Official Review: The Rector’s Husband by Keith Mullins
Posted: 03 Aug 2013, 14:57
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Rector's Husband" by Keith Mullins.]
The title character of The Rector’s Husband is one of the most unpleasant and disconcerting individuals to narrate a novel in some time. Ambrose Hillier is the narrator and central character of this book. Ambrose is a nasty man, with a hair-trigger temper, a deep-seated contempt for most of the people around him, a bullying streak, and also, we soon learn, a homicidal blood lust.
Ambrose’s wife Helen is an Anglican priest. Throughout the book, Helen is portrayed as a woman of perfect and caring temperament, seemingly oblivious to her husband’s psychopathic nature. Though Ambrose is an American, he lives with his wife in England, and he works in the human resources department of his local government. This book frequently satirizes and criticizes the British social bureaucracy, which is portrayed as the plaything and weapon of morally stunted people with inflated egos, twisted by political correctness and a deficiency of common sense. At times, is seems as if Mullins is more condemnatory towards the attitudes and social organizations featured in his book than he is towards his central character.
Ambrose feels threatened by a plan to destroy a church building and is enraged by people who treat his wife disrespectfully. Early in the book, we learn that Ambrose murdered people on two separate occasions seemingly on a whim, and after discovering that he can kill without so much as a pang of guilt, he starts to plot the deaths of the people who cross or annoy him in any way.
Mullins has succeeded spectacularly in his characterization, for the voice of Ambrose always remains consistent and distinctive. The problem is, Ambrose is so unlikable, so utterly distasteful in every way, that I didn’t want to spend any time with him. Even though the book was well-crafted (save for a bit of a slow start), I found myself repeatedly checking to see how many pages remained, because life is too short to spend with a homicidal slimeball’s words reverberating in my head. Ambrose is a grotesque and well-written fictional creation, but I found it to be a merciful release when I finished the novel and was rid of this monster in human form.
I am uncomfortable with attempts to romanticize serial killers or to make them sympathetic figures. Such a subject can be done successfully, such as in the popular Dexter series, but there is nothing in this book to make Ambrose even remotely likeable. Indeed, none of the characters are even remotely congenial, with the exception of Detective Inspector Jarvis, a determined police officer reminiscent of Peter Falk’s Lieutenant Columbo or Porfiry Petrovich from Crime and Punishment. Unfortunately, Jarvis’s role is far too small. None of the victims is given a shred of sympathy, and for all the affection that Ambrose lavishes upon his wife, there’s nothing to make the reader care about her.
Without giving the ending away, the climax is presented well, although it is not particularly surprising, and there is a major twist at the end that is predictable if the reader is paying attention– I had a fair inkling of how the plot would resolve, and there are plenty of clues and oblique hints scattered throughout the book. This is a very dark novel, so readers should be prepared beforehand.
I give this book three out of four stars.
***
Buy "The Rector's Husband" on Amazon
The title character of The Rector’s Husband is one of the most unpleasant and disconcerting individuals to narrate a novel in some time. Ambrose Hillier is the narrator and central character of this book. Ambrose is a nasty man, with a hair-trigger temper, a deep-seated contempt for most of the people around him, a bullying streak, and also, we soon learn, a homicidal blood lust.
Ambrose’s wife Helen is an Anglican priest. Throughout the book, Helen is portrayed as a woman of perfect and caring temperament, seemingly oblivious to her husband’s psychopathic nature. Though Ambrose is an American, he lives with his wife in England, and he works in the human resources department of his local government. This book frequently satirizes and criticizes the British social bureaucracy, which is portrayed as the plaything and weapon of morally stunted people with inflated egos, twisted by political correctness and a deficiency of common sense. At times, is seems as if Mullins is more condemnatory towards the attitudes and social organizations featured in his book than he is towards his central character.
Ambrose feels threatened by a plan to destroy a church building and is enraged by people who treat his wife disrespectfully. Early in the book, we learn that Ambrose murdered people on two separate occasions seemingly on a whim, and after discovering that he can kill without so much as a pang of guilt, he starts to plot the deaths of the people who cross or annoy him in any way.
Mullins has succeeded spectacularly in his characterization, for the voice of Ambrose always remains consistent and distinctive. The problem is, Ambrose is so unlikable, so utterly distasteful in every way, that I didn’t want to spend any time with him. Even though the book was well-crafted (save for a bit of a slow start), I found myself repeatedly checking to see how many pages remained, because life is too short to spend with a homicidal slimeball’s words reverberating in my head. Ambrose is a grotesque and well-written fictional creation, but I found it to be a merciful release when I finished the novel and was rid of this monster in human form.
I am uncomfortable with attempts to romanticize serial killers or to make them sympathetic figures. Such a subject can be done successfully, such as in the popular Dexter series, but there is nothing in this book to make Ambrose even remotely likeable. Indeed, none of the characters are even remotely congenial, with the exception of Detective Inspector Jarvis, a determined police officer reminiscent of Peter Falk’s Lieutenant Columbo or Porfiry Petrovich from Crime and Punishment. Unfortunately, Jarvis’s role is far too small. None of the victims is given a shred of sympathy, and for all the affection that Ambrose lavishes upon his wife, there’s nothing to make the reader care about her.
Without giving the ending away, the climax is presented well, although it is not particularly surprising, and there is a major twist at the end that is predictable if the reader is paying attention– I had a fair inkling of how the plot would resolve, and there are plenty of clues and oblique hints scattered throughout the book. This is a very dark novel, so readers should be prepared beforehand.
I give this book three out of four stars.
***
Buy "The Rector's Husband" on Amazon