By Satu Sarkas-Bosman
Clay McLeod Chapman is known for his talent for weaving narratives of family, society, physical transformation, modern media and aspirations into wonderfully told tales of horror.
Bodies of Work, at a glance, could be mistaken for a conventional story about a serial killer and those who have the misfortune to be slayn by him.
Winston Kemper is a caretaker at his local church, a loner who makes those around him rather uncomfortable and uneasy.
Little do they know, Winston is an artist working on his Magnum Opus, the ‘Butterfly Girls’, and murdering women required to complete his vision. These women are addicts, escaping abuse or otherwise marginalised by society and forgotten by those who once knew them.
This book is written in an intriguing manner, Winston as the main protagonist is a complex character and his life is told in snippets, enabling us to truly see how the world around shaped him. The women’s voices as fragmented in death as they were in life. We feel how these women were forgotten whilst they were alive and now they again lose themselves and their stories in death. The author never reveals too much of their back stories, making us really feel how lost these women were.
However, once these erased women find their voice, it appears that Winston’s life’s work may not have the ending he envisioned. Clay McLeod Chapman invites you to contemplate the nuances of a serial killer who is haunted by his past and the power of the women he killed.
Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman is available now in various formats from Titan Books.
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