markm reviewed Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
Review of 'Hawksmoor' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This novel is in the form of two plot-poor stories separated in time. One is that of the fictional architect, Nicholas Dyer, who was both responsible for designing seven London East End Queen Anne churches and a serial killer with a peculiar mystic religion of his own, and the other is a modern doppelgänger-like detective named Nicholas Hawksmoor who is investigating a series of murders occurring at these same churches. The novel alternates between these narratives and progresses with the physical and mental deterioration of both characters. The writing is darkly atmospheric, cynical, horrific and dream-like. It is handled very well with Dyer’s dialogue apparently modeled on that of Samuel Pepys. I found the novel riveting, but ultimately somewhat unsatisfying since it is not an actual detective story, and the resolution seemed vague. In a 1989 interview in Bomb magazine, as quoted in the Wikipedia article, the author said, The …
This novel is in the form of two plot-poor stories separated in time. One is that of the fictional architect, Nicholas Dyer, who was both responsible for designing seven London East End Queen Anne churches and a serial killer with a peculiar mystic religion of his own, and the other is a modern doppelgänger-like detective named Nicholas Hawksmoor who is investigating a series of murders occurring at these same churches. The novel alternates between these narratives and progresses with the physical and mental deterioration of both characters. The writing is darkly atmospheric, cynical, horrific and dream-like. It is handled very well with Dyer’s dialogue apparently modeled on that of Samuel Pepys. I found the novel riveting, but ultimately somewhat unsatisfying since it is not an actual detective story, and the resolution seemed vague. In a 1989 interview in Bomb magazine, as quoted in the Wikipedia article, the author said, The modern sections are weak, not in terms of language, but weak in terms of those old-fashioned characteristics of plot, action, character, story.
I looked up these churches and they are quite impressive massive-appearing structures. I presume that they were not built using human sacrifice. The churches were actually designed by an architect named Nicholas Hawksmoor. One of the churches in the novel, Little St. Hugh, is fictional, although Little Saint Hugh was an actual 9-year-old boy whose murder in 1255 was called a ritual child murder and attributed to the Jews by King Henry III and the Bishop of Lincoln.