This book was fantastic! I couldn't put it down. At first I wasn't real sure I would enjoy. I in't like the iea of it. Seeme kind of unrealistic. But as I read it the drama and emotions made it really feel realistic. The emotions were so real. You could really relate to everything the character was feeling even if you hadn't been in the situations before. Great book. Deffinately recomend it. ( )

I almost didn't get started on the book after the first couple of slighty confusing pages. I stuck it through though, and did partially figure out the ending early, but not everything. Overall the book does maintain a certain tension through a dream-like, somewhat surreal attitude. It follows a mind that is looking for solutions and a protection for his son, at any cost. The hallucinatory aspects of the principal character's mind, darting off in different directions, do show someone who formulates a possible answer to what they're going through, no matter how off the wall it might be, then discards it for another. All the while, people are dying around him.

Not a book I would normally read, but I did, and I enjoyed it. Don't read it in a skimming way though, because the language used was obviously formulated to show the confusion and pathways a person under extreme stress would take. ( )

A good read - I thought it was pretty enjoyable overall. Normally I'm not one to go for the chestnutty "writer as character in mysterious murder", but here it was handled a lot better than in most other places.

This book was fantastic. The drama the excitment I couldn't put it down. The story woven was something I felt as if I was there. I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. Not my usual genre and I am so glad I read it. Sending it to all my friends to read and get a taste of "The Killing Circle". ( )

It took me 6 days to force myself to read this book. The first
chapter was about the only interesting read. From there it became more and more confusing. I got the gist of the story. A widower with a young son who is a newspaper columnist wanna be novelist joins a writer's workshop only to discover he doesn't have anything to contribute to the group. The group is made up of some rather strange characters, and as the weeks pass, there are abductions and murders in the area that may be connected to the group. There is a jump in time of several years and the main character is now a successful novelist whose first book has made him a household name although he apparently stole his material from one of the writers in the workshop he attended in the past. Slowly the members of that workshop turn up dead and our author becomes a person of interest to the police in these homicides. Meanwhile, the real killer kidnaps his son and he pursues the one he suspects responsible. How that happens and how it ends is all that's left to tell, but took me forever to reach. I will pass this on to other family readers to see if it is just me or something lacking in this book. ( )

This is a creepy horror story set in present-day Toronto over the course of several years. It's about (and narrated by) a newspaper columnist, Patrick Rush, who desperately wants to be a published author. Unfortunately, he has no story to write and to remedy that he joins a writers' discussion group. He is fired from his job for bad behaviour and under the additional pressure of no job, he plagarizes another writer's work and ends up being a successful author. That's the good part. He (and others in the writers' group) become the subject of a stalker -- "The Sandman" and very bad things happen. Rush's son is kidnapped.

It's a good book for fans of serial killer books. Those who like Ruth Rendell and Patricia Highsmith will like it.

It's not my kind of book, but | recommend it because it's well-written and very suspenseful. There's a bitter sweet ending. ( )

Who am I to question the NY Times reviewer who commented that this book was “gorgeously written and thoroughly unnerving.” This is, after all, my first attempt at a book review. I’m not even an avid reader. I did not find The Killing Circle to be gorgeously written or at all unnerving. Some of the writing I found to be in the style of old, radio, detective melodrama. That I am familiar with since I listen to it daily.

Phrases like “the void that yawns between the doorway and the window” and “candles oozing wax” are amateurish. I can’t even relate to “A low grinding, like air forced through wet sand.” Under what circumstance is that descriptive?

Rosemary’s Baby was unnerving. The Exorcist was unnerving. All of Poe and most of Steven King keeps the reader in a state of fear, panic, suspense. I can still hear Poe’s beating heart and see the face of Cujo dripping saliva and blood.

Perhaps I should not have read the cover remarks of this book first. Perhaps I would have had lesser expectations.

I found the pace to be slow. I was easily past the 200 page mark before any interest in the characters was sparked. I did like the detective, Ramsay. He seemed to have the most character development and interest. I would have liked to hear more from him. I liked the story but the “who done it” devices were flat and obvious. I was not able to figure out the ending in advance, however. It is an easy gimmick to fool the reader with…well you can read that for yourself if you are so inclined.

This was not a compelling or moving read. Would I recommend it? Well, I am giving the book to my colleague along with these comments. The choice is hers. And yours.

