The seventh child, a message from God? (Library of the Dead - Glenn Cooper)

Member Name: burtybookworm

Product:	Library of the Dead - Glenn Cooper
Date:	05/07/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a very good plot

Disadvantages: irritating, sexist and annoying main character

Story Outline...

New York 2009 and a murderer nicknamed the Doomsday Killer has claimed six victims in just two weeks. The police are baffled; none of the victims have anything in common with each other, the only thing that connects them to the same killer is that all the victims have received a creepy postcard in the days before their deaths. The postcard, with a crude drawing of a coffin, announced the date of their deaths.

Struggling to come up with any results, they pull in Agent Will Piper an expert when it comes to serial killers. Will's search takes him in a direction he could never have imagined, uncovering an ancient old secret, an underground library belonging to an eighth century monastery. Only a select few know its secrets - and Will soon finds out that these people want it to stay that way whatever the cost.

Review...

The story of the Doomsday Killer doesn't take long to get started, from the first page, we are introduced to victim number one. Knowing what will happen to him once he receives the post card was quite interesting, I felt tense throughout his proposed "death" day; wondering when it was going to happen and if it could have been avoided. When it did happen, I found myself thinking how ordinary it was and how this serial killers style was going to make me as interested throughout the book.

My slight disappointment with the first murder was further cemented by my annoyance at the main character, Will Piper. Agent Will Piper is described as a bit of a maverick; a couple of years off of retirement and at the brink of losing it all together. A serial womaniser and drinker, he's been demoted and removed from high profile cases due to him conducting a relationship with a female colleague. I find it is virtually impossible (as, I would imagine, would be the case with most readers) to connect with a character if they have massive character flaws that clash directly with my own points of view on life and this is exactly what happened with Agent Piper. My dislike of him began to blossom when he displayed dislike and almost disgust of some female body shapes. For instance, when talking about his partner (at work!) Nancy, he says:
"She was pint-sized, five feet three inches in stocking feet, but Will's assessment was that she needed to drop some pounds everywhere," followed later by a stronger comment: "Too many heavy chicks in halter tops and short-shorts, jiggling along in flip-flops, for his liking. Do they actually think they look foxy? He wondered. They made his passenger look like a supermodel."

In a way, rightly or wrongly, I took this as clear projections of the authors own opinions although of course I don't know it as fact! Either way, my disgust for the character turned to dislike. These comments are made within the first 31 pages, and his clear dislike for heavy women or anyone he perceived to be over a size 8 irritated me immensely. I'm pretty sure that if I did wear a dress size smaller than a size 14-16 I'd still feel the same way, but as it is I felt totally (and perhaps irrationally as it is a fictional character!) offended. Added to this was the use of language throughout the book, not always from the point of view of Will which was overly explicit and crude at times. Most of these sections often came across as sexist and unnecessary and I found myself disappointed as soon as I started to enjoy the book, I was almost immediately put off by the odd throw away comment here and there.

It is a shame that these factors almost spoilt the overall enjoyment of the book, as actually as a whole, it was extremely compelling. On a plus side, the derogatory comments were almost counterbalanced by the romantic tension between Will and Nancy (after she had lost a bit of weight, what a surprise!) which was well developed and interesting to read about. As well as this, I really enjoyed the sections which went back to the Eight Century Monastery and the strange events that occurred during those years which, in time link up to the present day Doomsday Killer. The spooky, almost supernatural element was interesting and truly unique to any normal crime/thriller book I've read recently.

The two threads from the eighth century and 2009 ran together very well and the story between the two was clear and intriguing. However, by half way through the book, it is clear to me who the Doomsday Killer was and why these killings have come about and once I knew the answer, the book lost a bit of it's appeal. I became almost disinterested in the rest of the book as although the answer had the "wow" factor, it left me wondering what else there was to write about! The rest of the book obviously involves Will and Nancy finding out the truth, but to be honest, it wasn't that interesting to me to find out what they thought especially as I didn't care for Will all that much. As well as this, the deaths from the Doomsday Killer aren't really examined that much due to their varied natures and it sometimes felt more like a book about Will's personal development and relationships rather than a crime mystery which put me off slightly. (Now there's a surprise!)

Added to this, I found some of the other chapters hard going. Glenn Cooper, the author, has a mixture of writing styles, only few of which I enjoyed. Aside from the explicit language and the derogatory comments, there are some chapters which were far too technical for me. Often there were technical descriptions of Area 51 and suchlike. Another time line was included in the story, after WWI when the secret library is discovered, but I felt that in a way this section was hard going and although essential to the Area 51 story, a bit boring. Thankfully, these sections were short!

Summary...

Overall, I did enjoy this book. It seems strange, as once I have read a book I will usually say immediately to someone whether it was good or not, and after reading this I said it was. However, once I come to write this review, I've found I remember lots of things about it that I didn't enjoy and which actually spoiled my enjoyment a little bit. However, it is a unique and interesting story for it's genre and definitely worth reading!

Summary: .