by Alex Mcdermott:
Somewhere in the 1970s, serial killers hit the media. Was it really all Manson? Or was it the bizarre Zodiac Killer who vanished without a clue? Who knows, but they made a splash. Then came the 1980s when we learned that we had a 39 percent chance of encountering a serial killer some time in our lives (a fallacy by the way). Serial killers were still big news. Somewhere between the 80s and the 90s, they no longer dominated the news, but instead became prime horror material. Freddy, Jason, and everyone in-between slashed across film and novels. Where could the serial killer go after BTK was caught? Make us laugh with Dexter, the sarcastic user-friendly murderer? The problem with the serial killer sits in the very title. Serial. Repeat. Again. For William Cook’s Blood Related, that means we’ve been here before folks.
His story is a first person narrative based on transcriptions from a psychiatrist. The doctor has had the dubious honor of spending a great deal of time with the most horrific butcher in the modern world. This serial killer has related his story in every gruesome detail. The killer’s story is juxtaposed with newspaper clipping that provide outside perspectives of the various crimes.
First person narrative is a very challenging style to tackle. An author must pick his or her way through complex details without every straying from the single point of view. Cook’s protagonist simply “knows” too much here. Our serial killer is more of an omniscient narrator, weaving a highly unrealistic tale rather than a first person perspective. This character would have to read minds in order to provide the reader with the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others!
How many ways are there to kill someone? This is the ultimate problem an author faces when writing about serial killers. How can I chop, slice, and dice to be different from every other serial killer, both real and imagined? Any bookstore has walls of real-life crime novels about these people. Walk across the room and there’s even more fiction or based-on-a-true-story novels. Cook’s narrative just doesn’t add anything new to this subset of the horror genre. His serial killers are not particularly compelling like Manson. They’re not intriguing like the Zodiac or BTK. They’re not bizarre like Son of Sam. They’re not intelligent and charismatic like Ted Bundy. They are so “normal” as serial killers that they’re bland, flat, and forgettable.
Blood Related doesn’t step off the well-worn path that others have done much better. There’s nothing fresh or challenging here. There are no new angles to lure the reader deeper and deeper into this horrific world. There’s no reason to come along for the ride.
Blood Related can be found on Amazon.com. Author William Cook can be found on his official site for Blood Related or on Twitter at @williamcook666.
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