P.S., She declined. ( )

A blurb reads

A spine-chilling, mind-twisting psychological thriller — Andrew Pyper’s most gripping novel yet — in which a writing circle is haunted by a serial killer.

I seem to be the only reader who did not enjoy this book. I am not a fan of writing negative reviews of fiction: the things that can turn a reader off from a book are so subjective that they wouldn't necessarily apply to anyone else, and I would hate to discourage another reader from taking a chance on what is almost universally praised as "Frightening and action-packed" (Los Angeles Times), "Spookily terrific" (Winnipeg Free Press), "One great read: darkly lyrical and atmospheric, it's as haunting as it is gripping. Highly recommended" (Harlan Coben).

I'll just note that there were stylistic elements that did not agree with me, and that unfortunately harmed what is undoubtedly a good read. ( )

Pyper has a talent for creating creepy scenarios which somehow seep into real life. This time, he uses a story within a story creating a mirror effect to loose the reader in the possibilities of horror. I particularly enjoyed walking down the streets of Toronto - it makes the story that much lively. Pyper has a vivid imagination and although this is not his best, it's definitely a thrill. ( )

In "The Killing Circle", we are plunged into the complicated world of ones inner self, facing all kinds of voices and fantasies. We are particularly invited into the mind of Patrick Rush, an aspiring novelist.

Patrick wishing to unleash his own creativity joins Conrad White's writing workshop, a dark and mysterious group that meet each week to share their secret tales. Suffering from a mental block and a lack of fertile imagination he becomes frustrated and envious of Angela's tale of the Sandman. He plagiarize her story and submits it for publication. Problems arise when an eerie similarity is discovered between the novel and multiple murders that are being investigated by Toronto's police force. Paranoia sets into the group when one by one its members disappear.

This is one dark, very complex and compelling plot with very disturbing moments. Fear and obsession is palpable, the first person narration brings out the sense of dread and horror and provides an insight into the mind of a murderer. This novel played with my mind, there were moments when I felt like abandoning it but new developments piqued my interest, I stayed riveted to every word in order to find out the killer's identity.

Even with its interesting characters and steady moving pace this spooky thriller, full of bogeymen may not be for everyone one ( )

Had the feeling that Pyper got bored with this novel about half way through the second draft and just published it the way it stood, before breathing any life into it. About half way through deciding to read this book ... don't.

Just ok. I sped read through last half just to finish it. Author's wife dies and he's left w/their young son to pick up the pieces. Joins a writing circle 'cause he's always wanted to be a published writer. Steals someone's story from the circle and publishes it as his own. Body count mounts. ( )

The Killing Circle is a typical Whodunnit crime thriller, centring around a writer's circle. The highly susceptible nature of the writers mind is the propellant for the story, and as such is able to twist the story at any turn. This is also used to blend the lines between what is real and what is imaginary (or potentially supernatural). However, the story itself is never gripping enough, and subsequently these factors above are easily identified as the drivers of this book, rather than content and suspension of disbelief. Ultimately, the book is frustrating and never builds any likeable characters and as a result is quite forgettable. ( )

Patrick Rush, a journalist who wants to try his hand at writing fiction, joins a local writer's circle. A woman is found murdered in Patrick's neighborhood and on a note found the killer has taken his name from a character in a fellow student's work. When Patrick''s son goes missing, it becomes personal. Explores the dark side pf a writer's mind. ( )

This story starts out quite innocently enough, Patrick Rush, a middle-aged widower and single dad, believes himself to be a talented writer wasting his life working for a newspaper, if that weren’t bad enough, he is actually traveling down and out on that career ladder. Deciding to follow his aspirations of becoming a writer, Patrick joins a writing group who meet weekly to share their work. But very soon he comes to realize that he has nothing to contribute, however another member, Angela, is a very skilled writer who has been weaving a thriller about a killer named Sandman, that keeps Patrick returning just to hear how it ends up.

Fast forward a few years, and Patrick is now a successful writer, living the life he always wanted. But his happiness is soon to be over, as the events from Angela’s story start to blur together with real life. A serial killer is on the loose and Patrick fears he is being targeted. Members of the original writing circle are turning up dead, and Patrick seems to be loosing control of his perfect life.

