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Taking Lives Film Tie-In
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Phoenix (2004-03-17)
ISBN: 0753820234
EAN: 9780753820230
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Paperback: 384 pages
Edition: Film Tie-in Ed
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.co.uk Review
"Two boys ride the bus through Florida. One of them won't be alive much longer." With this simple and unforgettable opening hook, Michael Pye establishes himself as a gripping thriller writer. (He has previously written historical novels and a history of New York.) The boys on the bus are Seth Goodman, an all-American innocent, and a 17-year-old Dutch youth called Martin Arkenhout. Almost by accident, Arkenhout discovers that he has a genius for taking lives: not just killing people -- although he is pretty proficient at that too -- but also appropriating their entire identities, submersing himself in them, and becoming them. Narrated in an edgy, nerve-jangling present tense throughout, Arkenhout moves from victim to victim, re-inventing himself in the most radical and absolute way imaginable, until finally he picks the wrong victim: a seemingly mild-mannered art historian called Christopher Hart, who seems like a safe choice and turns out to be anything but. Add this to Taking Lives' irresistible claim--"This book is a work of fiction. The criminal who inspired it is still at large"--and you have a very superior thriller. Fans of Ruth Rendell, Thomas Harris or Michael Dibdin won't be disappointed. --James Goldman
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Customer Reviews
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Passes the time ...
Rating  (2)
Date: 2005-08-06
This book was bought for me, I probably wouldn't have picked it myself. The blurb will try to tell you that it's a cleverly-plotted thriller, but I disagree.It's not bad, but it just isn't really good either. A book of two halves, it opens with third person narrative, describing the somewhat far-fetched life a young Dutchman Martin Arkenhout. On a trip to the US, Martin hooks up with a rich American college kid and they get themselves into some serious trouble. Unfortunately for Martin's new friend, Martin takes drastic action and so begins his pattern of "taking lives", whereby he chooses an interesting life, kills its owner, and lives the life for a while before moving on to something new (yes, I know ...). Cut to the second half, and suddeny it's a first person account of "what happened next". It actually took me easily 20 pages to figure out that a new person was telling the story, it just jarred so much. I won't tell you what happened next. I won't say don't buy it either, but it didn't do it for me.
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didn't really stick together
Rating (2)
Date: 2001-04-21
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I chose this book for a long flight, thinking it sounded like an interesting concept. The first chapter was fast and furious, and made me think it would be great. It then came to a shuddering halt and crawled along at an irritating pace. I just could not find it credible that US parents would be sucked in on the phone by a Dutch kid pretending to be their son.!!! I couldn't get this out of my head and it ruined the rest of the book. I just didn't get enough stuff to make me believe this kind of story could be possible. The scenes in Portugal were beautiful and I kept on, even though it was a bit tedious at times. I give two stars for an interesting story, and because there was enough to make me finish it, but I think it's a shame the author didn't make more of a meal of it.
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A slow, dissappointing tale.
Rating (2)
Date: 2000-10-31
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I'm sorry to say that I found this book very slow and quite tedious in places, in fact, I almost stopped reading it. I thought that I would be writing this review saying 'keep going it's worth it' but unfortunatley, it isn't. Just when the end promises to be more than the standardised, expected conclusion, it turns around again and gives us the standardised, expected conclusion.The first chapter of the book moves so quickly, you wonder how the rest of the book will fill out, then the second chapter changes speed completely and only begins to pick up again at the end. An interesting story that could have been done better.
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Taking Lives takes your breath away
Rating  (5)
Date: 1999-12-13
Like the imagery of the mundane in the films of David Lynch, the cool, understated prose of Michael Pye hides a deeper malevolence which festers and lingers in the subconscious. The book's premise is simple - a man who kills once by chance and subsequently by choice, assuming the identities of his victims and wearing their lives as a disguise - but the stark beauty of Pye's writing reveals the elgant horror of his subject and its unnerving consequences upon those who come into contact with the killer. The truly terrifying aspect of Taking Lives is how Pye paints an picture of Martin Arkenhout's descent into the madness of murder, which makes his behaviour seem almost rational and the appalling effect on the mind of his pursuer John Costa. Bleak, but beautiful, horrific, yet full of vibrant passion, Taking Lives is a work with stays in the mind for a long time after the final page has been turned.
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Retail Price: £6.99
Amazon.com's Price:£0.01
That's 100% Off!
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