Knick Laux’s Reviews > 2666 > Status Update

The German guy has written a couple of books and he changed his name out of fear of being recognized by Americans in occupied Germany. He killed a man in an American POW camp because the man had overseen the slow murder of a group of Jews dropped off in his municipality by accident during the execution of the final solution.

This German fellow ended up fighting in the German army invading Poland and the USSR. He considered suicide many times and was shot through the neck. While recovering he found a notebook written by a Russian publisher.

There’s no neat explanation for the murders that go on for years. The book goes back in time to the childhood and early adulthood of a German child obsessed with seaweed that I think will close the loop by giving us the backstory of the author the academics were so fascinated with.

The German in prison thinks he knows who the serial killer actually is, while a retired investigator from America has come to Santa Teresa to consult on the out-of-control murders.

So the police thought that the German guy that they had arrested was making payments to get gang members to continue his string of killings. They apprehended these gang members and for two months there was a cessation in the crimes. Then in March more girls showed up dead so no one knows what’s going on anymore.

One of the killers was sent to prison and the other prisoners pinned him down and cut his balls out.

Now some of the women are turning up with specific mutilations. One of the investigators tracks down a lead that is a European dude with multiple charges in the United States and a couple computer stores in Mexico.

An accounting of the monthly murders in this border town, all women. Most were stabbed or strangled and nearly all were sexually assaulted before death. There’s also a guy that goes into random churches, pees himself, and then destroys the statues.

The reporter is sent to cover a boxing match in Mexico and when he learns about the murders he requests extra time there to investigate them. His boss denies his request. The Mexican fighter goes down in the first round.

The section about the guy living in the Mexican border town was short. He kind of accepted hearing the voice in his head. The next chapter focuses on a journalist that interviews notable, local African American leaders. He goes to Detroit to speak to someone that helped found the Black Panthers.