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"Mortal."
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“And finding and catching the bad guy was what Gibson was best at.”
Forum, North Dakota, is a town that is “having its heart ripped right on out”. Michael Murphy receives a dark confession from a single mother at his church in the heart of town, causing him to question his faith. The discovery of a young man’s butchered remains sends Sheriff Bigelow, along with FBI agent Gibson, on a wicked game of cat and mouse to catch a psychotic killer. A murder-suicide leaves Lydia Hanson a grieving widow in the eyes of the town, and all eyes are on her in more ways than one in this “Mortal” tale of depravity.
Forum, North Dakota, is a town that is “having its heart ripped right on out”. Michael Murphy receives a dark confession from a single mother at his church in the heart of town, causing him to question his faith. The discovery of a young man’s butchered remains sends Sheriff Bigelow, along with FBI agent Gibson, on a wicked game of cat and mouse to catch a psychotic killer. A murder-suicide leaves Lydia Hanson a grieving widow in the eyes of the town, and all eyes are on her in more ways than one in this “Mortal” tale of depravity.
Readability
The writing has decent syntax, which made the occasional typo easy enough to manage. Structurally the story felt kind of fat around the midsection which made it feel sluggish at times, with long drawn out introductions for characters that were largely irrelevant. The story has a pretty clear intro and ending (albeit rushed), but it was all the stuff crammed in between that left me wondering why Hart decided to include certain characters in the plotline.
Creativity
Regardless of plot relevance, Hart displays an ability to flesh out characters (albeit nasty ones) in “Mortal”; with the exception of only a couple instances, like the steam room slut and the gay lover, which I believe play more of a psychological role in the story. I think those characters in particular were more like a physical form of projection upon the main character’s insecurities, but I could be reading into that much deeper than what is warranted.
Delivery
This story is very telling but at the same time it leaves much to be desired in terms of the amount of plot holes. The motivation for Lydia's first psychotic episode was due to her fears of her reputation being tarnished, but yet the murder-suicide was all over the news which means it was no secret. How did killing the teacher help a little girl “make the grade”? I guess it doesn’t matter if she was planning on moving anyway. For the sake of character “development”, I was willing to overlook that scene and just take it for face value. However Gibson’s character is advertised as being such a good investigator, but fails to investigate the stranger loading trash bags into the trunk of a car, at the school, after hours, because he didn’t “feel” like it. Imagine being so good at your job, that you don't actually have to do it if you're not feeling up to it. I would have thought the climax was going to be the strongest part of the story, given the sheer amount of eroticism contained in the book, but let’s put it this way… there won't be a second date in this regard. All that work put into building Agent Gibson up as the closest thing to being a competent character in the book, that didn’t behave like a pervert or a pubescent teenage boy, just for him to throw away all logic and get snuffed without even putting up a fight. BLAH! The plot holes continue...
The priest was aware of crimes being committed among his congregation but he didn’t share anything with Sheriff Bigelow, because he wanted to fuck her? Apparently Lydia’s narcissistic beauty is so intoxicating to the Father Murphy that he rejects his oath on a whim and falls into an ignorant stupor. Remember that time when Bishop Deegan visited Father Murphy? Yeah, so much for sticking around to see what unfolds. If he had, then perhaps he would have been there when Murphy was experiencing a heart attack in the confessional booth, due to the overwhelming terror of a machete wielding psychopath in his church.
Remember when Willie didn’t want his reign on the world to be a short one? I guess he just conveniently had a change of heart when deciding to take the fall for someone who not only double crossed him, but he never even met! I would have assumed he’d be angry about that to say the least, which could have led to him becoming a formidable adversary later in the series, but nope… he decides to self-flagellate by taking blame for every crime that transpired throughout the book (even though evidence would've suggest otherwise), due to a delusional male fantasy he has about this killer he never met but assumes is a female. It will be hard to realize that relationship when he’s spending the rest of his life in prison for crimes he didn't commit, though. If this isn't a better love story than "Twilight", then I'd say it's a close second. Give me a break.
