Smaller And Smaller Circles

by F.H. Batacan

"In northeast Manila's Quezon City is a district called Payatas--a 50-acre dump that is home to thousands of people who live off of what they can scavenge there. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in a city whose law enforcement is already stretched thin, devoid of forensic resources and rife with corruption. So when the eviscerated bodies of teenage boys begin to appear in the dump heaps, there is no one to seek justice on their behalf. In the rainy summer of 1997, two Jesuit priests take the matter of protecting their flock into their own hands. Father Gus Saenz has been a priest for three decades, but he is also a respected forensic anthropologist, one of the few in the Philippines, and has been tapped by the Director of the National Bureau of Investigations as a backup for police efforts. Together with his protege, Father Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, Saenz dedicates himself to tracking down the monster preying on these impoverished boys. Cited as the first Filipino crime novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles is a poetic masterpiece of literary noir, a sensitive depiction of a time and place, and fascinating story about the Catholic Church and its place in its devotees' lives and communities"--

• ISBN10: 1616955279
• ISBN13: 9781616955274
• Publish Date: 10 September 2015 (first published 18 August 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 25 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Soho Press Inc
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 360
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jyc]

★★★★ // page-turner. a detective thriller that comes with a lens on the poverty situation in the Philippines, as well as a commentary on the crime investigation system in the country. shows that even the holiest can be just as corrupt as any politician out there. the next time someone tells you that there will never be a better bromance than Sherlock and Watson, say these names: Father Gus Saenz and Father Jerome Lucero. i have to admit, though, that i didn't quite like the ending.