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    Smaller and Smaller Circles
    Smaller and Smaller Circles
    Smaller and Smaller Circles
    Audiobook10 hours

    Smaller and Smaller Circles

    Written by F.H. Batacan

    Narrated by Ramón de Ocampo

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    This harrowing mystery, winner of the Philippine National Book Award, follows two Catholic priests on the hunt through Manila for a brutal serial killer Payatas, a 50-acre dump northeast of Manila's Quezon City, 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 preteen 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 is 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. Smaller and Smaller Circles, widely regarded as the first Filipino crime novel, is a poetic masterpiece of literary noir, a sensitive depiction of a time and place, and a fascinating story about the Catholic Church and its place in its devotees' lives
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateAug 18, 2015
    ISBN9781490684437
    Smaller and Smaller Circles

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    Reviews for Smaller and Smaller Circles

    4/5

    102 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Smaller and Smaller Circles is an incredibly deep mystery with a cast of characters that keep the listener/reader engaged over it’s entire run. The language is so descriptive and sensory in nature that it pulls you into the world almost seamlessly as you put together the case. Highly, highly recommend.
    • 2/5
      Smaller and Smaller Circles. F.H. Batacan. 2015. This police procedural won the Philippine National Book Award and was billed as “utterly engrossing.” Not quite. I have always enjoyed mysteries set in other countries and I enjoyed reading about the conditions in the modern day Philippines but I was a little disappointed in the book. The main characters who investigated the murders a forensic anthropologist and a psychology who were priests and I expected more “Catholic stuff.” This was not to be, other than a side plot about a pedophile priest. But that is just me. It was a good noir procedural concerning a serial killer.
    • 4/5
      Billed as the first Philippine crime novel, this is a procedural featuring two Jesuit priests. One is a forensic anthropologist, the other is a psychologist. I really liked this although the subject matter was disturbing--serial killer of young boys.Library book.
    • 5/5
      F.H. Batacan's Smaller and Smaller Circles won several prizes in her native Philippines when it was first published, and with good reason; it is an excellent murder mystery which, while having a superb sense of time and place, rises above its setting to feel fresh almost two decades after it was written.Batacan has created two wonderful characters to investigate the gruesome deaths of several poor boys, Jesuit priests Gus Saenz and Jerome Lucero. Her choice of protagonists brings a richness and depth to her story by incorporating the Catholic Church and its relationships with its priests and congregants as a key element. Making them Jesuits was inspired. That order, known for its emphasis on education and its questioning attitude toward even the Catholic Church itself, keeps Smaller and Smaller Circles from falling into the cozy mystery territory of Ralph McInerney's Father Dowling, while its engagement with the world outside the church renders Batacan's story less cerebral than Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.Where Batacan truly excels, however, is in her depiction of the relationship between Saenz and Lucero. Their love and respect for each other is apparent in their every encounter, making them a duo I would love to spend more time with (say, at least six more books). Unfortunately, I could not find any other novels authored by Batacan, so Smaller and Smaller Circles will have to remain my gateway drug rather than leading to a full Saenz/Lucero addiction.I received a free copy of Smaller and Smaller Circles through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Smaller and Smaller Circles has been called the first Filipino crime novel, and it was a pleasure to read-- mostly for its depiction of life in the most poverty-stricken area of Manila.Batacan's novel moves slowly and deliberately in uncovering a killer, and the pace was something I expected from the title of the book itself. It takes time to move in smaller and smaller circles, time which Batacan uses to show the poverty of the area, the importance of the Catholic Church within it, and the all-pervasive government corruption. The plot really has little that's new, but I didn't mind because I enjoyed the setting and the characters so much.Father Gus Saenz, a forensic anthropologist, and Father Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, have a father/son relationship that's often humorous and at times touching. Saenz runs his laboratory on a shoestring, and the shoestring is so old and frayed that most doing forensics in the U.S. would be