Messiah - Boris Sterling

Messias (Messiah)
Boris Starling
11x17

Thriller
637 pages

It's the summer of 1998 and superintendent Red Metcalfe has a lot to deal with. Not only is he hunting a serial killer who appears to select his victims randomly, he still has to cope with his failing marriage and his own hauting past.

The narrative is constructed in three lines: the investigation, the events surrounding Metcalfe's brother arrest and the serial-killers musings. These are woven quite skillfully, maintaining a good level of suspense throughout the book, until they come together in a rather gruesome but satisfying finale.

I mostly enjoyed the book, it was an entertaining read and I appreciated the author's handling of the multiple narratives. Nevertheless, the suspense of it was a bit spoiled for me because I figured out who the killer was half-way through it. Unfortunately, this wasn't due to my superb reasoning but to a lack of judgement on the author's part. If you spend most of the book paying attention to no one but the investigator and suddenly take a great interest in the actions and thoughts of a secondary character, you've pretty much spelled it out for the reader.