1 out of 4 stars
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For Gus Ward Harrison, killing was just one part of his “dark side,” but it was one that he frequently felt compelled to appease. He began expressing these dark urges at an early age, but as he matured, the act of taking another’s life was not as gratifying as it had once been. Thus, he turned a new page in his life to become Cryptic, a serial killer who amused himself by provoking the police, the FBI, and the public with ciphers and riddles.
Cryptic is set in 1960’s California; the Vietnam War was in full-swing, and tensions were high as plenty of young American men and women were ready and raring to go. One such man, a genius with a somewhat amoral attitude toward murder, was Gage Pann. Conveniently, Gage is interested in a project that Gus proposes – an on-going project about his life, to include newspaper clippings of his murder victims. The two grow close as Gus continues killing and Gage becomes involved behind-the-scenes.
Twenty years later, Cryptic is still free and unchallenged. Can a group of internet sleuths solve and make sense of the ciphers constructed by the brilliant mind of Gage Pann?
There are several critiques I have of the book. I found the descriptions of each person’s build, and the make and model of every character’s vehicle to be excessive. It seemed unnecessary as the information did not play into a bigger picture. Secondly, I did not like how characters entered the story and then were completely forgotten about. It was as if they just existed on the timeline of actual historical events and were included whether they were important to the author’s story or not (i.e. Charles “Tex” Watson).
One aspect of the book I enjoyed was the inclusion of notorious historical figures from the time period. The story did not evolve to include them in the plot, but the prospect was exciting. I feel that the author would have achieved better results by creating a meaningful role for those figures in the story.
Overall, I give this book 1 out of 4 stars. My chief complaint is that the story is not original. While I believe that real people and their stories can inspire great novels, the author of this novel did little besides narrate the known history of the Zodiac Killer. In fact, the part of the writing I detested most was that the author barely bothered to conceal the names of actual victims. He tried to tell the story from the killer’s perspective, but that was part of the problem – telling, instead of showing. Some readers might not have any difficulty with this, but I did not feel immersed in the story. I also had difficulty with the mediocre editing. For example, one character changed names two-thirds the way through the book. Another example is the formatting of chapters in the first fifty pages of the book. Several chapters were less than a page each and I found myself losing interest when the author switched quickly between the two main characters. In the chapters at the beginning of the book, there were also a number of spelling and punctuation errors. The last point to warrant the low rating was the introduction of three new characters toward the end of the book. The author finally seemed to be telling his own story, but it took him thirty-three chapters to get there. Due to the amount of page-time those characters received, their own stories were not explored in meaningful detail. I would not recommend this book, but I think that readers who are interested in reading about serial killers may be drawn to it.
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Cryptic
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