Category: Literary Fiction Publisher: Berkley/Penguin Putnam, Inc.
ISBN-10: 042517963X
Type: Fiction
Copyright: May 1 2001
When Philadelphia yuppie-cafe culture begins a new trend in poetry readings that involve a lot of skin, a killer who absolutely loves his victims begins taking lives literally with a poisoned pen, and Dr. Jessica Coran, FBI M.E. is called in to investigate the strangest case of her career, one with a total lack of mutilation and blood but equally as deadly.
It's an engimatic composition penned in shades of red ochre across each victims backs, and it takes the skill and intuition of medical examiner Jessica Coran to see that each poem penned by the murderer is a homage to his victims, and each is part of a whole symphony of words. In a city like Philadelphia, there are many suspects to choose from, but this time the killer is among the elite of academia--professors, poets, artists, and writers. Someone among them is taking advantage of the innocence and naivete of the young in order to meet his daedly quota by end of term.
Excerpt
Scrawled in careful longhand in a reddish ochre across and down Anton Pierre's thin, bony back, an exquisite living poem ripples with his movement. And the movement speaks. It speaks the poem into existence as it crawls, glides, moving with his lithe body. At first snakelike, the poem slithers with his groaning. Soon, however, it seems to assume an angelic flight with Anton's lilting gasp for breath.
It is a poem penned with a needle-pointed, flesh-cutting quill. The poem's ink, laced with the toxic concoction, runs into Anton's bloodstream, the poison doing its work....
With the boy's head in his lap, brushing fingers through his hair, the poet recites aloud the poem (etched onto the back of Anton) directed to his loving Anton for all time. It reads:
In this eccentric tale set in a small town in northern India, Pawan Mishra masterfully weaves ingenuity and sarcasm in a manner that’s simultaneously hilarious and tragic.
In this eccentric tale set in a small town in northern India, Pawan Mishra masterfully weaves ingenuity and sarcasm in a manner that’s simultaneously hilarious and tragic.
A teenage boy struggling with the coming-of-age issues of sexuality, religion, and peer approval is overwhelmed, but soldiers on. After several years, he comes to understand the family forces that have left him so deeply troubled, and the process of
