Books

The Psalm Killer
Fatal Cure
Death in a Strange Country
Death at La Fenice
Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories
Exit Wounds
The Book of Evidence
Nark
Malice Aforethought (Pan Classic Crime S.)
The Breaker
Rag, Bone and a Hank of Hair
Love Lies Bleeding (Pan Classic Crime S.)
Buried for Pleasure (Pan Classic Crime S.)
The Remorseful Day
Death on the Downs
Hot Six
The Fog
Death on the Downs (A Fethering Mystery)
In a Dry Season [AUDIOBOOK]
Embroidering Shrouds (A DI Joanna Piercy Mystery)
Wildfire at Midnight (Coronet Books)
Airs Above the Ground (Coronet Books)
The Chinese Shawl (Coronet Books)
Miss Silver Comes to Stay (Coronet Books)
The Case Is Closed (Coronet Books)

Average customer rating:

Compelling theory for Irish Troubles but uneven thriller
The Psalm Killer
One of the worst novels I have ever read in 22+ years...
Good book, a little disjointed
one of the best thrillers for years

Psalm Killer
Christopher Petit
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0449002896
Release Date: 1998-01-28

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Belfast-based police officer Cross, in Dublin for a conference, turns down a lift to the train station; a young cop insists on walking with him. "Cross enjoyed the walk in the pale sunlight with its hint of spring, though he would have preferred it alone, to savour the rare occasion of being able to feel entirely safe. In Belfast part of him was always alert to the possibility of sudden danger, the peripheral moment of warning, the car drawing alongside or the hot blast of air that preceded the explosion ..." When a thriller so quickly and so eloquently sums up the difference between life in Northern and Southern Ireland, you know you're on to something special, and Petit doesn't disappoint. Cross--English and Catholic--has come to head the murder squad in Belfast because his wife wants to be near her parents. He finds that some of the crimes he's investigating are linked to more than just the sectarian violence of the day--and to a truly devilish killer called Candlestick who you'll remember long after the last page.

Book Description

In the explosive city of Belfast, where senseless, violent death is a daily affair, Detective Chief Inspector Cross discovers the grisly handiwork of a serial killer. A man obsessed by homicide, Cross--both British and Catholic--finds working among his Irish colleagues increasingly tense. But calculated, cold-blooded murder has no allegiance. . . .

There must be some logic behind the bloodshed, a pattern to decipher. Yet what Cross begins to piece together defies explanation. For a killer known only as Candlestick cuts across political and religious lines. And the secrets to his bloody deeds lie in an unlikely place . . . the motive, too eerily close to home.

Customer Reviews:

Compelling theory for Irish Troubles but uneven thriller.......2006-07-31

I rarely read thrillers or mysteries, but I have read a great deal on Ireland, much of it fictional and factual on the North. The distinction of Petit's book is that he combines real and imagined so much he blurs them convincingly in the rivalry he creates among paramilitaries, army, republicans, and their shared spies. If you've been to the North of Ireland, Petit's descriptions will bring back to memory Belfast's atmosphere.

Lots of Irish republican and loyalist characters and incidents are borrowed by Petit from history--his bibliography credits specific figures and events that the author's adapted for his novel. He's done deep research, and if you happen to be well-informed already on the 'Troubles,' such background significantly enhances the topical interest inherent in these intelligently prepared fictionalizations of many real-life skulduggeries. Much of the value in reading "The Psalm Killer" lies in matching Petit's fictional characters with their living and dead counterparts. I admire Petit's protagonist's hypothesis (pg. 353 ff.) about why the conflict in the North played itself out 1975-85 as it did. Makes intriguing reading even more when the past Northern Irish decade's diplomatic and political alignments after Petit wrote this thriller, 1995-2005, are considered according to the theory that Petit's main figure offers. Why ceasefires and Irish-British negotiations emerge makes his thriller also an counter-argument for the North's "secret history" from not only 1975-85 but closer to its present political set-ups and diplomatic tensions.

There's not all that much Ulster dialect here, far less than'd be the norm for many Irish writers who've taken on this territory. Many characters are imported from England anyway. There's fewer indigenous major figures in the story than I'd have expected for a novel set in Belfast. Granted, it is told from more of a British outsider's perspective, which may have suited the author's own qualifications better. Don't be expecting many Oirish stereotypes, either, to Petit's credit.

