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Do You Believe in Life After BEA?
June 5, 2007
Ever wish all books came out in mass market size? I do. And if you're schlepping home from an exausting BEA with the early stages of heat stroke and about four dozen galleys, each more ugly and unwieldy than the last, maybe you sympathize.
Thus, I was extra-pleased to find Warner's mass market reissue of Jeff Povey's debut novel,
The Serial Killer Club, in our bookroom last week. I've been meaning to read it since it came out last year, but hardcovers are such a chore to deal with on the subway, my reading environment of choice--difficult to hold in one hand, impossible to read in close quarters--I can barely be bothered to pull it out of my bag.
Anyway, having grabbed the mass paperback on Friday, I'm 200-some pages in (no small feat for me) and pretty excited with it. It's less a thriller than a dark comedy, centering around a regular guy who impersonates a murderer to join a social club for serial killers, where everyone goes by movie star names to protect their anonymity. Our hero, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., loves the camraderie and the grisly stories, and claims to suffer from "killer's block" to keep from having to share stories of his own. Unfortunately, though, each time a member comes close to figuring out Douglas isn't the killer he claims to be, he's had to kill them. When the action picks up, four years after he first joined, he's already killed 11 club-mates.
Povey is a writer for British primetime TV (including the megahit drama
Eastenders), and his novel makes, arguably, the best unrealized TV series since David Lynch's
Mullholland Dr. I see Martin Freeman (of the UK The Office) as the reluctant murderer and Robert Downey, Jr. as the FBI agent moving in on him. Bonus: it'll mark Cher's triumphant return to the small screen, in a role she was born to play.
So if you're a fan of serial killer stories, or you're a fan of Cher, or you're just looking to flush your head of unsightly BEA buzz buildup, try this wicked little novel. You won't be sorry.
Posted by Marc Schultz on June 5, 2007 | Comments (3)
