Book Review: Sepultura by Guy Portman

Book Review: Sepultura by Guy Portman

Hello Addicts,

One of my favorite of slasher-style tales is where you get to see the crime from the killer’s point of view. Being able to get a glimpse into the mind of a serial killer to find out what makes them do what they do so brutally as well as the lengths they’ll go to remain hidden. I thought Sepultura would be a good one to try, and the results were mixed.

Dyson Devereux works in the Burials and Cemeteries Department and is a very meticulous person in his tastes, fashion, food, and drink. He has a son with Rakesha, an ex-girlfriend he still has a physical relationship with, and is very much a player when it comes to women in general. He is a judgmental person who not only looks down his nose at those he believes are beneath him because of how they dress or carry themselves. His interactions with these people give you an idea of his level of sociopathic tendencies. One of those individuals is Rakesha’s boyfriend, who Dyson refers to as Free Lunch. He hates Dyson but has no problem living off the money he provides for Rakesha and their son.

When Free Lunch gets physically confrontational, you see just how efficient of a killer Dyson is. He kills the younger man and cleans up enough of the mess to immediately spend time with one of his girlfriends in bed. Like most serial killers, he has a plan on disposing of the body and takes a souvenir to remember the act. As the story continues, you see his talent at making people disappear first hand. He gets rattled only a couple of times when he runs across people who bear a likeness to some of his previous victims but is cool when it comes to speaking with the police. It isn’t the only murder in the book, but it best illustrates just how much thought he puts into his crimes.

As I said in the beginning, I have mixed feelings regarding this book. It is the second book in the series, but the story stands alone well. You don’t need to have read the first book, Necropolis, to know anything about Dyson Devereux’s character. I can say that I wasn’t a fan of his, but because of his arrogance, pretentiousness, and disdain for people. That shows how good of a writer Guy Portman is. Dyson is one of those main characters who you either love, hate, or love to hate. Some people likened him to Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, a comparison that seems a good fit. I liked the attention to detail of viewing people he looks down on as not people, but things. With some, the only given names are the labels of what he dislikes about them.

One of the things I disliked about the book, however, is the dialog written with very heavy accents. It worked well for some, like the Italians, but made understanding others practically impossible. Multiple times I had to reread sentences to decipher what the character said. Also, how Dyson establishes himself as being above everyone else felt overdone at times. The ending felt kind of rushed as well.

Overall, I thought the book was okay, but not exactly a home run. If you can get past the heavy Cockney style accents and the heavy-handed descriptions, you will enjoy this book. If you can’t, then you might want to skip this one or go for an audio version. I recommend it for those American Psycho and Dexter fans out there.

Until next time, Addicts.

D.J. Pitsiladis

HorrorAddicts.net #106, Bob Nailor

Horror Addicts Episode# 106

Horror Hostess: Emerian Rich

Intro Music by: Cancer Killing Gemini

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68 days till Halloween!

bob nailor, dead animal assembly plant, silent hill

silent hill, master of macabre, vote, wicked women writers, most wicked, voter winner, dead animal assembly plant, memorials: lauren bacall, robin williams, p.g. holyfield, events, jeremiah donaldson, plague aftermath, malcolm torres, sailors take warning, necroplolis, guy portman, recipe for murder, esterelle payany, hannibals express sweetbreads, my sucky teen romance, the bunnymen massacre, dead kansas, the remnant into the collision. p.a. davis, tentyrian legacy, elise walters, zombie attack, devan sagliani, deep black sea, david m. salkin, snafu, flash fiction friday, david watson, sumiko saulson, bob nailor

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Necropolis

Dyson Devereux is not your average person, he doesn’t like slow sad love songs from artists like Celine Dion and he hates reality shows like the X Factor. He lives in England and he works in the burials and cemeteries department for his local council. To say that Dyson doesn’t relate to people would be an understatement. He forgets people’s names, he doesn’t show any emotion when his co-worker Dorthy dies and in the beginning of the book when he is at her funeral he thinks how glorious his funeral will be and about the promotion he will get now that Dorthy is dead.

What he lacks in empathy he makes up for in intelligence and attention to detail. Dyson sees himself as the smartest person where he works and he thinks Dorthy’s death will lead him to bigger and better things. Dyson knows a lot about death but it doesn’t necessarily get him anywhere when it comes to higher pay. That’s ok though, because he just found out that a war criminal may be working under a fake name in the cemetery and there is a big reward for his capture. Dyson’s skills may not help him on the job  but it will get him that reward money.

The first thing I thought when I started Necropolis by Guy Portman was: “Hey it’s Dexter, he must have moved to Great Britain and started working as a funeral director. In reality the only similarities between Dexter and Dyson is that they are both sociopaths trying to fit into society when they don’t relate to people. The story to Necropolis isn’t why you should read this book. What really makes this book good is Dyson himself.Dyson has a different view on society than most people have and its told entirely from his point of view. One thing I kept wondering about him was if he cares about the people that he interacts with?

Dyson has a girlfriend named Eve who has a drug problem, at one point he says he doesn’t love her but he says he does tolerate her. That being said he takes it upon himself to pay off her drug debts and get revenge on the dealer that has threatened her. Because he does that you think maybe he does care but then he gets embarrassed when she gets emotional and he has other women on the side. Another point in the story after a drug fueled threesome he asks himself if this is love which proves that he doesn’t know what love is and he even admits he has never felt it.

