- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Viking USA (Mar 9 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670021504
- ISBN-13: 978-0670021505
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 14.6 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #430,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
A stunning debut novel that unravels the hidden story behind a school shooting
It should be an open-and-shut case. Samuel Szajkowski, a recently hired history teacher, walked into a school assembly with a gun and murdered three students and a colleague before turning the weapon on himself. It was a tragedy that could not have been predicted. Szajkowski, it seems clear, was a psychopath beyond help. Yet as Detective Inspector Lucia May- the only woman in her high-testosterone office in the Criminal Investigations Department-begins to piece together the testimonies of the various witnesses, an uglier and more complex picture emerges, calling into question the innocence of others. But no one, including Lucia's boss, is interested.
As the pressure to close the case builds and her colleagues' sexism takes a sinister turn, Lucia begins to realize that she has more in common with the killer than she could have imagined, and she becomes determined to expose the truth. Brilliantly interweaving the witnesses' accounts with Lucia's own perspective, A Thousand Cuts is a narrative tour de force from a formidable new voice in fiction.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Death...by a thousand cuts,
By
This review is from: A Thousand Cuts (Hardcover)
I assume that's where the US title of Simon Lelic's masterful debut novel comes from. And the thousand cuts in the book come as much from institutional bullying as they do from school-yard bullying. Lelic presents a plot line that forces the reader to confront the idea of bullying in all its forms. Inspector Lucia May, of the Met in London, has been assigned a case that at first has all the marking of the all-too-common school shooting - 4 murdered by a teacher, who then turns the gun on himself, making five dead, in all. But what drove the teacher to do what he did? The local police department is washing its hands of the case, pressing May to hand in the expected final crime report of "deranged loner kills others, then self". But Inspector May is convinced there is more to the case than what is on the surface. She digs deeper in the school society and finds an ethos of bullying at all levels, from administrator to teacher to student. The strong pick on the weak and the strongest cover up the whole thing.But if bullying is rampant at the local comprehensive, it's also common at the Met office. Inspector May is on the receiving end of bullying from her male counterparts. She does not complain to her boss because she figures he probably wouldn't do anything about it and that its weak to complain, anyway. Lelic's writing style is masterful; it hardly seems possible that "A Thousand Cuts" is his first novel, but it is. Parts of the book are told in the form of interviews with one character talking. While it's a confusing style, Lelic makes it perfectly understandable. This a story with a non-conventional ending. It's satisfying without being too fanciful. The effects of bullying in all forms are shown with great sensibility by Simon Lelic. It's a very good first novel and I'm looking forward to reading more by him.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Thousand Cuts,
By
This review is from: A Thousand Cuts (Hardcover)
The pivotal event in this masterful debut novel takes place in the opening pages, at first from the point of view of a 13-year-old schoolboy who was not even present when it occurred, "it" being a school shooting when a relatively newly hired teacher shot to death three students and a colleague before killing himself. An event readers may recognize in its similarity to others which have taken place around the world in the recent past with horrific frequency.The p.o.v. switches to that of D.I. Lucia May of the CID [the only female member of that organization, a not insignificant factor in the unfolding tale], as she takes witness statements trying to come up with an explanation for the seemingly inexplicable. The shooting took place in an assembly hall where the topic of discussion was to have been Violence, and its close cousin [and something also much in the news of late], school bullying. The latter seems almost too innocuous a term for such a psyche- and soul-damaging practice, something thoroughly explored in this novel as it sheds a much-needed light on the subject. Numerous other points of view are presented in the course of DI May's inquiries to offer perhaps some insight and perspective into the mind-set of the killer. London's oppressive summer heat becomes a palpable presence as she goes about the investigation, in the course of which she learns things she, and certainly her superiors, might have been better off not knowing. She, and the reader, comes to understand the desperation that culminated in the shooting. At times difficult to read, the novel will leave few untouched. Recommended.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews) 27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A novel about bullying in British society,
By Ripple - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: RUPTURE (Hardcover)
Told in alternating chapters of witness statements and straight narrative, this engrossing book explores what leads up to a shooting in a London school in which three students and a teacher are shot, before the gunman turns the weapon on himself. There's no mystery in who did it - obviously. But having shot himself, there is no clear source of information on what drove him to this action. The school and the police see it as a tragic, but clear cut event. All that is except for female detective Lucia May. Perhaps it is her female sensitivity that leads her to not accepting the easy answers, or perhaps its her own treatment within the all male environment of the Met that won't let her rest until the real issues are addressed.The book is fast paced and well written. By and large the difficult task of making each witness statement sound distinct from each other is carried off well. Not only that, but at the start of each interview you are never sure who is speaking, but each becomes clear without the author ever seeming to labour the point. The result is a disturbing, poignant exposé of what the press would call "institutionalised" bullying both in the school system and the police. Exposed too are the all too real effects of political pressures that have the effect of maintaining the status quo. Lucia May in particular is a well drawn character - and one that I'd love to read more about. It is her story and her investigation and perhaps some of the other characters are less well fleshed out, although equally this affords pathos to the story, which is all too real and feasible. I liked the general tone of the ending, but wasn't quite convinced by Lucia's final lines, which didn't seem likely to have had the effect that they are suggested to have, but all in all, a terrific, thought provoking book and highly recommended. 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Debut,
By James M. Rawley - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Thousand Cuts (Hardcover)
This is a great mystery debut. The hero gets bullied (sexual harassment) while she investigates an assassin who was driven to kill by bullying at his school.It's a mystery melodrama, not a literary novel, even though its literary techniques give the book far more life than most mystery stories have. The policewoman heroine is bullied on the job too much for believability (the PRIME SUSPECT tv series did this kind of thing more subtly, and better) and the villainous school headmaster tolerates -- even encourages -- student bullies who are just short of homicidal. The result is that the reader feels more and more frustrated and outraged, while individual scenes tend to sag a tiny bit. We can be made to hate many of the characters; it's harder to believe in them fully. Nevertheless this is a tremendous effort. I got angry reading, and a short time later (the book is the length of a Robert B. Parker novel) I was deeply satisfied by a nice bittersweet ending. May Mr. Lelic write more and more of these. 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An impressive debut,
By Elizabeth Ray - Published on Amazon.com
When Detective Inspector Lucia May is charged with investigating a shooting by a teacher at a school assembly, her supervisor expects a quick wrap up of the murder/suicide since there were hundreds of witnesses. Lucia's suspicions are raised by the fact one of the pupils from the school is hospitalized after being beaten and traumatized; a crime which no one claims to have witnessed. Rather than writing the report her governor requests, Lucia investigates further and uncovers a culture of bullying at the school that is perpetrated by both the faculty as well as the students. The hostile work environment the shooter faced is similar to the misogynistic climate of the police force, where she is the only female detective.About half of the chapters in A Thousand Cuts are written in third person and focus on Lucia's investigation and life. The other chapters are the statements from witnesses Lucia interviews. At first the format is a bit jarring as it takes a few paragraphs to figure out who each narrator is, but the way that Simon Lelic gives each character a distinct voice and presents the testimonies in such a way as to tell a coherent and engrossing story makes this book truly unique. This is the author's first novel, and I will be eagerly awaiting his future works. |
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