Убиецът няма почивен ден

by Jean Heller, Марин Загорчев (Translator)

Денем той е друг човек. Обаче нощем... В полицейската хроника го водят като „Разбивача на сърца”, неуловим сериен убиец, който тероризира безнаказано месеци наред хората в града. Не му пука за уликите, които оставя, прониква с лекота навсякъде и само жертвите му могат да кажат кой е той. Но те са безмълвни. Смесеният екип от най-добрите ченгета на градската полиция и ФБР е направо отчаян. До момента, когато той взема на прицел Синтия Дайъмъндс, звездата на телевизионния Канал 7...

286 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

My mother once confronted my husband and me, put her hands on her hips, and asked, “Can’t one of you hold onto a job?”

She was joking – sort of. Both of us were journalists, and we kept getting better jobs, which required moving. A lot. Moving frequently is, I have discovered, a good way to avoid having to clean out the closets, the garage, and the cabinets under the kitchen sink.

Through it all, I have been one thing above all else, a writer.

I started my first novel when I was in the third grade, the story of people living at the center of the earth. I liked the concept, but I really didn’t have a good plot point, and when I discovered what it’s really like at the center of the earth, the project sort of went up in flames, so to speak.

My first complete novel, a thriller called “Maximum Impact,” was published by Forge, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, in 1993. My second, “Handyman,” came two years later. Both received great reviews from critics, and both will be available in Kindle editions in early 2015.

The new one, also a thriller, is called “The Someday File.” It is the first in what will be a series set in Chicago, a city I have loved since I was in college and which I have called home for years. I set it here because Chicago is such a great character in its own right. The stories I can build on these bones – quite literally in the case of “The Someday File” – have infinite possibilities.

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Jean’s news career included serving as an investigative and projects reporter and editor for The Associated Press in New York City and Washington, D.C., The Cox Newspapers and New York Newsday in Washington, D.C. and the St. Petersburg Times in Washington, D.C. and Florida.

Jean has won multiple awards, including the Worth Bingham Prize, the Polk Award, and is an eight-time Pulitzer Prize nominee.

Reviews

[Lora Kempka · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She whirled and confronted an areca palm. Its slender fronds rustling like dry paper in the wind. She was certain she’d heard something else too.” (217)

Jean Heller’s horrific story Handyman had me hooked from page one.

The antagonist is a depraved serial killer with mommy issues, which on the surface isn’t new. However, normally, there is some redeeming quality of homicidal characters. Some nugget of pity the reader can latch onto and feel something—albeit slight—sympathy perhaps for the fictional bad guy. Not here. Not with the Handyman. I loved to hate this guy and continued reading for my own satisfaction of witnessing this monster get what was coming to him.

Eugene Rickey, aka the Handyman has a twisted affection for a certain ornate knife that once belonged to his mother, Opal who constantly emasculated Rickey when he was a child. Heller offers chunks of psychological insight as scenes play out between Rickey and Opal, the knife he imagines as his mother. His ongoing need to please Opal blurs the line between knife as mother and sex organ as weapon. For example, on page 284 Heller writes: “Absently, he rubbed the denim of the jeans pocket where Opal rested and watched.” Rickey speaks to his knife/penis/mother. “All right, girl, … it’s time to get it on again.”
Ergo, there is no shortage of phallic symbolism here.

Before the story begins, Eugene Rickey has already killed six women. I found it worth noting that the first five were either prostitutes or homeless. Each garnering only a paragraph worth of space in a 400-page book. This observation is by no means a slam on Heller, rather a mirrored reflection of reality. The higher rungs of the social ladder get more attention. To be fair, the sixth victim, a kindergarten teacher only received a paragraph as well.

I recommend Handyman to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced thriller and gutsy female characters; not in the femme fatale style, but definitely in the fight-to-survive vein.

[Jacques Goyette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bonne intrigue, personnages bien campés, fin prévisible, style épuré.

[Trevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hated the way the book ended.