Necropolis shows you what goes on in the mind of a sociopath from what made him to how he lives his day-to-day life.  Death does not bother Dyson, its his business and the other funeral workers aren’t bothered by it either.  I found myself wondering if all people who work in funeral parlors are like this since all the characters shown in the story come across as uncaring. One point where they were preparing a body for a funeral made me almost stop reading. There were times that I felt that Dyson was the normal one among his coworkers. Necropolis is a different type of book and a dark twisted comedy that is not for the squeamish.

 

HorrorAddicts.net 098, Mimi A. Williams

Horror Addicts Episode# 098

Horror Hostess: Emerian Rich

Intro Music by: Cancer Killing Gemini

Listen now!
[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/horroraddicts/HorrorAddicts098.mp3]

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196 days till Halloween!

mimi a. williams, endless sunder, jeremiah donaldson, sweeny todd, tales from the crypt

sweeny todd, tales from the crypt, best band poll, mrs. lovett’s pie, end of the world radio, dawn wood, endless sunder, fashion, cheap ebooks, night’s knights, lilith’s love, the vampire family, silhouette, the wickeds, horrible disasters, one hellacious halloween, cecil and bubba meet the thang, guy portman, edgar allan poe, erika henrike, bugs, jeremiah donaldson, events, dead mail, mimi a. williams

 

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Bizarre Deaths: Dan Andersson

Bizarre Deaths
by Guy Portman

Dan Andersson

 (April 6th 1888 – September 16th 1920)

Notable works: The Charcoal-Burner’s Tales, The Charcoal-Burner’s Songs, Three Homeless Ones

Dan Andersson was a Swedish author, poet and composer, who became a cult figure in his native Sweden posthumously. Regarded as one of Sweden’s greatest ever poets, his themes of naturalist mysticism and searching for God continue to resonate with his readers to this day.

Andersson’s memory has been commemorated with two stamps in his honour, a museum in his hometown of Ludrika, in addition to a Dan Andersson week, celebrated in the first week of every August.  There is also a bust of the iconic poet in the country’s capital, Gothenburg.

The thirty-two year old Andersson met his premature demise when he went to Stockholm in September 1920 to try and secure a job at the newspaper Social-Demokraten.  On arrival at the hotel he was due to stay in, the Hotel Hellman, the receptionist failed to inform him that his room had just been treated with hydrogen cyanide, in an effort to eradicate an infestation of bed bugs.  At three pm on September 16th 1920 Andersson was found dead in his room.

 

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Guy Portman is a writer currently residing in London, the city of his birth.  Guy’s next book, Necropolis, is a work of dark fiction about a psychopath, who is employed at his local council’s Burials and Cemeteries department.  Necropolis is due for release in late April 2014. For more info on Guy, go to: www.guyportman.com

Bizarre Deaths: Percy Shelley

Bizarre Deaths
by Guy Portman

Percy Shelley 

(August 4th 1792 – July 8th 1822)

Notable works: Ozymandrias, Music, The Cloud, Queen Mab

The husband of Frankenstein author, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English Romantic poet.  Shelley did not achieve fame during his short lifetime, in part because publishers were reluctant to publish his work, due to his radical political and social views.  Today he is regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets of the English language.

The talented poet met his premature end when he drowned in a storm while sailing off the coast of Italy.  There has been much speculation over the exact cause of his death, with theories ranging from murder to suicide.

Events were to take a bizarre turn when Shelley’s washed-up body was cremated on the beach.  The poet’s heart refused to burn, probably due to a heart condition that had caused it to calcify.  Edward Trelawny, a friend of the deceased, removed the heart from the fire and gave it to Mary Shelley.  What happened next is much debated, with some claiming that the poet’s wife kept the crumbling remains in her desk.  The heart was later buried alongside her son, Percy Florence.

 

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Guy Portman is a writer currently residing in London, the city of his birth.  Guy’s next book, Necropolis, is a work of dark fiction about a psychopath, who is employed at his local council’s Burials and Cemeteries department.  Necropolis is due for release in late April 2014. For more info on Guy, go to: www.guyportman.com

Bizarre Deaths: Dante Alighieri

Bizarre Deaths
by Guy Portman

 

Dante Alighieri

 (May/June c. 1265 – September 9th 1321)

Notable works: The Divine Comedy, Convivio, The Vita Nuova.

Florence born Dante’s defining work, The Divine Comedy, is widely regarded to this day, as the greatest piece of literature ever composed in Italian.  The description of Dante’s fictional journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso), was to prove an important milestone in the development of Italian as an established literary language.

Italy’s sommo poeta (supreme poet) is remembered not only for his remarkable achievements, but also for the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death.  Dante died of malaria in Ravenna in 1321, which was not unusual in itself during this era.  However posthumous events took a bizarre turn when Florence, the city of Dante’s birth, demanded the return of their famous son.

Church officials in Ravenna secretly hid Dante’s body in a wall to prevent it from being stolen and returned to Florence.  It lay forgotten until being unearthed during church renovations in 1863, when it was discovered that parts of the body had been taken at the time of the burial.  In 1878 a repentant former town clerk, Pasquale Miccoli, returned a box of bones he had stolen.

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Guy Portman is a writer currently residing in London, the city of his birth.  Guy’s next book, Necropolis, is a work of dark fiction about a psychopath, who is employed at his local council’s Burials and Cemeteries department.  Necropolis is due for release in late April 2014. For more info on Guy, go to: www.guyportman.com