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Read The Man Who Killed His Brother (2002)

The Man Who Killed His Brother (2002)

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Rating
3.59 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0765302039 (ISBN13: 9780765302038)
Language
English
Publisher
forge books

The Man Who Killed His Brother (2002) - Plot & Excerpts

I have long known Stephen Donaldson as the author of the Thomas Covenant sextuplet of books. That series could very firmly be placed in the genre of 'fantasy'. I'm on the last of his pentuplet of books The Gap Series, a series that has certainly opened up new dimensions to Stephen Donaldson as an author, the most basic aspect of which is the fact that he has switched genres from the fantasy of the Thomas Covenant series to The Gaps' science fiction. That has shown his versatility to me already.And then I came across this book and one of it's companions in the same series at the library. Because of Stephen Donalson's proven (bestseller) popularity (I can only assume) the publishers decided to greenlight a number of manuscripts - four to be exact - Stephen Donaldson had written before his bestsellers. They are, suprisingly and delightfully, written in an entirely different genre again - this time on the private eye side of crime fiction.When I discovered this upon reading the back of the dustjacket I was intrigued (that's why I borrowed the book) but also, because I expected such high standards of Stephen Donaldson after reading some of the best fiction of my life written by his hands, I had little room for less than very good - however novelty helped get me past expectations.Not that this novel isn't very good. That's the suprising thing - Stephen Donaldson is actually a good crime/who dunnit writer. One of my favourite 'private eye' writers is Australian Peter Corris (not least because reading him invokes scenes, recognition and memories from my home town of Sydney). Stephen Donaldson's effort is equal if not better to this seasoned writer's body of work.As for the story itself, it centers around a series of disappearances by 12 to 13 year old girls. The girls then turn up dead about three months later. Medical examinations prove all of the girls concerned have evidence of heroin addiction. Furthermore they find "evidence of recent sexual activity". The assumption is that the girls have run away, gotten hooked on heroin and then turned to prostitution to finance their habit.When Mick "Brew" Axbrewder's niece disappears in the same fashion as the previous girls it becomes personal. He and Ginny Fistoulari, a private detective, go after the case and start investigating. Ginny has her own private investigation business and hires Brew to help her whenever she feels she needs an extra head and pair of hands. One of the interesting things about the main character and viewpoint is that Brew is an alcoholic. One of his rules is that he doesn't drink when he's "on a case" with Ginny. So much of the book is narrated from the viewpoint of a guy who is going through alcohol withdrawal. I thought that this was a very interesting touch. One of the reasons I think so is because in telling it from an alcoholic's point of view, he makes the story wholly and uniquely his own.I think that anyone who enjoys any of the well known Stephen Donaldson books will - at the very least - be entertained by this book. Even if you don't usually read crime fiction if you are a Stephen Donaldson fan it's worth a look simply to experience the evolution of a writer.What more can I say? I enjoyed it.

My favorite fantasy-turned-sci-fi-turned-fantasy author is Stephen R. Donaldson. Years ago when I learned he wrote some hard-boiled detective novels under a pseudonym, of course I bought them. And set them on my self.I finally read the first book in the series and it was pretty decent. This book was written in 1980. Donaldson is not as skilled at building a world of human mystery as he is at building an entirely new world out of nothing. The mystery has been done better by many an author. But I'm encouraged that he figures it out in the later books. Character development is outstanding as always with Donaldson. His depiction of Mick Axebrewder, a drunk coming off the sauce, is what I imagine to be spot on.

What do You think about The Man Who Killed His Brother (2002)?

It's been years since I last read this book, and fortunately enough had faded from memory that it was liking reading it for the first time - I didn't have a clear idea on whodunnit until the grand reveal at the end.There was stuff I was waiting to happen, having more recently read the second book in the series, but other than that this time around it seemed more easily read than I only vaguely recall now. Lots of references to being a drunk to which I have no familiarity, but an engaging enough read that I moved straight onto the 'next' (unread) book in the series...
—Tufty McTavish

There's an over used cliché that seems to adorn the covers of half the thrillers on the bookshelves today: "I turned the pages so fast I left burn marks on the paper." Or something similar. I'm not going to say anything like that but if I did I wouldn't be just supplying an off pat testimonial just for the publicists - I'd actually mean it. Ok so the plot isn't great; its got holes aplenty and skates too close to the absurd a few too many times but that doesn't matter. Donaldson/Stephens has a knack of creating characters who really shouldn't hold the sympathy of the reader. Somehow you end up loving them anyway.
—Michael

I am a Stephen R. Donaldson fan, and this is the fourth series of his work that I've read. I first read them years ago, and I had fond memories of them...enough so, that I decided to re-read them. These books don't do well on the second read. Maybe no mystery stories do, but I found the writing almost painful this time. In this genre, the mystery is often either so inscrutable that it becomes irrelevant, or it is so obvious that the reader has to wait whole chapters for the "detectives" to catch up. This book manages to be both at the same time. The detectives form a theory, commit themselves wholly to it's correctness, have it disproved with the very next clue, then commit themselves wholly to another perfectly rational theory, rinse, repeat. And they have a talent for overlooking the obvious. (Spoiler alert, if you're set on reading this.) They weave many of their theories around the assumption that the girls are getting hooked on drugs, then willingly prostituting themselves to pay for the drugs. Since the detectives discover fairly early that the girls were kidnapped (not running away0, why they don't assume that the girls are forced into drugs AND prostitution is the real mystery.
—Tim

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