Mister Candid by Jules Hardy

It is one of the first days of autumn. Outside leaves are turning orange and red. Rain is tapping on my window and for some reason I am freezing. With a blanket and a cup of tea I sit down in my favorite chair. After a few sentences I am lost in another world. Jules Hardy has brought me to America. She has invited me to follow the mystery of Mister Candid, a serial killer who believes his saving the world from criminals. In the same time the history of the Kane family is presented to me. Once I have started reading it is impossible to let it go. The story is very gripping, and in the same time grotesque. As a reader I witness how a son seduces his mother, his sister and eventually his daughter. Maybe the fact that I find it disgusting makes it impossible to stop reading. I need to find out how the story ends.

Charlie Kane is the main character in Mister Candid, a very well written thriller. He is an extremely intelligent man. When he is three years old he reads the New York Times, and at the age of thirteen he is a mathematical genius. He studies at Harvard University and graduates when he is only seventeen years old. Later he returns to Harvard to work in research. He finds his true love, Marilyn, and on a very special Thanksgiving he asks her to marry him. She says yes and when he drops her off at her parents it is with a promise that they will soon see each other again. Unfortunately, something else happens and Charlie disappears.

During his years of growing up Charlie has witnessed the mysteries of his own family, especially his father. Luke Kane was a very intense person, who affected almost everyone he came across, both men and women. As a child, people found him unpredictable and unpleasant. His mother was the only one who really loved him. They developed an extreme relationship, and when Luke was eleven he made love to his own mother for the first time. After this, Luke was sent away to school and his manipulative skills improved. When he came back, he started an affair with his sister, Sugar, which lasted until she died. Charlie was clever enough to understand what was going on between his father and his aunt. He also saw how fragile his mother was and how she suffered. Eventually Charlie avoided talking to his father.

Luke and Iris Kane also had a daughter, Lydia. She was extremely beautiful and looked just like Sugar. But Lydia was not a normal child, and the only one who could keep her calm was her brother Charlie. He looked after her, tried to teach her at least to pronounce his name right, but it was almost impossible. She called him Chum, and he was her favorite person in the world. On that very special Thanksgiving, Charlie realized that his father still urged the forbidden...

What really happened in the Kane house that night will not be revealed in this text. But the event changed the plans that Charlie had made. Marilyn waited a long time, but not forever. Charlie became Mister Candid, the most wanted man in America. For seventeen years he traveled the country and murdered criminals. Some people thought he was a ghost, some people thought he was an angel. The FBI chased him, but whether they caught him or not, is a secret.

This book is really interesting and exciting. Once you start it is difficult to let it go. I strongly recommend it, and although it is a little bit strange it offers a fantastic journey for your imagination.


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