Are All Chris Carter Books the Same?
I decided that An Evil Mind would be the last Chris Carter book I read; never again in my life. I only read this one so I could say goodbye to the series with a good, scathing review. But why? BUT WHY!?
Well, my friend, because every Robert Hunter story is exactly the same.
Victims drop like flies. Each book features increasingly horrific massacres. The detectives analyze, brainstorm, but they never get anywhere.
And in the end, it always turns out that some entirely average criminal has been weaving these elaborate, time-consuming, and ridiculously complicated plans. And it’s always disappointing when the Hunter books reveal that the GREAT MANIPULATOR is nothing more than, say, an ordinary hater, the ex-girlfriend or maybe poor old Aunt Maggie from next door.
Moreover, if Detective Robert Hunter happens to meet a hot woman who’s a perfect match for him, she’s likely to get killed off before Hunter even has a chance to sweep her off her feet.
But then, dammit, it turns out that the sixth installment in the series, An Evil Mind, is an entirely different story!
Chris Carter’s Magnum Opus
The FBI borrows Hunter for a while, and our noble detective finds himself in a nightmare reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en. Hey, relax! Relax! Don’t rush straight to the bookstore just yet! Or at least not so fast! Let me clarify: it’s reminiscent. This book isn’t on the same level as those iconic masterpieces. But it’s clear that this is Chris Carter’s MAGNUM OPUS so far. And it’s certain that the evil mind referred to in the title proves to be a worthy match for the good Dr. Lecter or the somewhat less virtuous John Doe. This guy is a rotten, filthy, disgusting scumbag! (Ahem, excuse me.)
Sometimes Clichéd Writing
The beginning of An Evil Mind delivers the usual slightly cardboard-like style and clumsiness: for instance, the FBI’s serial killer division probably doesn’t employ idiots. Yet, in this book, they do. Sometimes, unnecessary (and amateurish) viewpoint shifts appear within scenes. In many cases, the text is clichéd or outright pseudo-philosophical (like the several-page discussion on the theoretical aspects of drug use). There are also completely flat, obviously filler sections with pointless side plots, such as the FANTASTIC and UNREPEATABLE storehouse visit with Billy.
More Evil Than You Think!!!
But once the story gets going, it makes up for the bumps along the way. Even if you thought you were signing up for a crime thriller, instead, you’re getting a full-on psychological case study—much in the vein of what James Ellroy did in Killer on the Road. And unlike Ellroy’s work, this one manages to be emotional or surprisingly thrilling, and even downright EVIL. Damn EVIL!
Yet, no matter how high-profile Detective Robert Hunter is, the poor guy still manages to maneuver himself into the same cliché showdown at the end of An Evil Mind as in all his previous blood-soaked adventures.
Rating: 7.6/10
An Evil Mind (Robert Hunter #6) by Chris Carter
368 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2015 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books