Serial Killer Out There

Origin
Diana Abu-Jaber

Police procedurals, detective and spy shows were a staple to my childhood (so yes, I was part of those millions of children partly-reared by television while growing up). Who doesn't love whodunits? Who doesn't enjoy traveling with the protagonist, enjoying his or her's train of thoughts, unmasking the bad guy or the evil plot even before the scene unfolds?

With the onset of CSI however, police procedurals became geekified and I loved it! TV shows now focus on the people who make things happen for the detectives out there! DNA, the bane of my highschool biology class, became the buzzword and it was exciting to watch investigators uncovering the crime from the perspective of a blood spatter, the trajectory of bullets, the planted fingerprint left meticulously on a crime scene! Such a world of possibilities opening up when it comes to solving a crime!

This book is just like that, in part. The lead character is a fingerprint expert Lena Dawson. Unlike Grissom of the CSI show, Dawson is quiet, unobtrusive. But capable. And she's hiding a secret about her childhood, a secret that later on she learns, is connected to the string of crib deaths the forensics lab is trying to solve. But I'm getting ahead of the story.

This isn't exactly your usual whodunit; I mean, those paperback reads you go through in a handful of hours and about halfway through you know exactly who did it and you stay on still hoping to be surprised at the end. If I sound jaded about mysteries and crime books it's because I am. I've read far too much and watched far too many to be reeled in heart, mind and soul to a story. Of course I still read them, if only to see if I still have the mind to solve one or simply to pass the time.

And this book is a pleasant surprise.

There's a string of infant deaths, that much is there from the start, but Lena Dawson gets the story going. Her thoughts guide us through the entire book and like her, we see the pattern in the crime, we believe her. Much as we feel her anxiousness about blending in with staff of the lab or of speaking to journalists. Because, unlike her lab office mates, we know Lena's secret, of why she appears lost and yet somehow content, of why she's sure of a serial killer and why she's apprehensive about journalists. Well, it's not everyday you start with the premise that your protagonist used to be raised by apes before being rescued and placed in foster care!

Ok, that's as far as I'd go with the plot and hope that that gets you thinking about picking this up. Haha. But like I said, this doesn't read like a mystery, like a crime story, even if it's a mystery and a crime story. If I liken it to a show, it's not a simple episode in a long-running police procedural but a thoughtful film you'd be surprised with and later on relish rewatching. The prose has a certain beauty in them that makes you forget the world outside and be transported to chilly Syracuse and the conviction that out there, there's a serial killer on the loose, and the only way to catch that person is to face one's past.

I rarely say this about crime stories, but this one is beautiful. Not the crime, obviously. But everything here: Lena's characterization, the supporting characters, the (un)expected love interest in Keller Duseky, the twists in the story, they're just beautiful and feels so real and compelling. There's a certain ring of truth to the procedures here as well that makes me want to get myself that fingerprinting kit the author tried while writing this one.

I haven't heard of Abu-Jaber prior to this book. What caught my eye was the cover: the play of colors of shiny burgundy (it is shiny on the actual cover) against the wallpaper, plus the black birds and branches. Couldn't keep myself from it. So who says you can't judge a book by its cover? Kidding. This isn't the first time I bought a book based on the cover and certainly wouldn't be my last. Now I want to get my hands on Abu-Jaber's other books.

And I'd like to put up a quote or two I picked up from the book but it's not here with me. I read this a couple of months ago and since then left it at home. Tsk tsk tsk. Which would probably happen with the other eight or so books I've yet to post about. So advaced apologies for those future posts as well.

Have a great week, book blogging people of the world!

Other interesting points of view:

A Series of (Un)Fortunate Reviews
Birds' Books
Fizzy Thoughts
Reviewing the Evidence
The Griffin Reviews