Donald Henderson (2) (1905–1947)

When I got to page 15 and the protagonist thought "I'll never kill a woman again! Not om you life!" and believed that if he was nearby that I possibly wouldn't escape his gaze and possibly his urge to kill.
Mr Bowling buys newspapers because he's trying to see if his murders have been discovered, if the latest death he's dished out has been spotted and is being investigated (coincidentally I was also listening to "The Nobody Zone" while reading and the parallels are scary). It's kind of a suicide by cop, he killed his wife when their house fell on them during an air raid, almost by accident, and the ease with which he gets away with it starts him killing other people who irritate him.
The end felt a bit of an anticlimax and somehow unfinished but it was overall an interesting read. Most of the characters I found unlikable but I really did want to know what was going to happen at the end.… (més)

What an odd, fascinating book. I have never read anything like it. It feels like a mix of Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, American Psycho, and noir.

Its changes in perspective can be dizzying, sometimes occurring within the same paragraph. There are things casually mentioned, then casually mentioned again 60 pages later which completely changes your understanding of a character, that I feel like I need to re-read it to fully understand what Henderson has done. It is not a surprise that, according to the blurb on the cover, Raymond Chandler read it over half a dozen times.… (més)

As Mr Bowling's murders escape police detection, he begins to wonder why God seems to be rejecting his advances. As he commits more murders he buys swathes of daily newspapers to see if anybody has picked up on his activities. The problem is that his murders seem to be covered over by "natural" events, like the Blitz of London, a heart attack, a fall down the stairs, and a catastrophic fire. Nobody asks the questions that Mr Bowling thinks should be asked. He is sure he has left evidence that a discerning detective should "see", or even be alerted by the fact that his name keeps turning up in connection with dead people.

Mr Bowling has no real motives for most of his murders apart from the fact that his victims are essentially boring people, or that they don't particularly like him. Originally Mr Bowling was working for an insurance company and he benefited from a policy that he had taken out on his wife. He had thought about making himself the beneficiary of policies taken out by some of his clients but then that seemed a little greedy.

It is unusual to read a murder mystery from the point of view of the murderer, and I thought at times they pontificated a little too much. In the end Mr Bowling seems to have found the woman of his dreams, but has he? For he has told her everything about his murderous activities. Does she believe him, or is she blinded with love?… (més)