She Treads Softly: Entropy

Friday, December 4, 2015

Entropy

Entropy by Robert Raker

Wattle Publishing: 11/27/13
eBook review copy; 232 pages
ISBN-13: 2940149303700
http://robertrakerbooks.com/

Entropy by Robert Raker is a highly recommended murder mystery told from four different viewpoints.
A serial killer is on the loose and the brutal child abductions and murders are taking a toll on law enforcement, the community, and individuals. In Entropy Robert Raker focuses on four different individuals who have a connection to the crimes.

The four people who share their story and connection to the murders starts with a scuba diver who is recovering the bodies which are all found in water. The second voice is of a disfigured musician who thinks he knows who is responsible. The third narrator is a federal agent who has been assigned to go undercover and get into the mind of a pedophile. The final narrator is the mother of one of the victims.

Each narrator shares their life, their struggles, their losses, their inner thoughts and torments while we learn about their tie-in to the horrific murders. They are all isolated individuals, living lives of quiet desperation and are remote and distant even from their partners. They don't openly share their thoughts and feelings with anyone so their inner pain and turmoil is intensified.

Raker does a brilliant job developing his characters and showcasing their pain and isolation as they deal with their connections to the murders. The language he uses is expressive, even poetic at times. The quality of the writing overcomes several of the flaws I found with the novel, with the major flaw being the lack of a solid conclusion. I understand the artistic choice to present the plot via the four individual narratives, but I was left wanting some semblance of closure, even if it was a fifth character brought in to provide the denouement.

I would imagine that most readers will likely find one of the narratives more powerful than the others, but together the stories of these four individuals create an impressive crime novel.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Wattle Publishing for review purposes.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.