completely horror-stricken. He is the conscience of Smaller and Smaller Circles. He has decided beliefs on what should be done with pedophiles in the Church, and his opinion of socialites' involvement with charities mirrors my own. Director Lastimosa seems to be the last honest man standing in government. One of the reasons why he reaches out to the two Jesuits is because he wants this investigation to be conducted honestly-- not swept under the rug as would normally be done with the deaths of children in such poor circumstances. Also demanding a role in the investigation is telejournalist Joanna Bonifacio. Too old for television and with a voice like a cross between Lauren Bacall and Bela Lugosi, Joanna has lots of experience in ferreting out deeply buried facts, and her presence is needed to lighten a cast of "good guys" which has strong overtones of religion and nobility.Yes, F.H. Batacan may have written the first Filipino crime novel, but it's even more important as a portrait of a country, and that makes it very good reading indeed.
    • 4/5
      I first became acquainted with the fictional Jesuit priest Gus Saenz when I found an F.H. Batacan short story (“Comforter of the Afflicted”) featuring his exploits in a short story collection titled Manila Noir. That was in mid 2013 and I had been rather listlessly searching for her 2002 novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles ever since, having noted that Father Gus was that novel’s main character. I learned, too, that Smaller and Smaller Circles had been very controversial when published in the Philippines and that it had won major awards there, but I had pretty much given up on finding a copy. And then I saw that Soho Press, publisher of much of the best crime fiction being written these days, would be releasing an expanded version of the novel in August 2015. According to Soho, the difference between the original version of the novel and this newly expanded one is that Batacan takes the time to tell “more of the priests’ story.” For me, memorable, fully fleshed characters are just as important to a crime story as the plot, so I consider myself lucky that this is the version of the novel I finally got to read.In Smaller and Smaller Circles, author Batacan, a former member of the Philippine intelligence community herself, exposes the rather absurd notion of Filipino law enforcement that it is impossible for a serial killer to exist in their country. Numerous theories have been offered to explain this hypothesis, but Batacan is buying none of them. Rather, she says, the fact that a serial killer has never been identified in the Philippines is entirely attributable to the failure of law enforcement to protect the country’s poorest citizens - and the utter failure of the system to investigate, and otherwise take seriously, crimes against the poor. Tellingly, record keeping and cross-referencing is not a high priority in the Philippines, it seems.In addition to being a Jesuit priest, Father Gus Saenz is also an eminently qualified forensic anthropologist. He is so good at what he does, in fact, that his skills have been utilized by the National Bureau of Investigation in the investigation of some of the country’s highest profile cases. But not everyone in the Bureau welcomes his help – Gus does have a way of stepping on toes that don’t move out of his way quickly enough – and even with support from the Bureau’s Director, Francisco Lastimosa, the relationship between the priest and the police is an unnecessarily complicated one.But now, on a regular basis, someone is killing little boys, mutilating their bodies, and dumping what remains in one of Manila’s garbage dumps, and Gus knows that it is all the nasty work of one man – the very type of killer that authorities still consider an impossibility. With the help of some good men, including that of his young protégé, Father Jerome Lucerno, Father Gus is determined to identify and stop the killer before he can kill again. Smaller and Smaller Circles is not a particularly difficult case for readers to solve even before it all clicks for Father Saenz, and its ending is rather predictable. But the novel is long on character development, it offers a unique setting and atmosphere, and it leaves the reader wishing for more crime mysteries featuring Father Gus and Father Jerome. Here’s hoping it happens.
    • 4/5
      This was a great crime Pinoy novel. You don't get to read a lot of good Pinoy mystery novels but this is sooo good, gripping and exciting. I'm a fan of Criminal Minds and had a grand time reading this book. It just doesn't show the crime solvers' side of the story but also of the killer, the victims and the ones that get left behind. Even if it's a mystery novel, it's also a very emotional story. I would love to read more of Ms. Batacan's stories. She's a wonderful writer.
    • 3/5
      I was disappointed with this book. A few pages worth of words and I instantly knew who the culprit was. If you're looking for an exciting detective novel, this one's not for you.