The Semantics of Murder: Review and Giveaway

The Semantics of Murder by Aifric Campbell isn't a typical crime novel, though crimes--legal, moral and ethical transgressions--lie at its heart. Rather, it is literary fiction with a murderous slant, a moody and dark examination of characters both horrific and fascinating. We don't watch an investigation unfold, we watch lives implode, and the resolution, such as it is, brings a very different kind of closure.

The story takes place in present-day London, and in flashbacks to the California of the 60's. The protagonist, Jay Hamilton, is a psychologist in London, famous for a book about the division between "nature" and "nurture." Jay himself couldn't care less about the division, nor does his book fall on one side or another, which has made him popular with all sorts. He is well off, with a swank office and a practice that allows him to choose his own patients.

Unfortunately, Jay chooses with an eye to providing fodder for his novels, written under a pseudonym, novels he cares far more about than he does about his practice or, indeed, his patients.

One might expect that it would be Jay's murder that is at the heart of this novel, but it is not. Instead, it is his brother's. Jay's brother, in whose shadow he lived throughout his youth, was a famous mathematician. (Campbell based the murder on the true story of Richard Montague, a famous professor of Philosophy at UCLA in 1971. Like the fictional Robert Hamilton, Montague was both gay and promiscuous, and the theory--never proven--was that he had picked up the wrong young men to bring home with him one night.) After his brother's death, and his mother's--for she decided to die after the only son she cared for had been murdered--Jay moves to London and begins his life anew.

Old ties are not so easily broken, however, and when a biographer decides to write about Robert Hamilton, old secrets are apt to be dug up. And Jay has more than enough secrets of his own, especially since one of his patients, the subject of his latest story, is coming unglued.

Aifric Campbell writes beautifully, with a lyrical sensibility that is the best thing about this book. In the beginning, I thought there were a few too many similes, but either she toned them down after a couple of pages, or I became so engrossed I no longer noticed them. We see through Jay's eyes, and the way he views things is always disturbing, sometimes downright horrifying, but also fascinating. Although he thinks of himself as essentially practical, we can also see his illusions and delusions, his strange, off-kilter lens.

Campbell is Irish, and there's a distinctly Irish-writer sensibility to this book. I wish I could explain it better. But there's always something weird and gloomy (in the best sense of the word) to these books...or maybe it's just the ones I tend to buy, like John Connolly's thrillers or Christian Moerk's Darling Jim. That's not to say there's fantasy in The Semantics of Murder, because there isn't. But, perhaps, the fantastic element comes from the very mundaneness of the darkness.

It's worth noting that if you're the kind of person who likes to look at reviews on Amazon before you commit to something, you'll want to check out its Amazon.co.uk page rather than just the US page (the book is available from Amazon US, but there are more reviews on the UK page since the US edition hasn't been out as long). And the author's own website is chock full of goodies, too, like the fascinating history of the real Richard Montague.

I'll be giving away a copy of this book, along with a copy of Thursday Night Widows, a noirish novel by Claudia Piñeiro (see blog reviews here and here), on Monday. Piñeiro is an award-winning author, and this is her first book to be translated into English. Since it takes place in Argentina, let's try something fun here...if you'd like to win these books, leave a comment by midnight on Sunday telling us someplace in the world you'd like to go. We can't send you on a trip, but maybe we can give you a two-book giveaway getaway to the darker sides of London and Argentina!