Equation for Evil: A Novel - Hardcover

Caputo, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060183608 ISBN 13: 9780060183608

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1996

Synopsis

After a lone gunman opens fire on a busload of Asian-American children and then kills himself, forensic psychiatrist Leander Heartwood and police officer Gabriel Chin investigate the crime, a probe that takes them into the dark underside of contemporary society. 50,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

About this title

Reviews

The avidly read Caputo's latest novel is a troubling but nonetheless engrossing story very much of our time. Although the plot is not grabbed literally from today's violence-laden headlines, it echoes shades of this case and tones of that one, from the Oklahoma City bombing to the recent assassination of the Israeli prime minister. Duane Boggs awakens "early on what he hoped would be the last day of his life" ; later that morning, he opens fire on a San Joaquin, California, school bus full of kids on a field trip, killing 14 of them, and his own death wish is fulfilled in the process. The "school bus massacre case" horrifies the nation, especially with its racial overtones (most of the victims were Vietnamese or Cambodian). To determine what caused this particular incident--and, in broader terms, what causes these kinds of atrocious events--state officials decide to team a forensic psychiatrist with an agent of the California department of justice and assign them to arrive at a "psychological autopsy" of the alleged perpetrator. Such a project demands that the two men confront personal issues as well as social ones as they close in on the evidence of how violent rhetoric can lead to violent behavior. Brad Hooper

Duane Boggs ambushes a schoolbus of Asian American children who are on a field trip in California, then turns the gun on himself. Three days later the California state attorney assigns forensic psychiatrist Leander Heartwood and special agent Gabriel Chin to investigate the case and perform a psychiatric autopsy to determine Boggs's motives. What begins as a psychiatric inquiry quickly takes on the guise of a criminal investigation as incriminating evidence begins to indicate the possibility of an accomplice. Caputo (A Rumor of War, LJ 5/15/77) combines elements of a psychological thriller and police procedural in a novel that explores the issue of racial violence in considerable depth. The result is another riveting novel by one of America's master storytellers. Recommended for most libraries.
-?Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060183608
• ISBN 13: 9780060183608
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496