Customer Reviews

Red Scream

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Red Scream" was written almost ten years ago and I was late coming to the party. I can say that am I ever glad I put on my best black dress, Grandma M's pearls and those slinky black shoes and made my appearance. By the time the party was over, I was raising my glass in a toast to Ms. Walker for writing "The Red Scream."

"The Red Scream" is about Louie Brock, a serial killer, who has been on death row for over ten years. Although he murdered many women, he was sentenced to death for killing Tiny, the wife of a rich and prominent builder in Austin, Texas. While Louis is in jail counting the precious few days before he is scheduled to be executed, there is a copycat murder. Louis confessed to the murder ten years ago but now is claiming he is innocent. Molly Cates, a crime reporter, has been involved with Louis' story since Tiny's murder and has written numerous articles and a book about Tiny's murder. She now questions whether Louis actually did murder Tiny or whether he was railroaded into confessing. Although she feels he is a despicable character and probably deserves to die for all the other women he murdered, she sets out to prove that he is innocent of that particular murder because she has a very strong sense of justice.

Did Louis murder Tiny ten years ago? We can't take his claim of innocence at face value because Louis is a notorious liar. If he is telling the truth this time, with a horde of suspects and possible murder scenarios, we are left guessing until the last few pages of the book.
For those who like a little romance along with their sleuthing, this book will deliver. During the course of the investigation, three times divorced Molly comes in contact with her first husband, Grady, who is a police officer. Are they still in love with each other after more than 20 years and, if so, can they get together. Another mystery that is not revealed until the end of the book.

The "voice" of this book is a strong condemnation of the death penalty. The fact that Louis has killed many people but that Molly is fighting to save him from being executed because he may be innocent of the particular crime that sent him to death row is an innovative and stunning way to approach this controversial subject.

Ms. Walker had made it to my list of favorite authors and I am looking forward to reading everything she has written.

Mary Willis Walker really knows how to write 'em. I have read all three of her books and they are all well written and engrossing. Molly Cates is someone that I could relate to - she is extremely driven and haunted by what she has seen in her past.

Bronk was chilling as the possible serial killer. This was one book that I kept saying to myself - okay just one more page until I was up to the wee hours of the morning and I just had to finish it.

I don't know what it is about this Molly Cates Woman. I just love her in this book (the first starring Molly Cates) and UNDER THE BEETLE'S CELLAR (the second starring Molly Cates).

Like I said in my review of Under the Beetle's Cellar, she's so normal. Because of that, she's so easy to relate to. She's a crime reporter for a monthly magazine.

In this book Molly has written a book (and several newspaper articles) about this psycho that kills people and then shaves their heads.

Molly Cates is anti-death penalty; but she admits that even Louie Bronk deserves to die. He's committed many many murders and shavings over the years. Then it comes to her attention that Louie Bronk may be just days away from being executed for the capital crime he may or may not have committed [the murder of an woman married to an upper class man] (although, let's not forget he's committed others--all worthy of the death penalty).

Well, her book comes out. She starts getting letters in her mail that lead her to believe that there may be a copy cat on the loose. When the 2nd wife of the upper class man gets murdered...people start thinking copycat or are we about to execute the wrong person?!

Needless to say, the book is creepy, scary, messed up, entertaining. It keeps you guessing all the way to the end!

Mary Willis Walker has a way of writing that's so wonderful I just can't describe it.

Just READ THIS Book and then read Under The Beetle's Cellar. You'll be so happy you did.

The bad part of the books starring Molly Cates? They End!! BooHoo!

I didn't want the book to end, but couldn't put it down!

Absolutely gripping, from beginning to end. The best of its genre I've read since "Silence of the Lambs." (But I wish they'd stop putting blurbs on her books that the killers is the most frightening since Hannibal Lecter: None so far has resembled him in the slightest, they are unique.)

I beg to disagree with the reader below who says the book trivializes its main subject: serial murder. I don't think it does it all; quite the contrary. There is a true moral dilemma here: What do you do, what do you say and to whom do you say it, if you find out a killer scheduled to be executed didn't commit the crime he is going to die for -- but IS guilty of OTHER murders he wasn't given the death sentence for?

Walker also does something very few other writers do: She makes ALL the characters come to life for the reader, not just the major ones. I would recognize the minor characters if I ran into them on the street.

