Equation for Evil
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Written with Caputo’s customary style and razor-sharp prose, Equation for Evil is the rarest of novels: one that makes the reader think profoundly at the same time that he is driven to devour pages. Unflinching, compelling and engaging, it stands beside books like Presumed Innocent or The Silence of the Lambs and is equally fascinating.” -- John Banville
From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Book Award finalist Philip Caputo, a timely thriller that is sure to have you on the edge of your seat
On a quiet morning in California, a lone gunman opens fire on a busload of children headed for a field trip, then turns the gun on himself. Forensic psychiatrist Leander Heartwood and special agent Gabriel Chin team up to investigate the case, seeking at first only to solve this single disturbing crime but in time delving into issues of race, morality, and the complex forces at work in all horrifying acts of violence.
Part mystery, part psychological thriller, part piercing social commentary, Equation for Evil is a riveting and incisive meditation on violence and the nature of evil.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Human savagery defies explanation in this ambitious, uneven thriller pairing a detective and a psychiatrist who try to ``solve'' a grisly mass murder/suicide in California. When chronic loser Duane Boggs opens fire on a school bus full of mostly Asian-American children, he leaves behind only carnage and his own corpse by way of explanation. Boggs's links to racist hate groups lead to speculation that his crime was racially motivated. To appease the public, authorities assign special agent Gabriel Chin of the California Department of Justice and renowned forensic psychiatrist Leander Heartwood to perform a ``psychological autopsy'' explaining the how and why of the slaughter. Soon the duo come to suspect that Boggs was the pawn of a far more devious mind-perhaps of bodybuilder/college student Mace Weathers, a compulsively neat lapsed Mormon. Caputo (DelCorso's Gallery) explores the violent crime and its aftermath from various angles: a teacher who survives the attack finds herself changed and begins handgun training; Chin grapples with repressed violence in himself as an assimilated Asian; Boggs's relatives reconstruct the sordid events that formed his character; Heartwood stealthily builds a profile of the pathological Mace. Caputo's invocation of assorted psychological theories-from neurophysiological to Freudian-to explain the evil at the heart of his tale doesn't quite persuade or clarify. His characters are complex and compelling, however, and except for the contrived climax, his storytelling is first-rate, with several clever plot surprises and a strong, suspenseful narrative. Given its volatile subject matter and urgent tone, this is likely to be Caputo's most commercially successful novel in years, and deservedly so. $75,000 ad/promo; author tour; first serial and dramatic rights: Aaron Priest.
