Typically, once I have begun a series, I much prefer the author to produce within the canon. After all, publishing a book outside the series takes time away from the characters I’ve become entranced with. Nevertheless, I can hardly condemn a wrier to a life of tedious enslavement to their creations solely for my pleasure. And if I were totally honest, I’d admit that often their out-of-series books surpass their series books in quality because they get a fresh infusion of creativity.Such is certainly the case with Butcher’s Theater. Jonathan Kellerman usually writes about Alex Delaware. In Butcher’s Theater he leaves Delaware behind and moves his setting to Israel. Detective Daniel Sharan is in charge of a team commissioned with the tracking down of a serial killer targeting young Arab women. The killer drains the blood of his victims, bathes them, and shrouds them in white.It is a novel that is political, psychological, religious, and strongly geographic. The characters must make decisions and wear the resulting bloodshed on their hands—for in this volatile land, there are few decisions that can be made that won’t result in someone’s bloodshed. Each intricately-drawn character has diverse motivations and Kellerman sets up the tension in a masterful manner. The team of investigators may be forced to work together, and may all want the killer found, but there the commonalties end. They are frequently suspicious of each other, often mistrustful, and carry prejudices that are barely concealed.Like much of Kellerman’s work, Butcher’s Theater is highly descriptive and highly suspenseful. He takes on a tour of the holy land, showing us the tensions through the police officer’s interactions with the residents of various communities. Any community would be outraged by the murder of their young women, but when you add in the political tensions and an investigator who is as often an enemy as a friend to the people he is now trying to help. Kellerman describes the land so well, I felt as though I could hear the music and feel the sand scratching my legs.Although it will sound cliché, this was also a book I couldn’t put down. While there are places in the beginning where the book drags, the final half of the book is extremely exciting and suspenseful. Like most books about serial killers, we are slowly given more and more details and as the pace of killing increases, we become more concerned that the killer be caught.One thing I didn’t like about the novel was its overall tone of depression. We don’t really see any happiness—or at least none that lasts very long. It’s a very bleak picture of life in Israel, though there are moments of reconciliation and thin opportunities of hope.Kellerman has written many novels. He is most famous for his Alex Delaware series that includes such titles as:When the Bough BreaksThe WebOver the EdgeThe ClinicBlood TestDevil's Waltz
The book started off well, but then, after drawn out introductions to each officer, their families, into the minds of the antagonist, his father, and their feelings, I found myself, midway, having second thoughts about finishing it. But the write-ups were so attractive-' A spellbinder!'- 'A roller-coaster ride!' - 'A stunning tour-de-force!' after 300+ pages I had to disagree, but then I don't get paid for my opinion. It's not that the jewish words or culture were confusing or intimidating, I'm not a complete goyim. But it was too drawn out, the numerous red herrings were predictable when you knew (you'd previously been introduced to the madman) that the detectives were on the wrong path but it continued slowly to more disappointment. At one point the killer's repetitious psycho-babble went on for two and a half pages. It became a bit too cookie-cutter when we were placed inside the antagonist's mind, but I've never been considered meshuganeh so maybe all psychopaths do think similarly.
What do You think about The Butcher's Theater (2003)?
I've read a few other crime novels by Jonathan Kellerman and found the palled after reading three of them -- they also seemed to be similar, and got more and more predictable. So I was a bit reluctant to start this one, because it seemed inordinately long, but I wanted some light bedtime reading and it was available, and so I started it, and found it refreshingly different from mkost of Kellerman's other novels. It has different setting and different characters. The story is set in Jerusalem in the 1980s, where a serial killer seems to be at work, though it is not the kind of case that Israeli police are notmally called upon to handle, and the protagonist, Chief Inspector Daniel Sharavi, is luckily able to enlist the help of a visiting American policeman friend, who has more experience of such cases. The investigation is hampered by the religious, ethnic and political tensions in the city, which are sometimes reflected in the investigating team itself. In part the great length of the book is because there are no easy solutions to the case, and it requires lots of plodding and patient police work to get to the bottom of things. We are introduced to the perpetrator and his thought quite early on in the book, and the development of his motivation and psychological state, though he is never a suspect, and his identity is only revealed by accident, towards the end. So I think this is one of Kellerman's better books, and though it does seem to have some plot flaws, it was still and enjoyable read.
—Stephen Hayes
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7...Dit was mijn eerste thriller van Kellerman. En het was meteen vuurwerk. Allemensen wat een boek. Af en toe gingen me de haren recht overeind staan, zelf bij meerdere malen lezen nog. Normaliter heb ik dan zoiets van 'o, ja, zo ging het'. Dat is er nu ook wel, maar omdat het verhaal, de verschillende verhaallijnen en de personages zo intrigerend zijn, kan me dat helemaal niets schelen en sla ik bij de tigste keer herlezen nog steeds geen bladzijde over. Een geweldig boek, ik wilde dat hij meer van dit soort schreef.
—BoekenTrol
I enjoyed this book, but man was it tough to get through. I completely understand why some readers have not finished this one. Being based in Jerusalem, it makes it difficult to read if you don't know the geography, customs or the Hebrew language. I was reading it on a Kindle Fire so I was easily able to look things up as I went through it. That helped me understand a lot, but it also added a lot of time. I have NEVER taken 2 months to read a book (I only read at night before bed) and this one definitely took its time. That being said, I really enjoyed it. Don't know that i could have done it without the kindle though. I would have been completely lost if I were listening to the audiobook!
—Christopher
