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![[Dark Specter]]( ../images/darkspecter.gif)
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It has happened in every city in this country-a brutal random murder occurs without apparent motive. The community is shocked, but the police have no solid leads. The victims do not fit any of the common causes of violent death: domestic violence, drug use, or gang membership. It was as if a malevolent god reached out and snuffed out a life. Then, after it has had its 15 minutes of media coverage, the case gathers dust as fresh crimes are committed.
The advantage of being a writer is that it allows you to make sense of this violence. You can sit back and close your eyes and play the game of "What if . . . ?".
For example, what if the murders are being carried out by the acolytes of a charismatic cult leader, who is a mixture of Charles Manson and David Koresh, and who finds divine inspiration in the poetry of William Blake? What if he was your old college roommate?
You haven't seen him for 20 years, and the all-night bull sessions, fueled by drugs and beer, are now a dim memory. Then one day he appears at your door, and your life changes forever. Soon afterward everything that you hold dear is taken from you. With nothing left you find yourself drawn to his remote island off the coast of Washington state, and it is there that you learn of his terrible secret. But by then it is too late.
Michael Dibdin has done a superb job of linking seemingly unrelated events into a terrifying conclusion. In addition, he gives a human face to this madness with a cast of memorable charactersÑvictims, killers, and cops-which he deftly creates with just a few well-chosen words.
By the time I finished Dark Specter, the idea of random violence without any meaning was preferable to the alternative: a madman planning scores of murders just to settle a philosophical argument.
Gary Crawford is a writer in Humble, Texas.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.