The Killing Circle is a very well put together novel, with all the right ingredients to make a terrific thriller. Twists and turns around every corner and a plot that keeps you guessing until the end. I enjoyed this story very much and was very satisfied with the ending. The only thing holding this novel back was the absence of characters whom you could empathize with. Although the main character was interesting, I thought he was a bit overly self-involved. Could have used a little more back-story to show how he became the person he was. Overall, The Killing Circle was an enjoyable read, the plot was fully strong enough to pull the reader along until the last page. ( )

I couldn't finish it... It was too slow, nothing spectacular happening, probably too long to build up. Yet I had this nagging feeling that it would turn up to be a great book....
Saddly, I got bored before the end and couldn't get myself to finish it. ( )

I found that this tale built up slowly, starting with a writing circle of wanna-be authors. We hear some intriguing - and shocking - tales about each character and what events shaped their own personal tales. After the writing circle disbands one of them writes a story that he heard told there and claims it as his own. Then he meets up with the original author of the tale he has had published but strangely she doesn’t make a complaint about his plagiarism. Then one by one the other writing circle members meet gruesome endings. What is it that links them all to their untimely and savage deaths? As you read on you think you know, but then another twist will have you thinking or blaming someone different. This is a real edge of the seat thriller that kept me guessing until almost the end. I did figure out who the murderer was but I was still shocked to learn that my guess what correct. I was riveted to this horror story and it slowly pulled me in until I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. It’s a pacey; gripping read that’s full of twists and turns with a heart-stopping ending. I’ll definitely be looking out for more by Pyper. ( )

The Killing Circle skirts the supernatural: a mind-fudger beginning with the abduction of the narrator’s son and back-tracking to the events which culminated in this crisis.

Widowed, depressed and demoted, journalist Patrick Rush lives only for his son Sam and, desperate to improve his life, joins the Kensington Writer’s Circle, hoping to pen the Great Novel he is convinced he can write.

Instead, he plagiarizes the fictional diary of Angela, another of the group, becoming an instant success with her story of the sinister Sandman. When the Sandman abducts Sam, Patrick has to unravel the mystery. A dishonest book but a really good read. ( )

This was a difficult read for me to complete. Although I share Patrick Rush's desire to be a writer I don't think I would be able to do what he eventually did. He was a very unlikeable person, the only part that somewhat redeemed him was his relationship to his son. ( )

As I read this book I felt like some of the pages had been left out. I had missed something along the way. I could never get into the skin of Patrick, could never see the characters through his eyes, feel his emotion. When you can't feel emotion for characters in a book it becomes a chore and reading should never be that. The book started out an entertaining journey, but ended up a rainy literary trip. ( )

What I liked about the book: the direct writing style, the author's wit and playfulness in describing thwarted ambition and the literary scene, the father-son relationship, descriptions of Toronto. What was less impressive: going back and forward in time has become very common in books and I get impatient with it, also in this case the story had too many twists and layers that were not convincing. Most of the characters remained vague to me. All in all, a good beginning but ultimately an unsatisfying story. (Early Reviewers)

The Killing Circle is a novel about the flagging success of Patrick Rush, a recent widower, single dad, and columnist at the city paper. The economy of print news combined with Patrick’s indifference and bad attitude quickly lead to unemployment. Having always dreamt of writing the great Canadian novel, Patrick joins a writing circle, where he quickly discovers that he’s really got nothing to contribute. When strange things start happening in Patrick’s city and writing circle, he’s drawn into a sequence of events that ultimately sets his life back on track – or so it seems.

Though that sounds like the complete story, in fact, it’s just act 1 and I haven’t spoiled anything for future readers. The story is told in two chunks – 2003 and 2007. The 2003 section almost entirely serves as back story. In that sense, the story takes some time to evolve. However, the writing and the characters make the time pass quickly. In 2007, we discover even more about the protagonist that makes us question his moral fiber, and from there the mystery takes unexpected twists and turns. Is Patrick the next victim? The prime suspect? An unwitting pawn in someone else’s game?

On the thriller spectrum from Koontz (the good guys always win and live to see another day) to King (sometimes evil prevails), Pyper is much closer to King. Patrick is far from perfect and I didn’t always find myself rooting for him to come out on top. Unfortunately, I didn’t really identify or connect with any of the characters which made me feel oddly disconnected from the story. At the same time, Patrick also seems slightly disconnected from his own life so perhaps the distance I felt was appropriate.

