Show of Evil : The Chilling Sequel of Primal Fear

I was pretty excited to finally get hold of the sequel to Primal Fear but that joy lasted just till I started reading it.Those of you who have read the book and watched the movie will concur with me that the book was brilliant compared to the movie (I still cannot put the soft face of Gere against the fiery Vail, but yeah! no one besides Edward Norton could have played the role of Aaron Stampler to the T).

A quick recap of the prequel: Stampler, an altar boy, is arrested for the heinous murder of an archbishop. Martin Vail is assigned to be his attorney, while Jane Venable is the prosecutor. During the course of the trial, Vail discovers that Stampler is guilty of more than one murder and may be a victim of MPD. He wins the case citing that Aaron’s alter ego Ray was responsible for the gory murders and gets him institutionalized. But there’s a twist! You’ll have to read the book to find out what it is. A brilliant thriller that’s a page-turner all the way!

Coming back to its sequel: A series of murders following the same MO of Stampler’s. Is it the handiwork of a copycat killer cos Stampler is still behind high-security asylum or is he orchestrating the crimes from there? Martin Vail suspects Stampler and sniffs his way thru the bloody trail to find the killers. Is Stampler the murderer? Find out from the sequel.

Verdict: Good if not brilliant. Not necessary to read the prequel as this book contains vital extracts from Primal Fear that the reader can more or less figure the original story.After completing a few hundred pages, the book becomes very predictable. No hats off to you for predicting the end.

While the author, William Diehl, concentrated only on one subject, Aaron Stampler, in his previous work, there is more than one trial case, thanks to Vail being promoted as the acting DA, that the reader has to digress several times thus losing the drift. The Stafford case is one such example.

Apart from that, readers can look forward to a blossoming romance between the once cat-and-dog enemies Vail and Venable. There’s also another important character surfacing from the prequel, which I might add was the worst twist that the author could have introduced.

I dunno if I have upgraded as a reader or if Diehl has downgraded as a writer cos this books lacks that special ingredient that made reading Primal Fear a truly bone-chilling experience.