Smaller and Smaller Circles

Name: Smaller and Smaller Circles
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: F.H. Batacan
ISBN: 9781490684437

Author: F.H. Batacan

Narrator: Ramón de Ocampo

Unabridged: 10 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 08/18/2015

Categories: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, International Crime & Mystery, Christian Fiction, Crime

Synopsis

This harrowing mystery, winner of the Philippine National Book Award, follows two Catholic priests on the hunt through Manila for a brutal serial killer Payatas, a 50-acre dump northeast of Manila's Quezon City, is home to thousands of people who live off of what they can scavenge there. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in a city whose law enforcement is already stretched thin, devoid of forensic resources and rife with corruption. So when the eviscerated bodies of preteen boys begin to appear in the dump heaps, there is no one to seek justice on their behalf. In the rainy summer of 1997, two Jesuit priests take the matter of protecting their flock into their own hands. Father Gus Saenz is a respected forensic anthropologist, one of the few in the Philippines, and has been tapped by the Director of the National Bureau of Investigations as a backup for police efforts. Together with his protege, Father Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, Saenz dedicates himself to tracking down the monster preying on these impoverished boys. Smaller and Smaller Circles, widely regarded as the first Filipino crime novel, is a poetic masterpiece of literary noir, a sensitive depiction of a time and place, and a fascinating story about the Catholic Church and its place in its devotees' lives

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jr on February 12, 2017

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, I’m sure we’ve all heard of this overused line. However in my country, sadly, this is to be taken literally. There are people who depend on trash as their main source of income. A sad reality where both adults and kids usually go through the dumps and scave......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth (Alaska) on May 17, 2019

This was definitely more thriller than mystery. I don't make much time for thrillers because I find myself with other things in front of me, so this was a rather huge departure from my usual fare. The priests are in a race to find the serial killer before he kills again. The murders are rather grisl......more

Goodreads review by Rincey on December 24, 2015

Maybe it is because I really was in the mood for a mystery/thriller or maybe it is because I reached the epic ending of the book the night of a thunderstorm, but man that was a good book. Definitely some unevenness and shows the signs of being a debut novel, but still really good. Watch my full revi......more

Goodreads review by O on February 10, 2017

Smaller and Smaller Circles is one of those rare one-of-a-kind books that you discover by some lucky stroke of fate and treasure for a lifetime. This probably sounds like an exaggeration, but it's certainly true for me because: 1. It's written by a Filipino author. We don't exactly have a bazillion au......more

Goodreads review by Nemo ☠️ (pagesandprozac) on January 31, 2023

This month has accidentally been the month of East/South East Asian books for me, and they've all been SO good so far (except you, Launch Something!, but we don't talk about you) and this one is no exception. Smaller and Smaller Circles might be one of my favourite crime novels. It's not really a mys......more