Richard Montanari Case

Play Dead is one of the most frightening but yet intriguing novels that I have ever read. Richard Montanari is well known for his internationally acclaimed crime-thrillers. In the novel Play Dead, Montanari explores the dark recesses of human life. This novel brought shivers and nightmares upon me. Subjects such as serial killers and human evil attracted me to read this novel. Play Dead created deep and disturbing discussion for serial murder. With its increasing number of homicides through each chapter, every page turn filled me with fear. This was the first crime novel that I had read, after getting fascinated by it; I cannot wait to get my hands onto another one. This novel helped indulge my understanding of the darkness in human nature and how it applies in human society today.

I have been told never to judge a book by its cover, but the cover of Play Dead gave me an image of what was to be expected. The dark scarlet blood dripping from each word of the title gave me an insight into the novel as it symbolized brutal death. The old and empty room behind the blurb of the novel symbolized mysterious secrets and an engrossing storyline. The cover of the novel not only terrified me, but it tempted me to read it in the most peculiar way.

One aspect of the novel that I found quite irritating was the cutting from one scene to another. Whenever there was suspense the chapter would end, starting from a new place of action. It was hard to keep track of what had happened in the novel, I found myself mistaking some characters with wrong events that had occurred. It seemed to me that Play Dead was set out like a film screenplay, focused on the dialogue and minor character actions rather than emotions and the thoughts behind the character. This is one of the many factors that I found intriguing about this novel. Without the dark thoughts and the ferocious emotions, I found this novel to be different from the gore typical of the serial killer subgenre. Instead Montanari lets us as readers imagine the black soul of the killer, making the novel so much more evil and terrifying as we use our minds to create the scene.

An idea that I thought was interesting was the darkness in human nature. Play Dead is somewhat focused on the life of a serial killer, Joseph Swann. In the novel Swann is known as “The Collector”. He collects female teenaged runaways to use in his macabre magic act. He plans to complete seven depraved tricks in his dark and dangerous magic act; each trick means a life is lost. This novel helped me to get an insight in what powers the sudden change in the mind of a person to murder. In the novel, Joseph Swann tells the story of his life at a young age. Joseph had hardly had any parental guidance throughout his childhood. His mother died when giving birth and his father being a magician and was far to busy travelling to be with Joseph in his hometown of Philadelphia. When Joseph’s father did