Louie Bronk, a serial killer confesses to (among other things) the murder of a Austin Socialite Tiny McFarlan. Crime journalist Molly Cates dives into the mystery and produces her first "true crime book" - already headed for the best seller list. Bronk is now scheduled for execution, and Molly is attempting to write the final chapter in the story for her magazine. But when the second Mrs. McFarlan is discovered murdered in copy-cat style, Molly begins unraveling the tale she has written and believed to be true. Mary Willis Walker is a master of characterization and suspense, and uses lots of Texas landmarks. The interaction between Molly, her daughter and ex-husband will leave you howling; the visit with the governor was so real I felt I was there. The crazy day at the junk yard is astonishing - to say the least. Beware this book is not afraid of making political and religious judgments which will be sure to make some folks uncomfortable, but it is a spectacularly well written story and I hugely enjoyed the unabridged audiotape.

There aren't many books I can't put down once I start reading them, but "The Red Scream" definitely fits the bill. Myself being born and bred on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, I love the Southern colloquisms Ms. Walker puts in her book. I also liked greatly the poems that start each chapter; poems written by the death row inmate that is a central character in the book. I eagerly await my next delivery of Mary Willis Walker's books from Amazon.com.

Molly Cates, the feisty journalist who sometimes seems like she is channeling Texas' own Molly Ivins, made her debut in this, the second novel by Mary Willis Walker which became the winner of the prestigious Edgar Award for 1994.

Molly is even better in the sequel book, the sublimely creepy UNDER THE BEETLE'S CELLAR, before taking a sharp turn downwards in the homeless-theme mystery ALL THE DEAD LIE DOWN, which won the Stupid Title Award the year it appeared.

In RED SCREAM, Molly tangles with the Texas Scalper, a convicted murderer she begins to suspect is not as evil or guilty as he seems, especially when a copycat murder takes place under circumstances which make it clear that Louie couldn't have committed this murder. It's scary, it's suspenseful, and the poetry about which so many have complained is actually very accomplished and lyrical.

The only question is, what has happened to Mary Willis Walker? It's been a long time since ALL THE DEAD LAY DOWN. If anyone has the answer, could you post here on Amazon Com and sate the curiosity of a bereft fan.

"The Red Scream" uses the detective story device of a dual investigation--one murder just committed, the other murder a decade old--and ties them neatly together in a satisfying way. In addition, Walker takes an uncompromising look at capitol punishment, and the conflict between natural justice and justice under the law.

This book made me both sad and angry. It has a great setup, but the author wastes an equally great opportunity. Let me explain.

The book is about Molly Cates, a true crime writer who has just published her first book, about a serial killer named Louie Bronk. Bronk was convicted of several women's murders; he received life in prison for the poor and minority women he killed, and was given death only when he confessed to killing a wealthy, white socialite. Right after Molly's book is released, she finds out Bronk may not have committed the socialite's murder after all. To her credit, Cates ignores the negative effect this revelation could have on her career, deciding instead to find out what really happened. Meanwhile, she struggles to keep Bronk from being executed, at least until it's determined whether he's guilty of that particular crime.

The problem was, I didn't really care about her crusade. Even if Bronk was not guilty of that crime, he undoubtedly *did* kill many other poor and minority women. If he deserved to die for killing one rich, white woman, he deserved to die even more for killing many poor, nonwhite women. Since I knew Bronk was guilty of possibly dozens of murders, I had no problem with executing him, even if it was for a crime he didn't commit. What I *did* find offensive was the implicit assumption of the legal system that the life of a single rich, white woman was worth more than the lives of many poor, nonwhite women. *That* is where the focus of The Red Scream should have been. Instead of wasting her time trying to save the life of worthless scum like Bronk, Cates should have examined the racist and classist disparities in sentencing him for his crimes, and what those differences say about our society. The only problem I can see with wrongly executing Bronk for the socialite's murder was that it let the real killer--if there was one--off the hook. However, I don't see why Walker couldn't have both explored the sociological aspects of Bronk's sentencing and written a murder mystery.

I also found Cates herself rather annoying. In an apparent attempt to make her main character seem "complex," Walker uses the tired expedient of giving her a tortured past. In this case, Molly's father was murdered 26 years ago when she was 16. The crime was never solved, and Cates is still obsessed by it, to the extent that it dictated her profession, destroyed her marriage to the only man she ever loved, and continues to occupy an inordinate proportion of her thoughts in the present. While I would consider it cruel to tell someone who had suffered a traumatic experience to "just get over it," there comes a point in everyone's life when we have to make a decision: Are we going to live in pain forever because of bad things that happened to us in the past? Or are we going to grieve those losses, put them aside, and learn to enjoy our lives as much as we can in the present? After much struggle myself, I've chosen the latter, and reading about someone still stuck in her pain felt like going backwards for me. Although this book is supposed to be the first in a series, I found Molly such an unsympathetic character that I have no interest in reading any other books featuring her.

I really enjoyed reading the book becuase it is thrilling from the beginning until the very end. The pieces of information are given one after the other throughout the whole book, which creates tension and until the vey end you do not have any idea who the killer ist and what really happened on that specific day.