The First Deadly Sin

Some of this was a bit full on with sex and I fumbled to turn down the volume while doing the ironing incase folk wondered what I was listening to, but the rest of the story was very gritty and detailed from a detective standpoint.

A respected captain is devastated to learn his wife is ill and toys with the idea of retiring so he can care for her; meanwhile a serial killer is on the loose, the violence and frequency of his murders escalating at an alarming rate. With no official help, the captain takes matters into his own hands.

This has some uncomfortable content but it is so well written with good characters you can't help but be carried along.

I read and thoroughly enjoyed Sanders' dark work when it was first published nearly 40 years ago and was greatly looking forward to listening to its audio equivalent.



Sadly, my perception of the story has clearly changed over the years as it quickly became a bore.

This is a very weird book; I didn't really like it but was completely fascinated by it. It was described as a modern thriller and maybe it was cutting edge when it was written in 1973 but it hasn't aged well. In it we can glimpse a world where hairy, sweaty, white men ruled the planet; its casual racism, sexism and homophobia are at times quite breathtaking. Herein lies part of it's fascination for me plus a certain amount of amusement at the thought of where all these hairy, sweaty, white men were heading. The book is full of long and for me boring internal dialogues where the two lead characters muse over their motivations and philosophies. The cop, I think, was meant to be a sympathetic character but if anything I found him to be more amoral and a lot scarier that the killer. The book is somewhat reminiscent of Ed Mc Bain's work but without the humor, charm and basic decency of his characters.
The other cause of fascination was the examination of detection methods before forensics, computers or profiling. It left me wondering how they ever caught anyone. Having said all that I may listen to this book again; whenever political correctness gets on my nerves or the world seems hostile and violent I think it would be reassuring to listen to and realize how far we've come. Plus the soporific delivery of the narrator has done wonders curing my occasional bouts of insomnia.

a good read, i little bit too dark for me, although looked forward to the next installment i had time to hear.