Entropy
Writer: Robert Raker
Publisher: Wattle Publishing
Published: Out Now!
Pages: 232
Entropy. Lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.
The bodies of four children surface and four people seem to be connected to them, even going so far as to try and solve who might have committed the crimes. A diver, musician, agent and model could find the clues and discover the key to finding the murderers responsible for snuffing out the lives of these children. Rather than this being a continual novel, this is more of a series of short stories that all link together with a similar theme, but different outcome at the end.
The Diver
Two years ago, a man pulled the body of a young man from the waters off Rhode Island. From the moment he had taken him out of the water, he can't see any marks to lead to his thinking it could be a murder. As he wast the first to find the body, a number of missing children have the police thinking there may be more bodies in the same stretch of water where he found the first one. The diver remembers his first delve into the water finding 12-year-old Jennifer McDonnelly, who had according to pathologists been floating in a backyard pool, 9-year-old Timothy Reisbaugh drowned in a shallow, man-made fishing pond at a playground area, 15-year-old Penelope Marcipio who was found in a partially collapsed silo filled with water and 14-year-old Molly Janikowski found in a scrap metal facility, floating in the basement foundations. What separates the four bodies from the first one he found was that Michael Dyer, 29 was the only adult.
Detective Daniel Mull thinks the bodies aren't random, that they are the victims of a serial killer, but there is also the burden of proof. The diver finds himself on a bus when a man pulls out a gun, holding the passengers hostage.
The Musician
A cellist is another man whose life has been affected by the killer of these several children and adults. Whether they are related or not is up for debate, yet this man believes he might have an idea who the killer is. He's certainly amazed that the authorities think the killer is his brother. The shock to his mind drives him to carry a gun with him around the house. He doesn't want to believe his brother is a rapist and killer, but after thinking about it in detail, of their experiences when younger, he decides on the only course of action. He has to kill him.
The Agent
The Agent is an FBI agent whose wife is at odds with his job. As he spends most of his time away on assignments undercover, he is away for months and has to assume other, more dangerous and evil identities in order to expose the criminals. It has got to the point she does not know her husband anymore, and wants to leave the relationship. He has investigated so many cases and had so many identities he doesn't know who he is and his wife has noticed his gradual decline.
The Model
She is the mother of one of the victims and she knows who the murderer is, yet through it all, she hopes it isn't the one she thinks it is. As she is a model who works at a high school's art department, she feels the loss and grief of her own child to a murderer. The emotion of what had happened to her is all exposed with the sudden despair of loss.
Entropy concerns several lives, not just the four in question as there are more bodies than are mentioned in the back cover blurb. Here we get into the minds of serial killers and rapists and it isn't a book to be taken lightly as it is in a real world setting some readers might find disturbing. Each character seems to project a nice side to the outside world, but we also get to see the darker, more twisted side of their real self too. This is a raw and edgy novel that has much bite.
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