I was in exactly the right frame of mind... perhaps even sympathetic. The main characters aren't finely drawn -- it's as if the author or editor chopped off the usual introductory first chapter. But who cares? It's a light, mischievious read. Enjoy!

I received The Reaper yesterday and finished it this morning. It is a real page turner. Can't wait for the movie. The book is not only a perfect British "cozy." It is also very well researched. it is s superb story, a mystery readers dream

Infuriating & diabolical, this is a terrific standalone mystery by the author of the Peter Diamond & Sergeant Cribb series. Clever, macabre, & full of the idiosyncratic English villagers that all great mystery novels bring to life, this story really plays with your loyalties--in a fun way.

I always like a good mystery, but this one stands out for its tongue-in-cheek humor. A great summer read.

Peter Lovesey writes great British crime novels, always with some sense of humor. His best is "The False Inspector Dew", but "The Reaper" is a close second. A popular vicar who loves his job becomes a killer in order to keep it. That's not a "spoiler" - you learn that in the first few pages. Lovesey's novel tells in straight-faced fashion how the vicar deals with potential threats to his social position. A related plot involves a woman dissatisfied with her marriage and very attracted to the vicar.

This is a well written, amusing and captivating story. Lovesey is almost always good, and he is in superb form here.

Peter Lovesey breaks new ground with this tongue-in-cheek mystery tale. It's suspenseful, full of delicious humor -- and a surprise ending, of course.