Scan barcode
A review by rianainthestacks
Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan
4.0
I chose Smaller and Smaller Circles as my 21st challenge from the 2018 ReadHarderChallenge: a mystery by a LGBTQ+ or POC author. This book is written by F.H. Batacan from the Philippines, which is also where this story is set. It’s known as the first Filipino crime novel and has won the 1999 Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for best English-language novel (popularly known as the Philippine Pulitzer). Batacan holds an interesting perspective due to her career history in a government intelligence agency. While working in this position she became increasingly frustrated with how little her government did about the biggest issues facing their people; About how much corruption there was. And this was the driving factor that led her to write this murder mystery.
The story opens on what seems to be serial killings occurring in the Payatas, a 50 acre dump north of Manila. It’s one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city and families often send kids to scavenge for food and salable items in the dump just to get by. While the NBI is called in to investigate, the politics and corruption within the ranks as well as the difficulty of the case causes their new director to reach out to Father Gus Saenz for help. Saenz is a Jesuit Preist, Forensic Anthropologist, and Professor. Saenz works alongside Father Jerome Lucero who was once his student, but now often works as an assistant in such cases. Together they must use their knowledge of the area along with their forensic and psychiatric knowledge to track down a killer that keeps eluding them and leaving more bodies in his wake.
There is a strong message here that because the young boys being killed are undernourished, scavenging kids from the Payatas, that there isn’t really anyone there to tell their story and help them. It isn’t until the priests are asked to help on the case that real progress seems to be made. Saving these kids may not earn the same headline news as cases attached to the rich and famous would and that sadly seems to have a lot of consequence in who will be willing to take this one on.
This wasn’t a mystery where enough information is given along the way to really be able to try and guess who the suspects and killer may turn out to be. It was more of watching it unfold and guessing at some of the motives. And it was definitely a lot about the internal battles that have to be fought just for some people to be able to actually perform their jobs like they are supposed to.
This is one of the very very few murder mysteries I have read. I don’t read much that focuses on either murder or mystery. My usual go-to is Science Fiction and Fantasy, so this was certainly another task that had me expanding my normal reading zone like I did with the western recently. I really enjoyed reading this though! I’m still not big on the murder mystery subjects and the parts that detailed the crime scenes (though they weren’t really over-graphic) were a bit much for me. And while I love suspense and plot twists, I am not big on trying to guess who-dun-it, as it were.
But, I liked the writing style and attention to details. I liked Fathers Saenz and Lucero and enjoyed seeing them battle both against the clock and against the system to find this killer and give a voice to those young lives that were thrown away in the dumps like they were just more trash and wouldn’t matter to anyone— wouldn’t be missed. All together I would give Smaller and Smaller Circles a 4/5 stars.
★★★★☆
The story opens on what seems to be serial killings occurring in the Payatas, a 50 acre dump north of Manila. It’s one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city and families often send kids to scavenge for food and salable items in the dump just to get by. While the NBI is called in to investigate, the politics and corruption within the ranks as well as the difficulty of the case causes their new director to reach out to Father Gus Saenz for help. Saenz is a Jesuit Preist, Forensic Anthropologist, and Professor. Saenz works alongside Father Jerome Lucero who was once his student, but now often works as an assistant in such cases. Together they must use their knowledge of the area along with their forensic and psychiatric knowledge to track down a killer that keeps eluding them and leaving more bodies in his wake.
There is a strong message here that because the young boys being killed are undernourished, scavenging kids from the Payatas, that there isn’t really anyone there to tell their story and help them. It isn’t until the priests are asked to help on the case that real progress seems to be made. Saving these kids may not earn the same headline news as cases attached to the rich and famous would and that sadly seems to have a lot of consequence in who will be willing to take this one on.
This wasn’t a mystery where enough information is given along the way to really be able to try and guess who the suspects and killer may turn out to be. It was more of watching it unfold and guessing at some of the motives. And it was definitely a lot about the internal battles that have to be fought just for some people to be able to actually perform their jobs like they are supposed to.
This is one of the very very few murder mysteries I have read. I don’t read much that focuses on either murder or mystery. My usual go-to is Science Fiction and Fantasy, so this was certainly another task that had me expanding my normal reading zone like I did with the western recently. I really enjoyed reading this though! I’m still not big on the murder mystery subjects and the parts that detailed the crime scenes (though they weren’t really over-graphic) were a bit much for me. And while I love suspense and plot twists, I am not big on trying to guess who-dun-it, as it were.
But, I liked the writing style and attention to details. I liked Fathers Saenz and Lucero and enjoyed seeing them battle both against the clock and against the system to find this killer and give a voice to those young lives that were thrown away in the dumps like they were just more trash and wouldn’t matter to anyone— wouldn’t be missed. All together I would give Smaller and Smaller Circles a 4/5 stars.
★★★★☆