Since the debacle over Amazon fake, friend and family reviews over the last couple of months, it seems to me reviews are a bit harder to come by. My opinion is authors and some readers have become reluctant to post reviews on Amazon in case of removal.
The following review for The Baptist is posted on the author's blog and reproduced here with permission. It's quite a cerebral piece and I'm flattered by the literary comparison. I highly respect Jim Williams as an author. He has a very strong literary style and is a Booker Prize nominee, and I'm honoured by his insight and kinds words. At the same time his review reminds me what a traumatic experience it was to write The Baptist as I had to live with that first person narrative for about a year.
Jim Williams' review of The Baptist by Ruby Barnes
In popular fiction the serial killer is a trope for the embodiment of
evil rather than an extreme example of the everyday experience of
madness that may affect our friends or ourselves. For that reason
Hannibal Lecter has more in common with Dracula Prince of Darkness than,
say, the Yorkshire Ripper in his ignorant ordinariness. For the same
reason, the madness of the fictional serial killer is a permanent part
of the character’s identity – masked perhaps, but always there – while
in contrast the madness of actual life is like a career of part time
jobs: some good, some horrible, but all episodic. Ruby Barnes’s insight
into this reality is what makes The Baptist so truthful, convincing and
distinctive.
The story is told mainly from the point of view of the killer
himself, John Baptist. He is committed to an institution in his teens
for the murder of his brother and here he meets Mary, whose madness is
of a more chaotic type. On his release he creates a normal life in
Ireland, including a marriage with children and a job running a small
garage business. His tendency to madness is always there but it is
managed by drugs, as is the case for many people. However – and this is
another intelligent insight of the author – John secretly comes off his
drugs: he actively chooses his psychosis over his sanity
because the experience of madness is invigorating and empowering (at
least on a temporary basis until its disruptive effects become
overwhelming). In this condition John encounters Mary again and they
embark on a spree to realise his mission.
The most effective passages of the book deal with John’s encounter
with a mysterious friend, Feargal, and the resumption of his relations
with Mary. Because we see events through John’s eyes the surface of the
narrative becomes slippery with uncertainty as to the reality of what
we are seeing, and the identities of characters seem to elide one into
another. This part is wonderfully done because of the delicate writing,
which is restrained, slyly humorous, and at times lyrical. The best
parts are reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro. The writing throughout is of a
very high standard.
As with most books there are flaws, though none of them fatal. This
isn’t a detective story, but Barnes introduces a detective, McAuliffe,
who is linked to John’s history by an inadequately explained backstory
and whose role is essentially redundant. Also there are several shifts
in the narrative point of view that work only so-so because the
dominance of John’s viewpoint has the effect that the shifts come as
something of a surprise. It is also fair to repeat that this is not a
standard serial killer thriller, and this means that the reader does not
have the safety and comfort of the usual conventions. Prepare to be
creeped out.
Jim Williams is the author of Scherzo, ten other novels and two works of non-fiction.
The Baptist - a psychological thriller. Available from
all online bookstores in all formats, including tree.
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