- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Serpent's Tail (24 April 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1852429968
- ISBN-13: 978-1852429966
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 672,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"'This gripping psychological drama hooks the reader into a compelling labyrinth of sibling rivalry and stealthy passion. It is an intellectual novel of ideas written with real verve and style' Patricia Duncker"
Stevie Davies
`A profoundly original new writer. The Semantics of Murder leads us on a dark and thrilling quest through murderous spaces of the mind, in a prose of startling and inventive beauty'
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
When Jay opened his front door, Cora slunk past him down the hallway like a sleepwalker groping through a familiar terrain. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
When Jay opened his front door, Cora slunk past him down the hallway like a sleepwalker groping through a familiar terrain. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The dust jacket doesn't mention it, but this book is inspired by the unsolved murder of a famous mathematician professor in Los Angeles in 1971. For anyone who likes their fiction rooted in reality, this is the perfect novel. Jay Hamilton, the central character is a respected and successful psychoanalyst in London who left California after his brother was found murdered at his home in Beverly Hills. Both the brothers led double lives: Robert was a promiscuous gay with a penchant for crusing. Jay steals his patients stories and uses them in novels that he writes under a pseudonym. When Robert's biographer shows up in London with a new throry about his murder Jay finds that his carefully constructed life starts to unravel. The Sunday Business Post described this as as enthralling murder tale that keeps the reader guessing until the very end and I whole heartly agree. Check out the author website.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ever been in therapy? The central character in this novel, Jay Hamilton, is the stuff of nightmares - a psychoanalyst who moonlights as a best-selling novelist and uses his patient's histories to fuel his secret career. He preys on the emotionally wounded and is quite prepared to lead them to a bad end if that is what his story requires. As you might expect, it is Jay's own past that has made him the monster that he is. He grew up in California completely sidelined by his genius mathematician brother and this story of dysfunctional family as the seed bed for the sociopath is wonderfully evoked.
This book completely lives up to the rave reviews it has been getting in the Irish papers. Dark, intelligent and subversive. Sometimes heavy going. But it lingers.
This book completely lives up to the rave reviews it has been getting in the Irish papers. Dark, intelligent and subversive. Sometimes heavy going. But it lingers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of last year's big hits in literary crime was Rubenfeld's "The Interpretation of Murder," which I read with interest but found ultimately disappointing (see my review). So when a friend enthusiastically recommended "The Semantics of Murder" I was intrigued. This novel was inspired by the true story of an American professor who was murdered in Beverly Hills in 1971 although the killer was never found. Jay Hamilton, the younger brother of the dead professor, is a successful psychoanalyst in London and the central character in the book. But Jay is no ordinary analyst and his wealthy Kensington clients do not know that he is using their case histories in the best selling novels he writes under a pseudonym. When a biographer arrives with a new theory about his brother's murder, Jay finds himself drawn back to a painful past he has tried to put behind him and faces the possibility that his secret career might be exposed.The novel moves effortlessly between contemporary London and California in the 1950s and 60s. A must-read for anyone who enjoys a powerful combination of gripping plot and great style. You should visit the author's website on - it's the best book site I've ever seen.
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