12/02/2005 1:39 PM
Posted by VeggieSteph

The Minus Man by Lew McCreary

As I look over my list of books read this year, The Minus Man is one of 10 books out of my 100 that is about a serial killer or multiple murderer. (I think I might have a fixation.) The book is a look into the mind of Vann Seigert, a quiet, unassuming drifter whose idea of a hobby is killing those he sees as lost and listless. You follow his train of thought, and even come to like him by the end.


Vann Seigert has just packed up his things and left the Oregon cabin where the seven rivers meet. He’s taken everything of value but the 13 bodies he’s left buried in the riverbank. All of them were lost souls, people he sees as ready and wanting to die. He drifts across the United States, picking people off as he goes. He is a compassionate killer, sending the people off to death by poisoned liquor. He eventually meanders to Massachusetts, where he settles down in the house of Jane and Doug, a postman and his housewife who are renting the room of their college-age daughter. Vann, being a loner, keeps to himself as much as he can, but he eventually ends up becoming a part of the town. He becomes somewhat begrudgingly involved with a young woman, and even gets a Holiday job as a postman. He doesn’t stop his side job, though. He dispatches the local football hero, and even thinks of offing his landlord’s daughter before the end. The end is eerie and fitting, and Vann ends up just as you would expect him to finish the story.

The Minus Man is a nice foil to Darkly Dreaming Dexter, a book I read earlier this year. Dexter is also a serial killer, but his story, also told in his point of view, is a bit more black comedy. Vann’s story is a bit lazy and quiet, like the babbling of the seven rivers he talks about in Chapter One. Dexter is methodical, but loud, like the flamboyant Hawaiian shirts he wears. Vann is as smooth as the poison he uses. He quietly brings you into his fold, reads your face, and decides whether or not to offer you his flask. You either fall asleep to your peaceful death, or you walk away from your encounter feeling all the better because of the smiling face of Vann Seigert.

There is a movie version of the book, also called The Minus Man. It’s worth checking out, if just to see Owen Wilson as Vann Seigert. He plays the part perfectly, and I see him in the role even more now that I have read the book.