THE SERIALIST

Failed author Harry Bloch writes a sex-fantasy column called “Slut Whisperer” for a HUSTLER-type magazine and ghostwrites student papers on the side. This darkly comic character offers a well-met challenge for narrator Bronson Pinchot. When Bloch is summoned by serial killer Darien Clay, who is on death row, to write his true confessions, Pinchot’s storytelling ably transitions from the narrative voice of the self-deprecating Jewish author to that of the truly evil man in prison. Other characters who are well portrayed are Clay’s hard-bitten attorney, Bloch’s teenaged business manager for the ghostwriting business, and the stripper sister of one of Clay’s victims, who becomes Bloch’s lover. Gordon’s thriller is interspersed with bizarre voyages into Bloch’s soft-porn vampire and fantasy tales. Pinchot negotiates all these elements with alacrity and humor. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2011]