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Tuesday 31 July 2012

Book Review: Messiah


Note:

I was in my fifth or sixth grade when I found out about Boris Starling's "Messiah". It was introduced to our class by our English teacher, who highly encouraged his students to read. He told the whole class about the plot (to capture our interest of course!), the people killed, the silver spoons, and the severed tongues. But he left out all the twists for us to discover on our own.

For so long I've been searching for this book, wondering where I can get a copy; wondering if I'll ever uncover the truth about this Messiah who's behind all the killings. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, months turned into years... I never got my hands on a copy of Messiah. But that was until a random day, when I was talking with a close college friend of mine, Joan, and she told me about this book she read called "Messiah". When I asked her if it's about this serial killer with the silver spoons and severed tongues, she said yes. And that was just IT. I had to borrow the book, and she was kind enough to lend it to me.

I've never been a fan of thrillers - be it books or films. I'm the kind of girl who gets scared easily, so I steer clear from anything that would keep me awake at night. But Messiah had this different impression on me that pushed me to go beyond the cover and just keep turning the pages - I literally finished it in 12 hours!

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Red Metcalfe is the Metropolitan Police's leading detective specialising in the solving of serial murders. He gets into the killer's heads, feels what they feel, and he knows exactly what makes them tick. But, never in his crime-solving career had he ever handled a case of a series of crimes that has been surely made by one killer but have no connection with each other, except for two particular details: a severed tongue and a silver spoon in every victim's mouth.

With a team he's most confident with, Red unravels the many blanks left by the most cunning killer he's ever dealt with, and he might just save his own life.

Unlike other mediocre debut novels in shelves today, Boris Starling paints a definitive picture in every chapter through words, making Messiah a tastefully-written novel that pushes the boundaries of the genre of psycho-thrillers.

Messiah is, indeed, one hell of a book that will keep you at the edge of your seat as you turn every page. It's spine-tingling, hair-raising, and it will haunt you even after you've read the last page. And when I say, it will haunt you, it really will! This book is certainly not for the faint-hearted!


Andz