Letters to the Purple Satin Killer

Chaplinsky (The Paradox Twins) revises and expands his 2015 short story of the same name in this implausible horror novel recounting the life of a serial killer through a series of letters he receives in prison. Jonas Williker, “one of the most sadistic serial murderers of the modern era,” raped and murdered 24 women in five states, and was dubbed the Purple Satin Killer for his hallmark, “a torn piece of fabric found on or inside the bodies of his victims.” After his arrest in 2004, numerous people write to Williker, including his mother and the cop who unknowingly let him get away years earlier. Chaplinsky makes suspending disbelief difficult early on with the details of Williker’s “audacious” first murder: “Both her mouth and anus [were] stuffed with the soon-to-be eponymous cloth. When the coroner attempted to remove it, he discovered the two pieces were opposite ends of a single length, measuring over 30 yards.” The identities of the letter writers are also frequently unlikely; for example, there’s no logical reason why a former politician whose campaign Williker worked on would dignify Williker’s request for him to be a character witness. These instances undermine Chaplinsky’s attempt to make this read like true crime, complete with a foreword by a fictional FBI profiler. More is decidedly less here. (Aug.)