WRG!Literature: The “Just Killing Time” series
Introducing Steve J Davies
With our first edition of WRG!GoodReads up this week, a review of the book, written by our own is in order. The “Just Killing Time” series, written by Davies, is a diarised account of the progression of the main protagonist from states of underlying and overlaying violence to emancipated serial killer.
If you've read the True Crime genre, maybe some Patricia Cornwell or most significantly Jesse Kellerman, you will be familiar with the most popular archetypal structure of serial killer lore and with the latter, a first person account as well.
Davie’s character Carl features none of the characteristics of the serial archetype found in fiction. His is a protagonist who delivers a scathing account of his existence. From the word go, there is an overtone, an "elephant in the room" type of pre-emption towards violence. He is irate, sharp but not witty and delivers his anger bluntly with an equally colorful vocabulary.
The introduction of violence with, say, the dog, does follow the conventional serial killer story line, except that in this case, Carl is not a child but a fully grown man so the impact of it is both visceral yet expected, after reading further on and gaining further insight into his behavioral "blue-print". Expectation and suspense are replaced with frank, immediate detailing; one sees Carl for exactly what and who he is. His is an unstable almost unlikeable character, which is a deviation from the literature of the "struggling" man who finds himself becoming a killer or, even the sauvé, likeable murderer full of stylistic charm and intelligence.
His is a story depicting the essence of a devolutionary sociopath on his downhill journey into the psychopathic role of serial killer, strangely, it is also in contrast, or rather, clashing with the evident evolution from animal murderer right up to full blown serial.
Fans or people interested in the True Crime genre, (such as, say the Cruel Sacrifice by Aphrodite Jones, the biography of Shanda Sharer's murderers) and fiction, as well as the Jesse Kellerman (prolific US author of “The Executor”) fans who have become accustomed to reading about philosophers-turned-murderers or professors-turned-murderers or even doctors-turned-murderers, might find this book a good read as well; to be able to study the opposite of the characterisation of intellectual killer - the instinctual one.
Davies credits the discovery of the journals belonging to Jack "The Ripper" as one of his definitive inspirations behind the Just Killing Time series. An avid fan of "dark" literature, this week he reviews a fellow Indie author and peer in the 21st century variation of the Thriller/Horror genre. Davies is also, on the verge of completing the final installment to the series, so stay tuned for more information on where to get your copy.
Get the best guide to the best reads every Friday with Steve J Davies, here, on WRG!
Words Compiled by: Sam "Aimee" Remani
Images Courtesy:
Village Books Blog
Smashwords