Smaller and Smaller Circles by Felisa Batacan pdf download

Details of Smaller and Smaller Circles by Felisa Batacan Book

Book Name: Smaller and Smaller Circles
Authors: F.H Batacan
Pages: 311
Genre: Mystery Novel
Publish Date: Jan 1, 2002
Language: English

Book Review:

Smaller and Smaller Circles by Felisa Batacan this is a book that was originally published in the Philippines and then it was translated into English. It also won the Philippine National Book Award. And it is considered one of Philippines' first mystery books that's ever been written.

The story takes place in the Philippines in the late 1990s. And what is happening is there are these young boys who are showing up at this garbage dump completely mutilated. Their faces are cut off and their hearts have been removed from their bodies.

So this is clearly a murderer who has some deep psychological issues. But this is all taking place in one of the poorer towns in the Philippines, outside of Manila, so it isn't getting as much attention as it should be.

But then at some point the police realize that there is a pattern happening here and they enlist these two Jesuit priests to help them out with the case. The first priest is Father Gus who is a forensic anthropologist.

He has actually worked with the police before, consulted with them and helped them on some previous cases. He is hired as a consultant to help out with this case as well. And then his partner is Father Jerome who is a psychologist who, you know, helps him out on that side of the case as well. Father Gus and Father Jerome work at a university.

There's a lot of different storylines happening in here whether it be their work at the university, you know, needing funding, the politics that go along with being a priest in Philippines during this time.

This is also during the time when the scandals about priests abusing young boys were starting to come out and so there's a little bit of that happening in here, discussing the church's power within this country and discussing about their place within politics and justice and things like that.

But at the same time this is also just like a straight up mystery book and it's a really, really strong mystery. I think I read this in maybe 2 days because I was just so gripped by the story. I found the main characters, Father Gus and Father Jerome, to be really enjoyable and likeable.

They are very much people who advocate for justice and doing the right thing and things like that, the way that every hero should. One of the things I liked best about this book is that the mystery is not extremely straight forward.

I feel like you are following the mystery the way that the detectives are following the mystery or the way that the priests are following the mystery.

There's no extra hints or anything like that given to the audience which I find more enjoyable. But this also isn't written like a whodunit. Like you don't have to wait until the last chapter to figure out what's going on.

I would say by like the 70, 75% mark of this book you know who did it and then the last part of this book is about trying to catch them before they hurt anybody else. And also trying to catch them in a way when they have enough proof so that they can actually prosecute them.

There's also a lot of really interesting discussion going on in this book about the Philippines and their justice system and the way that their police work goes. They talk about how the filing and just the information available to the police in the Philippines is not quite like the United States.

You know, there's this idea in the United States that if you, you know, leave a fingerprint somewhere they can run that fingerprint and figure out who you are. There's like this major database with all this information.

But the Philippines, at least at this time, didn't have anything like that so a lot of the police work that's done in here is more old school, less emphasis on the science-y side. Although there is a little bit of that because the one priest is a forensic anthropologist.

I also like that there is a little bit of explanation from the killer's point of view. So, while, you know, obviously this is not an OK thing to be doing, you do get to understand why the killer is doing those things, which is something that I always really like.

This book also is a little bit on the darker side so if you're someone who is slightly squeamish or doesn't really like darker mysteries, then I probably would not recommend this book

But if you're someone who likes things a little bit darker, a little bit more creepier, this might be a good one to pick up. But I will say it's not like super creepy or super scary or anything like that because I have no tolerance for those things.

I probably would've put the book down if it got too weird. But this one is just weird enough that it made it feel creepy without it getting too creepy that I couldn't handle it. So yeah, in the end I gave this book a 4 out 5 stars.

I really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it if you are someone who likes, again, darker mystery books. And this is definitely going to be an author that I will be keeping my eye on to see if she releases anymore books because I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Also read: From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yew

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