Review by Booklist Review
It didn't take long for Jeff Lindsay's Darkly Dreaming Dexter 0 (2004) to spawn an imitator. Povey's first novel features a nameless narrator who falls in with a group of serial killers who have adopted the names of celebrities: Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, Chuck Norris, Errol Flynn. They call themselves "skillers," too, a portmanteau word that does not exactly roll off the tongue. Anyway, our hero joins the group, calling himself Douglas Fairbanks Jr. It's the best time he's ever had, the only time he's ever truly felt a part of anything, until an FBI agent comes out of the shadows and gives Dougie an ultimatum: you kill the killers, or we put you away for a very long time. It's a clever idea for a novel, and the author executes it fairly well, although we never really feel the bond with Dougie that's necessary to get to the emotional payoff. Not a complete success but well worth a look. --David Pitt Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
British author Povey, who has written for such TV shows as the BBC's Eastenders, makes a real splash with his first novel, a darkly comic spoof of the serial killer genre. When the anonymous narrator, who combines a blithe Bertie Wooster-like innocence with a psychopathic taste for slaughter, "accidentally" kills a mass murderer, he assumes the man's identity. An odd set of personal advertisements lure the narrator to Chicago, where he encounters the club of the book's title. Since the club's members adopt the names of movie stars as aliases, he decides to become Douglas Fairbanks Jr. "Doug" quickly moves from shock and fear to preying on his fellow club members, attracting the notice of a bizarre FBI agent, who offers to let him off the hook if he finishes off the rest of them. This satirical black comedy won't be to everyone's taste, but many will find it a refreshing change from the paint-by-the-numbers profiler vs. psychotic fiend offerings. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Slap-dash execution turns Povey's debut thriller, the tale of a man's plan to take down a secret ring of serial killers, into a tiresome mess. Working on the docks one day, our hero (known throughout only by his pseudonym, Douglas Fairbanks) is attacked by notorious murderer Grandson-of-Barney (a not-so-funny play on Son of Sam, perhaps?). Somehow, after a struggle, Grandson ends up dead, and Douglas ends up holding a newspaper notice taken from the would-be-killer's wallet leading him to an outing at a mysterious Chicago club. The club, as it happens, is for serial killers--a regular evening of fun for the homicidal set--and Douglas, for reasons never fully explained, takes quite a cotton to the place. There's just one problem--not being an actual serial killer, Douglas is somewhat short on gory tales with which to regale the other members, and after a while, some of them start to get suspicious. Afraid they might blow his cover, he kills them. It's on account of these killings that FBI Agent Kennet Wade gets in touch, insisting that Douglas help him break this whole band of murderers. And so they do, picking off the crew in one humdrum slaying scene after another. Equally uninspired are the club's dinners, wherein the members assemble to trade bad jokes, banter witlessly and otherwise bore the reader to tears. Povey's constantly shifting characterizations also drag things down. The club's widely respected alpha-male turns into a nervous, sniveling wreck. Charming storytellers become towers of tedium. Douglas himself slides from ladies' man to pants-wetter to cold-blooded killer all in a matter of pages. Who knows? Maybe that's the serial-killer way. Still, it would have been nice to have something backing these transformations beyond just vague authorial say-so. Criminally bad. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