In the end, I enjoyed the book, the unique plot (I didn’t come close to guessing the ending), and the writing kept me interested until past my bedtime. I have added Pyper’s previous books to my eventual to-be-read list, but I won’t go out a buy them ASAP. Overall The Killing Circle is solid read that I’ll be happy to pass along to fellow mystery readers, but not something that I’d highly recommend. ( )

Patrick Rush is on a downward spiral. His wife has died, leaving him to raise their son alone. He is systematically being demoted at the newspaper where he works as the arts section becomes the entertainment section and he finds himself being the TV critic with the unflattering moniker of The Couch Potato for his column.

Feeling the need to recapture some enthusiasm for something in his life, Rush joins a writing group hoping to start on the novel he feels is buried somewhere inside of him. Unfortunately, no one in the writing group seems to have much in the way of talent. Except for Angela who tells a haunting story of abuse and an evil man who does evil things: the Sandman. As Angela reveals snippets each week, Rush finds himself showing up just to know how the story ends.

When a serial killer appears who’s technique is just like the Sandman, the need to know how the story ends takes on more urgency. Especially when all signs point to Rush being the killer.

That’s as much I can tell you without giving the plot away. This is one of the best thrillers that I’ve read in a long time (and I realize that I recently said something similar about Reich’s Rules of Deception). If I had to boil it down to a single element, it is Pyper’s refusal to stick to conventions that makes this book for me. The main character doesn’t act the way I would expect him to and the book doesn’t end the way I expect thrillers to end. And those are all good things, great in fact.

Now I’m going to geek out a bit about the fact that Pyper is Canadian. If you’re not Canadian, you may not realize that much of our publishing industry is either devoted to CanLit (literary fiction which is often also very self-consciously Canadian) or imported popular fiction (mostly from the US). Finding Canadian popular fiction writers is difficult. Finding Canadian popular fiction writers who set their stories in Canada and manage to sneak in some Canadian pop culture while they are at it is even more difficult. Pyper does both, which thrills me as a Canadian reader (hence the geek out in progress).

I have nothing against reading American popular fiction (or British, or Australian, or New Zealand-ish?). In fact, I read quite a lot of it and I’m used to having stories set in Boston or New York or wherever. As long as it’s a good story and good writing, I’m happy. But it’s nice, ever once in a while, to have the extra bonus of sharing the culture of the protagonist and not having to translate things like Barnes & Noble to Chapters (not actually mentioned in Pyper’s book, but you get the idea).

No matter where you live, if you love a good thriller this is definitely a book to buy. As soon as I get through my current stack of books (which keeps multiplying when I’m not looking—why is that?), I’m going to track down Pyper’s other books: The Wildfire Season, The Trade Mission, and The Lost Girls.

Visit Booklorn.com for more reviews. ( )

Let me be frank. I love fiction of almost all kinds, but what really hooks me into any book is its characters. Without well-drawn, richly layered characters, I find it very difficult to connect with any story, be it never so well-plotted. I am an avid mystery reader, and I love the thrill of trying to keep up with the intricacies of an unfolding plot. But I found it very hard to keep my attention focused on this book. There was simply nothing in any of the characters I could grab hold of – they seemed more like hollow shells than real people I cared about. That may be why the murder mystery itself failed to engage me.

The first part of Andrew Pyper’s latest murder mystery THE KILLING CIRCLE, races right along. Literary critic Patrick Rush has always dreamt of writing a novel, of being a published author instead of the one who reports on other people’s work. Rush has been waiting all his life for that magical first line, “the way in” to the book he feels it is his destiny to write. He’s worked his way up in the world of journalism, from writing freelance articles for little read periodicals to a regular position as a columnist at a national newspaper.

But all is not well in Patrick Rush’s world. After a brief period of married happiness and new fatherhood, Patrick’s wife dies and leaves him to cope with the myriad issues of single parenting; and he sees his job at the newspaper shrinking from literary critic to entertainment reporter to TV show reviewer. Since Rush despises television and popular culture in general, this is anything but his ideal job. He still dreams of opening the New York Times Review of Books to see a review of his yet unbirthed novel.

Rush joins a neighborhood literary circle – a small group of would be writers who meet weekly under the auspices of an older, published literary name, to listen to each others’ work in progress and engage, not in criticism, but in conversation with each other.

