Perfection by Marc Berrenson

It’s time for another in my least popular review genres, the 90’s serial killer thriller!

Perfection is Marc Berrenson’s first novel, though there isn’t a clear list online so I may be wrong and

some of his other books look to have come out the same year. So…I don’t know man.

Marc Berrenson is/was a criminal defense attorney in LA who wrote crime thrillers when he wasn’t getting killers off for murder. HA! But I mean, maybe?

Anywho.

We start on the dirty LA streets. A hooker is picked up by a John. But not just any John, the slasher. A serial killer cutting up hookers and leaving most of their body parts to be found by the cops. Homicide Detective Tim Flannigan is assigned the case.

He’s a veteran in homicide and has seen his share of brutal killings. He also has a son that was killed through his own negligence. So, Tim is a moody sad bastard. He’s not a drunken binge drinking Matt Scudder or anything, but he does mope a little.

He reconnects with an old prostitute friend/girlfriend of his that him and his partner used to bang. She doesn’t have much info to give him but hey, it’s nice to catch up, right?

Well, it was. Until she happens to be the next victim of the slasher. AND NOW IT’S PERSONAL.

Cut to the perspective of crooked rich TV evangelist Buford Millay. He’s slimy and slick, taking all the true believin’ fools money. He’s very popular and is about to take steps into politics. He has a shitty family of a drunk wife and a spoiled rich kid twisted son.

But surprise one night in lockup a male prostitute high on PCP, dressed as a woman, starts babbling about the preacher being connected to the slasher. No one pays attention until they learn that he is actually the other son of Buford Millay.

Flannigan starts investigating the Millays and you can guess where it heads from there.

There isn’t really any mystery. There is a slight killer reveal (to us- not the cops) pretty close to the beginning so it’s more of a cat and mouse game with Flannigan and the slasher.

The characters were interesting. Millay is a perfect piece of money-grubbing shit. A hypocritical oaf huckster with a questionable past. The back story of Flannigan is kind of whatever. It didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of the plot and was more about just giving the guy some flavor. Quite a few positive female characters so that’s nice when you have a book about killing female hookers. There is even a juxtaposition of how religion changed someone’s life for the better while simultaneously slamming the mainstream TV Jesus. This book is pretty fair for all concerned.

The cover blatantly name drops Silence of the Lambs all huge and then they even had the audacity to put a butterfly. But hey, that’s the marketing department for ya. There isn’t any butterflies or butterflies holding pens or whatever the hell that’s supposed to be. It’s not like Silence of the Lambs other than yeah, it’s a cop trying to catch a serial killer killing women but I mean, that’s not something Thomas Harris made up, that’s how it works in real life so I wouldn’t say he owns that scenario.

I really enjoyed this. I definitely want to hunt down the rest of Berrenson’s books. If you love the serial killer thriller of the late 80’s early 90’s then you’ll love this one.

Zebra 1991

Review by Nick Anderson