Canto XII of Dante’s Inferno takes
place in the First Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell where sinners who used
violence against others suffer for all eternity in a boiling river of blood.
Bloodman is Montreal writer
Robert Pobi’s first novel. FBI special agent Jake Cole has Dante’s twelfth
Canto tattoed all over his body. Cole, who specialises in hunting down killers,
is back in his childhood neighbourhood of Montauk, Long Island, to care for his
mentally ill father. They have been estranged from each other for nearly 30
years but they still have something in common. While his father is a talented
and famous painter, Jake hunts down killers for whom murder is an art. He
possesses the uncanny ability to decipher the modus operandi of a killer, to
figure out their artist-specific language and the personal symbolism and
subtext in their work.
While Jake tries to put his dad’s house in order,
he's called to put his talent to use by helping the local sheriff solve the
gruesome murders of a mother and her child. As if that wasn’t enough, one of
the strongest hurricanes ever is nearing the island. While residents start
evacuating, other murders are committed and it becomes clear that the killer is
getting closer to Jake, threatening his own wife and young son. It gets even
more personal when Jake finds clues left by his father who seems to have known
about a possible threat, and might even know who the killer is. But with his
father now lying in a hospital bed, heavily sedated following a serious injury,
Jake will need to resolve things without him.
Characters like Sheriff Hauser, Jake’s uncle
Frank, and Spencer, an old friend who is now a cop, all bring a touch of
normality and humanity to a twisted and disturbing world where victims are
skinned alive and bleed to death. Although they try to assist Jake, there’s not
much this trio can do as he’s the only one who can really make sense of this
madness. Everyone else becomes a witness to his descent to a hellish place as he
tries to stop the flow of blood, while avoiding ending up in its river.
The pace of the story is incredibly intense and
the resolution of the plot becomes even more urgent as we learn about events
from Jake’s childhood. Add to that an ominous atmosphere not unlike the one in
Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island, plus a serial killer both as
twisted and intelligent as any created by Thomas Harris. Even if the
approaching storm is not a very original method of heightening the sense of
urgency, Pobi never lets its presence overtake his plot. In fact, the hurricane
works well here as a metaphor for the powerful maelstrom sucking up Jake’s life
in its vortex.
Pobi writes like a seasoned author, very much in
control of language and rhythm. One aspect that might bother some readers is
that he consciously leaves some questions unanswered. But for those like me who
enjoy a few open threads that make you think about a book for a while longer,
it is a very satisfying read. Bloodman is a literary thriller
written with a great sense of timing and with visual qualities that make the
whole story an unnerving film in the mind's eye. It will surely make a lasting
impression, and a few scenes might even haunt me as long as the wheelchair
scene in Red Dragon has since the 1980s. I can’t reveal them here
because that would ruin the surprise. You’ll just have to take my word for it
and read the book.
You can visit Robert Pobi's website.
Tell him I sent you.
JF
July 2012
(updated from April)
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