Hi everyone.
I'm Rincey and this is Rincey Reads.
Today I'm going to be doing a book review
on Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H.
Batacan.
Hopefully I pronounced her name correctly.
This is a book that was originally published
in the Philippines and then it was translated
into English.
It also won the Philippine National Book Award.
And it is considered one of Philippines' first
mystery books that's ever been written.
The story takes place in the Philippines in
the late 1990s.
And what is happening is there are these young
boys who are showing up at this garbage dump
completely mutilated.
Their faces are cut off and their hearts have
been removed from their bodies.
So this is clearly a murderer who has some
deep psychological issues.
But this is all taking place in one of the
poorer towns in the Philippines, outside of
Manila, so it isn't getting as much attention
as it should be.
But then at some point the police realize
that there is a pattern happening here and
they enlist these two Jesuit priests to help
them out with the case.
The first priest is Father Gus who is a forensic
anthropologist.
He has actually worked with the police before,
consulted with them and helped them on some
previous cases.
He is hired as a consultant to help out with
this case as well.
And then his partner is Father Jerome who
is a psychologist who, you know, helps him
out on that side of the case as well.
Father Gus and Father Jerome work at a university.
There's a lot of different storylines happening
in here whether it be their work at the university,
you know, needing funding, the politics that
go along with being a priest in Philippines
during this time.
This is also during the time when the scandals
about priests abusing young boys were starting
to come out and so there's a little bit of
that happening in here, discussing the church's
power within this country and discussing about
their place within politics and justice and
things like that.
But at the same time this is also just like
a straight up mystery book and it's a really,
really strong mystery.
I think I read this in maybe 2 days because
I was just so gripped by the story.
I found the main characters, Father Gus and
Father Jerome, to be really enjoyable and
likeable.
They are very much people who advocate for
justice and doing the right thing and things
like that, the way that every hero should.
One of the things I liked best about this
book is that the mystery is not extremely
straight forward.
I feel like you are following the mystery
the way that the detectives are following
the mystery or the way that the priests are
following the mystery.
There's no extra hints or anything like that
given to the audience which I find more enjoyable.
But this also isn't written like a whodunit.
Like you don't have to wait until the last
chapter to figure out what's going on.
I would say by like the 70, 75% mark of this
book you know who did it and then the last
part of this book is about trying to catch
them before they hurt anybody else.
And also trying to catch them in a way when
they have enough proof so that they can actually
prosecute them.
There's also a lot of really interesting discussion
going on in this book about the Philippines
and their justice system and the way that
their police work goes.
They talk about how the filing and just the
information available to the police in the
Philippines is not quite like the United States.
You know, there's this idea in the United
States that if you, you know, leave a fingerprint
somewhere they can run that fingerprint and
figure out who you are.
There's like this major database with all
this information.
But the Philippines, at least at this time,
didn't have anything like that so a lot of
the police work that's done in here is more
old school, less emphasis on the science-y
side.
Although there is a little bit of that because
the one priest is a forensic anthropologist.
I also like that there is a little bit of
explanation from the killer's point of view.
So, while, you know, obviously this is not
an OK thing to be doing, you do get to understand
why the killer is doing those things, which
is something that I always really like.
This book also is a little bit on the darker
side so if you're someone who is slightly
squeamish or doesn't really like darker mysteries,
then I probably would not recommend this book.
But if you're someone who likes things a little
bit darker, a little bit more creepier, this
might be a good one to pick up.
But I will say it's not like super creepy
or super scary or anything like that because
I have no tolerance for those things.
I probably would've put the book down if it
got too weird.
But this one is just weird enough that it
made it feel creepy without it getting too
creepy that I couldn't handle it.
So yeah, in the end I gave this book a 4 out
5 stars.
I really enjoyed it.
I highly recommend it if you are someone who
likes, again, darker mystery books.
And this is definitely going to be an author
that I will be keeping my eye on to see if
she releases anymore books because I thoroughly
enjoyed this one.
And I actually kind of hope that she continues
on and makes this like a series where we continue
to follow these priests as they solve mysteries
throughout the Philippines.
So yeah, if you've read Smaller and Smaller
Circles definitely leave a comment down below.
I'd love to talk more about this book with
other people.
Or if you have any questions about the book,
feel free to leave that down in the comment
section as well.
So yeah, that's all I have for now and thanks
for watching.
