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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Murder Mystery With A Difference, 7 July 2004
This is a psychological thriller set in a mental hospital, and is told by a schizophrenic. Francis Xavier Petrel is a former patient of Western State Hospital and is writing down his memories of his time at the hospital after meeting another former patient and agreeing that certain incidents simply had to be revealed. Running true to his status as someone who is mentally ill, he chooses to write his story on the walls of his apartment. The story is essentially a murder investigation, but it's an investigation with a difference because it is run completely within the mental hospital raising all sorts of pitfalls and barriers. Trying to locate a suspected serial killer by pinpointing unusual behaviour is virtually impossible because everyone there is responsible for abnormal traits of one form or another. When the resident's routines are disrupted there is generally widespread emotional upheaval which puts everyone in the hospital under immense pressure. Interviewing witnesses is almost irrelevant with most of the patients either catatonic or delusional so that very little valuable information can be obtained. Together the three main characters conduct their investigation as best they can, hampered by the fact that one of them is known to be suffering schizophrenia and another has been arrested for murder and is being assessed on his sanity. This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill murder investigation. While the investigation continues with very little progress being made, the unthinkable realisation hits home...the killer, who is in all likelihood a serial killer, is still living in the hospital locked up with everyone else just biding his time and waiting to kill again. Yikes! Thanks to constant flashes forward to the present where we see the effects that reliving his memories has on Francis, we are given hints as to what is going to happen later on in the story. Rather than spoiling the story for me, it tended to create a tremendous feeling of anticipation, with just enough information being given out to create uncertainty about the direction the story will head next. The flashes to the present also revealed that Francis is becoming more unstable as he neglects his medication due to his single-minded determination to tell his story. In the end, he is in a race against his own mind to get his story out before madness completely engulfs him. John Katzenbach has once again produced an outstanding psychological thriller combining a terrifying murder investigation conducted under tight restrictions with the unusual but very interesting surroundings of a mental hospital. I was pulled completely into the story and found myself frantically choosing suspects and then discarding them in an effort to work out who the killer was.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"All my life, all I wanted was to be normal.", 1 July 2004
A most unusual "detective story," The Madman's Tale spools out from the memory of Francis X. Petrel, a delusional man in his 40s who is former mental patient. Known at the hospital to which he was once committed as "C-Bird," because of his last name, Francis reconnects, twenty years after his release, with Napoleon, another former patient at the hospital, who urges him to write about the murders that happened when they were both confined. Francis is not sure he can write about these events. "The trouble with being mad," he says, "was that it was real hard to tell what was true and what wasn't." Nevertheless, when he returns home, he discovers that the visit has "startled emotions within [him]." Lacking paper, he picks up his pencil and begins to cover the walls of his apartment with the story that becomes this novel.Author Katzenbach is convincing in his portrayal of Francis, both as the barely functioning 41-year-old narrator who still hears voices and sees visions, and as a 21-year-old patient, who, though mad, is not nearly as mad as many others in the hospital. When a nurse nicknamed Short Blond, is gruesomely murdered shortly after Francis arrives, a young prosecutor from Boston, Lucy Kyoto Jones, who was, herself, once the victim of a vicious crime, arrives at the hospital to investigate. Since she has no staff with her, she asks for help, and C-Bird's only friend, another inmate named Fireman, volunteers, believing his skills as an arson investigator could be useful. Francis also agrees to help. Soon two more murders occur. Katzenbach brings the chaos of the hospital to life, creating a powerful and affecting portrait of the lives of the mentally ill, and taking us inside the mind of Francis at two different stages of his life, twenty years apart. As Francis continues writing his story on the walls of his apartment, the reader hopes desperately that Francis will finish the story before the terrifying, satanic Angel he sees and the cacophony of voices he hears capture him and destroy him completely. Because the plot is often unrealistic, the well-drawn main characters take center stage. The sense of foreboding and palpable evil are strong, and Katzenbach's vibrant dialogue, eye for detail, ability to describe strange interactions within the hospital, and his unusual main character turn the traditional detective story on its head. (4.5 stars) Mary Whipple
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a gripping tale you cannot put down until the end, 26 July 2005
What would you do if you were a patient in a mental institution where somebody is methodically killing people, no one will believe you and you know that you will be the next victim?Francis Petrel (aka C-bird) is only 21 and has been placed into the institution by his family for being unstable. There he meets some characters whom become very close friends to C-bird even though the outside world may class them as 'loony', however, as the tale unfolds we grow to sympathise and care for them. A killer is very clever and he knows it. How can Francis and his friends find the killer before he keeps on killing? Who will believe that this is actually happening? Francis gives his account of what happened during his time at the hospital and the outcome of the murders. This story is unnerving, it is gripping and unputdownable. We love Francis, we are rooting for him and we hope that he survives. The characters grow on you and you become attached to them. I now must buy some more of the authors books because The Madmans Tale is such a great read. I had never heard of the author before but I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. If you like a thriller that keeps you turning the pages then this is the book for you.
And it just goes to show that just because you've been labelled crazy doesn't mean you are.
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