I chose Smaller and Smaller Circles as my 21st challenge from the 2018 ReadHarderChallenge: a mystery by a LGBTQ or POC author. This book is written by F.H. Batacan from the Philippines, which is also where this story is set. It’s known as the first Filipino crime novel and has won the 1999 Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for best English-language novel (popularly known as the Philippine Pulitzer). Batacan holds an interesting perspective due to her career history in a government intelligence agency. While working in this position she became increasingly frustrated with how little her government did about the biggest issues facing their people; About how much corruption there was. And this was the driving factor that led her to write this murder mystery.

The story opens on what seems to be serial killings occurring in the Payatas, a 50 acre dump north of Manila. It’s one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city and families often send kids to scavenge for food and salable items in the dump just to get by. While the NBI is called in to investigate, the politics and corruption within the ranks as well as the difficulty of the case causes their new director to reach out to Father Gus Saenz for help. Saenz is a Jesuit Preist, Forensic Anthropologist, and Professor. Saenz works alongside Father Jerome Lucero who was once his student, but now often works as an assistant in such cases. Together they must use their knowledge of the area along with their forensic and psychiatric knowledge to track down a killer that keeps eluding them and leaving more bodies in his wake.

There is a strong message here that because the young boys being killed are undernourished, scavenging kids from the Payatas, that there isn’t really anyone there to tell their story and help them. It isn’t until the priests are asked to help on the case that real progress seems to be made. Saving these kids may not earn the same headline news as cases attached to the rich and famous would and that sadly seems to have a lot of consequence in who will be willing to take this one on.

This wasn’t a mystery where enough information is given along the way to really be able to try and guess who the suspects and killer may turn out to be. It was more of watching it unfold and guessing at some of the motives. And it was definitely a lot about the internal battles that have to be fought just for some people to be able to actually perform their jobs like they are supposed to.

This is one of the very very few murder mysteries I have read. I don’t read much that focuses on either murder or mystery. My usual go-to is Science Fiction and Fantasy, so this was certainly another task that had me expanding my normal reading zone like I did with the western recently. I really enjoyed reading this though! I’m still not big on the murder mystery subjects and the parts that detailed the crime scenes (though they weren’t really over-graphic) were a bit much for me. And while I love suspense and plot twists, I am not big on trying to guess who-dun-it, as it were.

But, I liked the writing style and attention to details. I liked Fathers Saenz and Lucero and enjoyed seeing them battle both against the clock and against the system to find this killer and give a voice to those young lives that were thrown away in the dumps like they were just more trash and wouldn’t matter to anyone— wouldn’t be missed. All together I would give Smaller and Smaller Circles a 4/5 stars.
★★★★☆ ( )

There were several aspects of Smaller and Smaller Circles that I enjoyed, but more that I didn’t. The setting is excellent for a mystery-crime novel, but I never felt immersed enough in the story to feel as though I was there. The characters are well-drawn and Batacan did an excellent job of leading the reader in the wrong direction, but the motivations of the criminal were not consistent. I was surprised and disappointed to discover that the ending of the novel showed such weak writing compared to the beginning. Overall, I’m not upset that I read Smaller and Smaller Circles, but I can’t see myself ever returning to this novel. ( )

DNF ( )

3.5 stars ( )

Smaller and Smaller Circles. F.H. Batacan. 2015. This police procedural won the Philippine National Book Award and was billed as “utterly engrossing.” Not quite. I have always enjoyed mysteries set in other countries and I enjoyed reading about the conditions in the modern day Philippines but I was a little disappointed in the book. The main characters who investigated the murders a forensic anthropologist and a psychology who were priests and I expected more “Catholic stuff.” This was not to be, other than a side plot about a pedophile priest. But that is just me. It was a good noir procedural concerning a serial killer. ( )