The novel takes a long time to read, and demanded a lot of my attention. Plots shift subtly, and the pieces take a long time to assemble. Petit, as others note, does collide into clichés of the genre--the killer's long phone conversations with the cops, the taunting and curiously capitalized letters sent, killers who talk endlessly to those they are about to execute, femme fatales, the coincidental proximity of characters just when the story demands them, the esoteric pattern of the murders that reveals the next victims, and the climactic showdown between the forces of compromised good and unrelenting evil.

The denouement let me down. Some key events for the character with which the novel ends are left summarized, and the impetus for the two characters' meeting that closes the book fails to be demonstrated. There's a lot of repressed sexuality that bubbles up dramatically as the novel progresses, but I sense that Petit does not control the energies these instincts have ignited within major characters. They begin acting like crazed teenagers in their lusts, and this regression jars with how they've been earlier explained.

The spouse of the protagonist for much of the book is off-stage for reasons that you assume will be made clear and relevant to the resolution of the novel but never are. Major causes for plot complication and character development that are emphasized consistently and that create friction between key characters remain unexplained at story's end. True, this allusive quality of much of the North comes across well, in its shadowy alliances of enemies and backstabbing and informing and double-agents. But the novel's endgame, as it plays out, dashes past much that should have been explored or else left out of the already labyrinthine plot, given the elaborate construction of the intricately aligned characters that Petit sets up as his chesspieces.

The Psalm Killer.......2004-07-18

Not surprising that the reader reviews are mixed - this is an offbeat book. If you like complex mysteries like Peter Straub's Throat, check this one out. The writing is very good, strong characters, dark mood, interesting twists. And if you understand the musical clues at the end, please e-mail me and explain!

One of the worst novels I have ever read in 22+ years..........2003-08-02

I have tried to read this book three times. All three times, I couldn't get into it. This last time, frustrated beyond all get out that I couldn't get into the book, I flipped ahead and read the ending. Wow, glad I didn't waste my time.

Basically, nothing of any importance happens for the first 99 percent of the book. I am not exaggerating. Absoulutely NOTHING that has ANYTHING TO DO with what this book promises by the description of the plot on the cover ever happens. Then everything is wrapped up seemingly right out of the blue, leaving the reader feel stupid. This isn't a thriller, nor a mystery, not a political thriller, rather a jumbled mishmash of all three that tries to be complex but ends up cheating the reader. This is an exersise in futility to read, bottom line. The writing is good (if clustered in places), the characters decent, but the plot is just...insulting. Calling this book a mere waste of paper doesn't even do justice.

One of the single worst books I have EVER even tried to read. If you liked this book, then good for you. Heck, if you could make yourself read through this five hundred page mess of a novel, you deserve an award for having the patience and tolerance of Job.

I hope that I have expressed to you, the reader, what a waste this novel is. Not at all recommended. Unless you're a masochist.

Good book, a little disjointed.......2001-01-31

I enjoyed reading this book without being kept up by it. I was impressed with the good setting (Belfast in Ireland), which allowed the writer to use a traditionally violent and secretive town as a backdrop to his story.

The main characters were generally easy to picture, and behaved in a manner which created a good empathy with the reader. The hero's behaviour was at times a little predictable (the love interest), and at other times a little puzzling (getting bashed up in a strange situation in which he placed himself - and also his eventual demise).

Unfortunately for all its length, the book failed to resolve many of the subplots and dismissed many of the fringe characters (oh he's dead - but no real reason or explanation given). I also had trouble keeping up with the fringe characters and what organisation they were supposed to belong to - but I guess that was one of the points of the book.

There were also questions about the killer that never were resolved.

On the upside, I enjoyed the chapters where Candlestick's past was unfolding, and the book was certainly a page turner.

A good enough read, but hardly a legendary tale or groundbreaking stuff.

one of the best thrillers for years.......1999-10-15

Forget about wasting your money on Hannibal, this is 20 times better. You actually begin to wonder if parts of this book could be true in relation to what has happened in Northern Ireland over the last 25 years. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

The Psalm Killer
Christopher Petit
Manufacturer: Pan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0330336738

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The Psalm Killer 1996
Chris Petit
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knoff
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: B000MSDSNQ

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Psalm Killer
Chris Petit
Manufacturer: Pan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUD0P8

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