.
Funeral March by Frank De Felitta
What is in the mind of a serial killer that makes him go the extra
mile of killing and the mind to tape-record the agonies of his unfortunate victims as they beg to be spared their lives until they are dead? This novel is simply fascinating as a novel of psychological terror that is meant to guide her reader to be wary and equally educate you on what to look out for in people before offering your friendship. What a psychological terror of the practice of Hollywood film directing on its head? Film directing now becomes torture before death for the victims. This book chronicles in the most chilling manner the killing spree and the escapades of an unrepentant serial killer Charles Starkweather on Los Angeles streets stalking and killing the brightest people simply because he has a resident evil in him whom he serves. According to this killer, "It’s about the master I follow. The great master. A genius. You can’t understand anything if you don’t understand him. Truly understand him. The way I do." This mindlessness has its root in the first film book he ever got when he was only ten years old. A book by Frank Capra titled The Name Above the Title. Aside his addiction to wasting of lives, he is addicted to movies as his brain thinks in film shots hence he stays in his flat tape-recording his evil deeds and offer oral reasons for the evil deeds he has done. In his young mind’s eye, he had created an epic movie titled The Saga of Charles Starkweather, the mass murderer. A child that never got along with his own father and grew up a loner ended up a devil’s workshop and such a terror to mankind. Unbelievable enough, he knows his condition is not normal, yet he glorifies in the fact that people are afraid of his natural talent of making films his own way. He is only reeling in chronic megalomania. But who is there to stop him? Yes, newly promoted Lieutenant Fred Santomassimo who is in his mid-thirties has been assigned the onerous responsibility of working on theories of whodunit after a wealthy movie producer’s head was cut in ritual-like manner while jogging on the beach with a model airplane operated by Charles Starkweather. The story continues with more revealing chilling accounts of killings embarked on by the serial killer. Of course, an end was put to this mindlessness by the members of the detective department of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
Published: September 21, 2007
More in Mystery & Thrillers