The literary circle has more than its share of odd, and even frightening characters. There’s the hulking, almost silent giant, who work is painfully banal and whose very presence is menacing. There’s the subway train driver who is too shy to make eye contact, but dreams of making the people he glimpses on train platforms live as individuals through his words. Add in the rich divorcee for whom the literary circle is another attempt at self-improvement, and the overweight, blubber-lipped twenty-something geek, who likes to write because it allows him to become different people, and the elusive, wraith-like Angela, whose very appearance eludes description.

As the circle begins to operate, Patrick discovers that not only has he still not found his magical “way in” to his dreamed of novel, but his writing talent pales in comparison to Angela’s. Not only that, but people in his neighborhood start turning up dead; and folks in his literature circle begin to report strange stalking incidents. Rush believes his own home may be a target of the stalker.

THE KILLING CIRCLE has all the ingredients of a terrific murder mystery – even if many of these have already been used by other authors in other books. And Pyper is a skilled writer. But I felt oddly distant from all the characters peopling this book. Even Rush, the bereaved single father, who ends up both unemployed and later on a famous published author, seems oddly unrealized. For a single parent, Patrick Rush seems strangely unconcerned with both the daily nuts and bolts of fatherhood, and the normal concerns of any unemployed person with a mortgage to meet, grocery bills to pay, and childcare to arrange. Even his major moment of moral turpitude is strangely devoid of any real emotional turmoil. Considering he’s the novel’s protagonist, Patrick Rush seemed strangely removed from everything going on his life. Repeated questioning of his own sanity and observations don’t add the needed depth to this oddly incomplete character. Even an unreliable narrator should be interesting enough, real enough to keep the reader’s interest, but Patrick Rush seems more like a roughly drawn sketch than a fully realized human being. And the rest of the novel’s cast is equally obscure, when they’re not simple caricatures. There simply was no character in this novel whose fate I cared about.

So there you have it. This book has all the ingredients for a great thriller, but even the clever plot could not compensate for its one and two dimensional characters. The book reads much more like a screenplay than a fully fleshed out novel. I was not at all surprised to read that THE KILLING CIRCLE has already been optioned for a feature film. It will probably make a better movie than it did a novel. ( )

The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper is an ambiguous novel. The novel opens with Patrick Rush, a widowed father and successful novelist going to a drive-in movie with his eight year old son. When his son disappears, we learn of Patrick’s past, when he was still an aspiring author and joined a writer’s workshop called the Kensington Circle. After a woman goes missing in his neighborhood, he and the other attendees believe there is a connection between a story being written by one of the would-be authors and these crimes. Patrick struggles with his roles as widower, father, failing journalist and would be author. He must examine the darker workings of his own mind and his past in order to understand who has taken his son and why.

I really had a hard time getting into this novel. However, I don’t think it was the books fault, I think the failing was all mine. It is very well written, the narrative flows very well, the story is paced so to not give away anything and really keep the reader guessing. I think the problem was that I just couldn’t connect at all with the main character. I really didn’t like him very much. In fact I didn’t actually like anyone in the book, with the exception of Sam, Patrick’s son. I had a bit of trouble with Sam, I found him immensely likeable, but way too precocious for a kid his age. But I also understand that a boy raised from infancy by a single man, a reader, may just be that well spoken. I think I was supposed to like and empathize with Patrick, however, and I just couldn’t. Its hard to feel involved in a novel like this when there is a disconnect of sorts between the character and the reader.

I would like to find fault with the ending of the novel, it is quite ambiguous and could be taken two ways. But I actually thought that was the best part. It appeals to the Pollyanna nature of readers such as myself, we can assume a happy Hollywood ending, and yet it would also appeal to readers who prefer darker and more realistic endings.

I think I just wasn’t in the mood for this type of novel. This might have been a perfect read for a dreary stormy week, when after a long, cold, wet day, I could have curled up by the fireplace and read for hours. I can see how this book could have the ability to almost cast a spell over the reader at such times. Unfortunately, I was reading in the bright, hot and sunny dog days of summer, with lots of distractions. The atmosphere and mood just wasn’t right, and my enjoyment of the novel suffered because of it.

The Killing Circle will be released on Sept. 16, 2008 ( )