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It is a point of interest that a number of advertising writers have gravitated toward the suspense fiction genre. James Patterson is probably the best known of these; Don Bruns is another. We can now add Jack Kerley to the list with THE HUNDREDTH MAN. Kerley, a resident of the formerly notorious Newport, Kentucky, has worked on a number of advertising projects throughout the world. It is only fitting, then, that his debut novel is attracting worldwide attention as well.
The voice of THE HUNDREDTH MAN, as well as the subject of the title, is Carson Ryder, a Mobile, Alabama homicide detective who is one-half of a salt and pepper team making up the Psychopathological and Sociopathological Investigative Team, or PSIT. PSIT is a unit created to investigate freakish homicides. Given a choice between groping around for something in the dark or finding it easily in the light, 99 people out of 100 will choose the light; Ryder is the hundredth man. The other half of the team, Harry Nautilus, is the more experienced and, in some areas, the more reasonable of the two. The men balance each other nicely, with Ryder's keen powers of observation and deduction --- and something else --- supplementing Nautilus's ability to pilot the team through the Byzantine-like bureaucracy of the Mobile Police Department.
When a killer begins to leave headless corpses around the Mobile area, it seems to be precisely the situation for which PSIT was brought into existence. However, the team becomes hamstrung early on by Terrence Squill, a Birmingham police captain who never makes a move without checking to see which way the political wind is blowing and who regards PSIT as a public relations window dressing for the police department and nothing else. As Ryder and Nautilus investigate the killings, often clandestinely to avoid insubordination, they soon discover that the trail of bodies seems to lead back to their own police department. Ryder's relationship with Ava Davenelle, a forensic specialist with the Mobile coroner's office, who has a couple of demons riding on her back, doesn't help matters for Ryder, either.
The most bizarre aspect of THE HUNDREDTH MAN is Jeremy, Ryder's older brother. Jeremy took the brunt of their father's sadistic treatment during their childhood; now, damaged irreparably, he is both mentor and tormentor to his younger brother. Jeremy has some unique insight into the PSIT cases since he is himself a serial murderer, and his ability to understand the workings of the depraved mind can be of tremendous benefit to Ryder. There is, however, a terrible price that Ryder must pay.
Kerley writes of the Mobile, Alabama area with great authority, paying some tribute to the sometimes uneasy mix of the rural South and nouveau Cosmopolitan aspects of the area that make it a bit more unique than one who knew the region only by reputation would expect. The basics of the story are all too universal, however. It struck me at one point that Kerley could have set this story anywhere --- somewhere else in the United States, Paris, Moscow, I mean anywhere --- and its interblending of family tragedy, the rough politics of the bureaucracy, and the tentative dance between man and woman would still shine through. This explains, in part, why this fine work is scheduled for eight foreign translations, as well as a film treatment. Let us hope and pray for more from Kerley and Ryder, and more translations.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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