Killing Time

by Caleb Carr | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 044661095x Global Overview for this book
Registered by quinnsmom of Hobe Sound, Florida USA on 11/17/2003
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by quinnsmom from Hobe Sound, Florida USA on Monday, November 17, 2003
will read/let go

Journal Entry 2 by quinnsmom from Hobe Sound, Florida USA on Monday, December 1, 2003
I SO wanted to like this book just because I have been such a fan of Caleb Carr up to this point. I told myself I would not judge this one on the same merits as The Alienist and so I did not. Sadly, I find it to have started out with a decent premise, a promise of a thriller but to have wound down to just a goofy story that I had to force myself to finish.

What I liked about this book: the premise, that "the world wants to be deceived" because, frankly, I believe this to be a fact. There is actually a great line in this book that struck me -- where the main character, Gideon Wolfe is discussing why people want to believe everything they are told without question: "the need to believe in the inherent philosophical and ethical superiority of the United States -- what's generally called our moral exceptionalism." He goes on to note that "it's been with us the beginning. Any country commits great crimes to reach a position of unchallengeable power, ours was no exception. A method of rationalizing those crimes has to be devised for people to be able to live with themselves" (144-145). I happen to believe in this particular line of thought, so I figure, anyone who is basing a novel around this can't be all bad and neither can the story. However, I was wrong.

So much for my humble opinion. Now, the story:
Gideon Wolfe a psychiatrist and historian, becomes involved in an investigation of the assassination of the President (in the US, 2023), who for whatever difference it makes, is a woman. Evidently, the scenes from the assassination have been digitally or otherwise doctored, so that the person who was thought to have done it really didn't do it and his identity was covered up to prevent all out war between the US and the assassin's country. A computer disk ends up in Wolfe's friend's hand, one that shows not only who it is, but also has another image that cannot be quite made out in a German concentration camp of the 1940s. To make the story move along, Wolfe's buddy ends up dead, and Wolfe goes on to interview an anthropologist in Florida who may have something to do with all of this. This guy, Kuperman, is in prison there, and during their interview, a jail break is made by compatriots piloting an airship made of secret technology.

Invented by the brother and sister genius duo Larissa and Malcolm Tressalian, they let Wolfe in on their plans (he is to go with them in the airship) and tell him their intentions to reshape the world which by 2023 is in a hell of a mess (water wars in the American southwest, animals have disappeared from Africa, war is everywhere throughout the world) according to their own vision. Their plan -- to plant obviously misleading bits of information to see who jumps on it for a national cause -- and then reveal that the information is fake to show mankind its folly. Sadly, though, the products of their labors (faked inflammatory documents, etc) are taken as gospel by those who seek out these types of things in the name of nationalism and other causes, and no one even questions whether or not these things might be fakes. The actions taken by the group led by Larrissa & Malcolm have profound consequences that I won't go into here.

As I said, the idea is a good one, but the writing is kind of amateurish & frankly boring, sometimes a little overwrought.

You might like it, but if you're expecting the same level of writing as that which went into The Alienist, you'll be disappointed. And I'm not saying that you should or could compare these two works -- but that I know Carr can do better.




Released on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 at Simi Valley Friends of the Library sale room in Simi Valley, California USA.

probably in the science fiction section

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