i poisoned you

After his brother drunkenly confesses that he thinks his own girlfriend has taken a lover, Aldous Kline decides to investigate whether there is any basis for the suspicion.

What begins as an evening of detached voyeurism--following the girl from her work to her apartment to a study date to a late meal--descends into macabre possessiveness as Aldous becomes lost to the amoral whims of his own latent obsession.

I really got into this book. So much so that I would stop reading only to stare into the nothingness of the air around me in a futile attempt to wade through the layers of what the main character was thinking. I'm certain I only grazed the surface. Hell, I only tickled the surface.

I was engrossed by the imagery, and my imagination stirred the memories of Marv from Sin City. His voice echoed the words on the paper.

With Bertram's single intoxicated utterance, Aldous finds himself on a disastrous path as he commits himself to discover if there is any truth to the believed infidelity of his brother's girlfriend. The curiosity then evolves as Aldous's perceptions of Lecia are altered and a descent into madness ensues.

A descent, I personally found too swift.

I would have liked to linger a while in the suspense of whether or not Lecia had been unfaithful. While it's certainly not the focus of the story, that being a man's transition and the mental snap that brings it about, it was the obsession that kept me enthralled.

I was intrigued by the author's ability to take on a constant flow of thoughts with the many probable and improbable possibilities. There was little emotion from Aldous, if any at all. No humanity. No compassion. I often mentally paused, taken note of all of the evidence Aldous was leaving behind. No cop, no detective, would ever correctly deduce the motive this killer held for there was none. His acts came out of madness and whatever proverbial screw was knocked loose at his brother's halfhearted words.

I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the journey. The depth of the human mind is endless, and as always, I take heart in visiting the darkest of the shadows there.

My deep felt thanks to the author.

The clothes were casual, dumpy, well worn, nothing done up about them, but this is something I generally found attractive, and the combination of it and her way of carrying herself—unselfconscious, lost to her purpose—riveting. I realized it was odd to think this is what she put on to meet with some guy. It would turn me on—a woman like her making advances, coming onto me, even getting things started fully clothed in such a way—but it was abnormal, a quirk of mine.

A well thought out story that delves into the machinations of the human mind.