4 out of 4 stars
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I had the chance to choose among several books, which came under C/T/M/H genre for reviewing. After reading the basic book descriptions, I got the feeling that, “yeah, this is the book for me”. So, I ended up reading and reviewing, The Embalmer: A Steve Jobz Thriller by Vincent Zandri.
This can be taken as a small to medium-sized book. My copy came with 372 pages, which were divided into 36 chapters. Both first-person view (in many parts of the story where our protagonist, Steve Jobz is involved) and third-person view are used in narration. And whole book is written in the present tense, which I have never come across in my reading experiences. So, that was a totally new thing to me, and I must say that, I really liked it.
Steve Jobz is a former cop, who was forced to retire from active service due to a shot he fired at a black boy, trying to rescue a shop keeper. When we meet him in the story, he is employed in State Campus unemployment insurance fraud investigations agency.
Set of serial killings are going on, which are named as Mortician Murders. A psychopath abducts women, embalm them alive, have sex with them after that and makes the corpse a work of art by transforming it into a doll-like sculpture. And he places those corpses in different places, making sure they look as living, with a unique note attached to them. A private detective, Miller comes to seek for Jobz’s help to track down this murderer, using the database of unemployment insurance fraud investigations agency, because he believes that the murderer is a former mortician. Eventually, Jobz becomes the associate of Miller, and together they hunt the murderer. Will they succeed?
The book actually carries two parallel stories, which runs in same time; the story from the side of Jobz and Miller and from the side of the murderer. It keeps on giving clues who the murderer is, and I actually guessed who he is. I was expecting a surprising twist, and the murderer will be someone who I never thought of. However, I was bit disappointed and the murderer was the one I guessed. No surprise at all in that.
But there are some other noteworthy points as well. Author discusses some practical issues that the police faces when they are doing their duty. He builds up a logical argument, making the reader think twice before blaming a cop for his or her acts. And he very correctly describes the post-mortem, including the dissections and the sequence of the process, which I have seen several times during my forensic studies. And towards the end, the typical detective story is packed with some action.
There is a handful of things which I like to highlight as good things in the book. It uses simple language, which allows for a quick and easy read. Zandri breaks the monotonous flow by putting two parallel stories together, in alternate chapters. Description of people, places and situations is really good, which gave me a vivid picture and a film like experience. And he takes the reader through the investigation process, step by step, giving the reader the impression of solving the puzzle together with Jobz and Miller.
The way that Zandri has used dialogues, has to be praised separately. Most of the story is told via dialogues, which made it more interesting. Many dialogues carried a bit of humour. Medical terms, with which most of the readers are unfamiliar, are explained well via dialogues, without harming the flow of the story.
Proof reading was well done, and I noted only one spelling mistake, using the word “gate”, instead of “gait”.
Even so, I found a bit large error in a dialogue between Miller and Jobz. After Jobz’s boss is being attacked by the psychopathic murderer, the word “died” is used instead of “got attacked”, in a dialogue. This made me pretty confusing, and it turned out as a mistake because, at the end of the story, it is revealed that she is recovered, not dead. But this can be disregarded with all the other good things about the book.
So, with all that, I will heartily give this a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. Recommended for those who love thrillers and detective stories. But not for the younger readers because of the sexually explicit content and those who cannot withstand violent acts, better to avoid reading this.
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The Embalmer
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