Anatomy of Evil
Brian Pinkerton
Samhain Publishing
April 7, 2015
Reviewed by Tim Potter
Brian Pinkerton is a writer whose work screams out for more readers and the bestseller lists. His latest, Anatomy of Evil, is a fantastic foray into the horror genre that could appeal to a very wide audience in and out of the genre. His prose is sharp and clear and it’s never less that entertaining to read. The characters are excellent, unique and realistic, and the story is something familiar turned very original.
The story centers on a group of friends from Chicago, successful and happy, who vacation on a remote Pacific island that is seemingly paradise. Things on Kiritimati are not exactly how they seem, and it may have something to do with nuclear tests the United States conducted there in the early 1960s. If the reader expects Godzilla to roar up from the depths or a replay of Them! they are in for a surprise. This is not a traditional nuclear-test-mutated-creature horror novel. The truth of the story is much more interesting, and creepy, than that.
Much of the first part of the book utilizes a story structure that shifts the focus of each chapter onto each of the four main characters in turn, and then on the group as a whole. It’s a device that often doesn’t work because one character will be more interesting than the rest, but here that’s not the case. The pace keeps up because all of the characters, Rodney the cop, Gary the ex-football star, Carol the people pleasing office worker, Sam the devout Christian, are equally interesting. Each character is established quickly and the reader can’t help but become invested in their outcomes. The essential goodness of these characters shine through and it makes what unfolds in the novel all the more shocking.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book is illustrated by two minor characters, islanders Jamarqui and Louis. Jamarqui is a native islander who instructs the vacationing Americans not to boat to where the evil spirits are. Louis is his opposite number, an American expat who tells the group that where the alleged spirits are is the best fishing spot there is and that they should certainly go there. Is Jamarqui an uneducated man scared by old myths? Is Louis the voice of reason in a wild, uncivilized place? These are questions that last much longer than the book and could be debated ad infinitum.
Duality is what the book is all about. Good and bad, right and wrong, truth and fiction. The novel is a study in opposites and how good and evil can exist in the same place or in the same person. Swinging from one extreme to the other, Anatomy of Evil is a thrilling and sometimes unsettling ride that rocks the reader like a ship on a stormy sea. Enjoy the ride.
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