Killer by Nature by Jan Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars A Radio Drama of UK Serial Killers, Forensic Psychologists, and Police I should say up front that I’d have never listened to a serial killer crime suspense story if it weren’t one of the “Audible Originals” Audible was giving free to members. So I’m not the proper audience for this kind of thing. That said… Killer By Nature (2017) by Jan Smith (produced and directed by David Darlington, who also did the music and “sound design”) is a contemporary serial killer “radio” drama, complete with chirpy bassy techno music introducing and ending the ten “episodes,” sound effects, a cast of voice actors playing the different characters. The 4.5-hour story is set in Northumberland in the UK and centers on forensic psychologist Diane Buckley, who has left the police force to start her own business with a partner/friend Carol Hawkes. Buckley is invited back into police work by her former colleague, DI Bill Winterman, who has been assigned to deal with a recent murder committed with the same MO (postmortem bifurcated tongues) as those committed by convicted serial killer Alfred Dinklage at least ten years ago. The problem is that Dinklage has been in solitary confinement for ten years, so there is no way he could have committed the murder. Right? So, are the police dealing with a copycat killer? Or was Dinklage innocent ten years ago, and the real killer has resumed his handiwork now? Buckley has just given Dinklage an assessment test because he stabbed his former psychiatrist with a sharpened plastic spoon, and the result of the test indicates that he’s “a cat pretending to be a mouse” and should be transferred to a more secure facility asap. He does have the unnerving habit of murmur-crooning creepy nursery rhymes. An interesting wrinkle to the story is that Buckley has two teenaged kids, a boy and a girl, and her intelligent, friendless, manipulative, lying, detached, moody daughter Megan is showing signs of being a potential serial killer without Buckley being at all aware of it, despite her profession--or because of how busy it keeps her. Another character of interest is Buckley’s young, rookie forensic psychologist Tice (Tyce?) Wilberforce, who has a mentally disabled brother to whom he reads fairy stories and who ranges from wondering how Buckley can handle knowing the worst that human beings are capable of and thinking of quitting to wanting to be given more responsibility with a particular case. Being a radioesque drama without any narration, it sometimes takes a moment to ground oneself when a new scene opens, because each new place and situation is conveyed by characters mentioning names and settings in conversation. But it’s done well enough. The actors are fine, with Rob James-Collier (Thomas on Downton Abbey) playing a suitably creepy psychopath, and the others fleshing out their roles within the constraints of the medium. There is one poor performance, fortunately a minor one without much “screen” time, the actress responsible for the “American” expert promoting an experimental facility for the treatment of youthful psychopaths, because she sounds like an ersatz American voiced by a British actress who can’t quite get the accent right and who says “Americanisms” like “super” in an unbelievably smarmy voice. The story itself has some interesting aspects regarding psychopaths, like how some of them are able to channel their drives into productive careers in law, science, and politics, etc. And is Alfred Dinklage really a psychopath or is he something else? And does psychopathy run in the family? But as the drama progressed, I began experiencing flashes of loss of suspension of belief and becoming irritated by the actions and inactions of the characters, like Buckley regarding the case, Megan, and Wilberforce, or Carol Hawkes regarding Buckley. Not to mention the many instances of plot contrivance via people not answering their phones at crucial times. There are also some corny lines, like when Winterman’s police superior says something to the effect of, “Our ship is so leaky it’s practically a submarine” (cause the media keeps getting top secret case info). And the denouement is a bit rushed and unconvincing given the buildup. And I finally didn’t care for most of the characters. Nonetheless, I suppose that fans of suspense thriller serial killer audiodramas set in contemporary England would probably like this one. View all my reviews
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