The writing has decent syntax, which made the occasional typo easy enough to manage. Structurally the story felt kind of fat around the midsection which made it feel sluggish at times, with long drawn out introductions for characters that were largely irrelevant. The story has a pretty clear intro and ending (albeit rushed), but it was all the stuff crammed in between that left me wondering why Hart decided to include certain characters in the plotline.
Creativity
Regardless of plot relevance, Hart displays an ability to flesh out characters (albeit nasty ones) in “Mortal”; with the exception of only a couple instances, like the steam room slut and the gay lover, which I believe play more of a psychological role in the story. I think those characters in particular were more like a physical form of projection upon the main character’s insecurities, but I could be reading into that much deeper than what is warranted.
Delivery
This story is very telling but at the same time it leaves much to be desired in terms of the amount of plot holes. The motivation for Lydia's first psychotic episode was due to her fears of her reputation being tarnished, but yet the murder-suicide was all over the news which means it was no secret. How did killing the teacher help a little girl “make the grade”? I guess it doesn’t matter if she was planning on moving anyway. For the sake of character “development”, I was willing to overlook that scene and just take it for face value. However Gibson’s character is advertised as being such a good investigator, but fails to investigate the stranger loading trash bags into the trunk of a car, at the school, after hours, because he didn’t “feel” like it. Imagine being so good at your job, that you don't actually have to do it if you're not feeling up to it. I would have thought the climax was going to be the strongest part of the story, given the sheer amount of eroticism contained in the book, but let’s put it this way… there won't be a second date in this regard. All that work put into building Agent Gibson up as the closest thing to being a competent character in the book, that didn’t behave like a pervert or a pubescent teenage boy, just for him to throw away all logic and get snuffed without even putting up a fight. BLAH! The plot holes continue...
The priest was aware of crimes being committed among his congregation but he didn’t share anything with Sheriff Bigelow, because he wanted to fuck her? Apparently Lydia’s narcissistic beauty is so intoxicating to the Father Murphy that he rejects his oath on a whim and falls into an ignorant stupor. Remember that time when Bishop Deegan visited Father Murphy? Yeah, so much for sticking around to see what unfolds. If he had, then perhaps he would have been there when Murphy was experiencing a heart attack in the confessional booth, due to the overwhelming terror of a machete wielding psychopath in his church.
Remember when Willie didn’t want his reign on the world to be a short one? I guess he just conveniently had a change of heart when deciding to take the fall for someone who not only double crossed him, but he never even met! I would have assumed he’d be angry about that to say the least, which could have led to him becoming a formidable adversary later in the series, but nope… he decides to self-flagellate by taking blame for every crime that transpired throughout the book (even though evidence would've suggest otherwise), due to a delusional male fantasy he has about this killer he never met but assumes is a female. It will be hard to realize that relationship when he’s spending the rest of his life in prison for crimes he didn't commit, though. If this isn't a better love story than "Twilight", then I'd say it's a close second. Give me a break.
#LFLR Indie Rating: 3/10
I have a couple different takes on “Mortal” as a story, one for the narrative itself and the other for the experience. The narrative takes on a nihilistic premise that aims to illustrate how depraved human beings can be, and that those human beings could be anybody. They could even be the individuals that you trust most within your own community! That aspect of the story wasn’t bad, and maybe Hart expands on that chilling premise more creatively in the other two books from the series. In this book however, the idea is presented as a schlocky pornographic slasher that contains many inconsistencies. That’s not my thing, but it had its moments that I found genuinely entertaining nonetheless.
I have a couple different takes on “Mortal” as a story, one for the narrative itself and the other for the experience. The narrative takes on a nihilistic premise that aims to illustrate how depraved human beings can be, and that those human beings could be anybody. They could even be the individuals that you trust most within your own community! That aspect of the story wasn’t bad, and maybe Hart expands on that chilling premise more creatively in the other two books from the series. In this book however, the idea is presented as a schlocky pornographic slasher that contains many inconsistencies. That’s not my thing, but it had its moments that I found genuinely entertaining nonetheless.
THIS BREAKDOWN IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE #LFLR NETWORK.
