The Four Last Things

By: Andrew Taylor

Narrated by: Ric Jerrom

Little Lucy Appleyard is snatched from her child minder's on a cold winter afternoon, and the nightmare begins. It is as if the child had disappeared into a black hole with no clues to her whereabouts...until the first grisly discovery in a London graveyard. More such finds are to follow, all at religious sites. In a city haunted by religion, what do these offerings signify?©1997 Andrew Taylor (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

A facinating look at an ugly subject

This is my first book review. My decision to finally get involved in passing on my opinion on this book is prompted by the other reviewer’s comments on the quality of the writing and more particularly the purported graphic content of this book and the ugliness of its portrayal.

I would suggest that there is no way that an author can portray the essential brutality of child abduction in an enjoyably way. Rather as this author conveys it is heart wrenching and we would hope that the cruelty of the act it’s self is beyond the pail of normal human behaviour.

There is in-fact very little gore. However the author does delve into the deviant mind of what we assume to be a paedophilic character. The author does not sanction his characters behaviour by indulging in the lurid sensationalism one would find in Pulp Fiction. Much in this book is left to the imagination.

I will purchase the other books in this series. As I’m interested in seeing how this series extends backwards in time casting light on the routs of child abuse.

For the reality of child abduction, I suggest that the reviewer, who rated this book so poorly, reads or listens to ‘The Jigsaw Man’ the autobiography of Paul Britton. Particularly focus on the Jamie Bulger abduction for a real portrayal of the ugly side of human nature.

Draws you in like a nightmare

Every parent's nightmare is that their child is abducted. This novel gives us two points of view on that horrific scenario: that of the mother and the abductor. But this isn't the usual inside-the-head-of-a-psychopath rendering. Eddie, the abductor, has "issues", but one could argue that he truly means no harm. Sally, the mom, also has issues; with her vocation, her husband, herself, her daughter. It's a complex story of two emotionally fragile people. There is indeed a twist at the end. Although it's clear early enough who is the real perpetrator of terror, the why is the tease and then the twist. Fortunately this author doesn't belabor the point and only gives you enough to make you wonder at what a small world it really is. I enjoyed the narrator very much, although there were many times when he dropped his voice a bit too low. Otherwise, his soft vocals added to the reflectiveness of this novel and I was never confused by which character was speaking. Overall, I really enjoyed this. It was the second time I listened to the novel. Yes, it's creepy but not it's not gratuitous.

Great!

Creepy, true, but also a great story. Each character is so well developed. And the narrator is fantastic. I really liked it and can't wait to listen to the next book by Andrew Taylor.

Background noise

Great story and voice acting, but so many other voices persisted in the background that it was difficult to listen to on headphones. A little disappointing.

Disappointing

First of all, the narrator badly needed to be equalized. It was like he muttered under his breath half the time, which is audible when wearing noise-cancelling headphones, but anything else -- and especially in a car -- you had to keep moving the volume control up and down.

Second of all, the only developed character was one of the two antagonists. The parts of the book done in the voice of the protagonist were whiny, repetitive, and annoying. And, is this supposed to be part of a series? because when aspects of the story did get interesting (e.g., backstory on the husband and his godfather and the second antagonist), those tantalizing bits never did get resolved.

All in all, a disappointing book.

Well Read - I just didn't like the book.

I'm not a squeamish person, I like blood and gore in the right setting (for instance, one of my favorite movies is Pulp Fiction), but this story of child abduction and molestation just was not enjoyable in any way.

I have read other books with similar settings, and they treated the situation in a way that made it suspenseful without being ugly. For some reason, this book was ugly.

None of the characters were very likeable. The child was nice, but never really fleshed out enough. All the other characters, even the protagonists, were just cardboard cutouts.

The writer tried to give each a complex personality, but their failings made them look not more human, but simply stupid, selfish and ignorant.