865. Complicity

Complicity
Iain Banks
1993
Around 315 pages

Banks said in an interview that Complicity is "a bit like The Wasp Factory except without the happy ending and redeeming air of cheerfulness." Um, yeah, I'd say that is accurate. 

Cameron Colley is a journalist who once wrote an editorial that suggested certain right wing political figures were better candidates for hatred and abuse than foreign leaders or common criminals. Now a crazed murderer is checking the names Colley volunteered off his list. And the ways he kills are just extremely sadistic and gross. How does Banks have so many ideas for how to creatively murder somebody? 

I'm a slasher fan, and sometimes it feels like they've run out of any new ideas for unique villains. I don't want to spoil anything too much, but I will share one tidbit that the killer uses helium to disguise his voice. Even that small, terrifying attribute is so different, yet so obviously effective in scaring the living daylights out of me. I was audibly reacting to these scenes and Banks deftly kept me on the tenterhooks with his plotting. He's a master at slowly building tension, without any lulls in plot development.

Definitely not for the faint of heart, but if you are looking for something revolting of high quality, this is a good pick!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2000.

Dedicated to Ellis Sharp.

UP NEXT: Operation Shylock by Philip Roth