''The Murderer'' is a 1978 novel by Guyanese writer Roy A. K. Heath. The author's second novel, it was first published in London by

Allison and Busby Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher. Background Launching as a publishing company in May ...

, with Margaret Busby as editor, and was the winner of the ''Guardian'' Fiction Prize.

Reception

''The Murderer'' was well reviewed on first publication and in its later reissues, being described by ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' as "mysteriously authentic, and unique as a work of art" and by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' as "an impressive study of a man's descent into paranoia and madness."

Wilson Harris Sir Theodore Wilson Harris (24 March 1921 – 8 March 2018) was a Guyanese writer. He initially wrote poetry, but subsequently became a novelist and essayist. His writing style is often said to be abstract and densely metaphorical, and his sub ...

, reviewing the novel in '' World Literature Written in English'', wrote: "What is impressive about ''The Murderer'' is the execution of a style that truncates emotion...." In 2008, David Katz appraised Roy Heath's writing career in ''

Caribbean Beat ''Caribbean Beat'', founded in 1992, is a bimonthly magazine, published in Port of Spain, Trinidad, covering the arts, culture and society of the Caribbean, with a focus on the region's English-speaking territories. It is distributed in-flight by C ...

'', noting: "His 1978 book ''The Murderer'', which won the Guardian Fiction prize, was a haunting account of the paranoid protagonist’s descent into madness and the inevitable outcome that gives the book its title; this, and the compelling Armstrong Family trilogy that followed (''From the Heat of the Day'' (1979), ''One Generation'' (1980) and ''Genetha'' (1981)), helped establish his reputation, drawing comparisons to Joseph Conrad,

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

and Dostoevsky." ''The Murderer'' was listed in 1999's ''The Modern Library: 200 Best Novels in English since 1950'' by Carmen Callil and

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. '' The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlis ...

. On the novel's 2022 re-issue, Colin Grant described it in ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'' as "a literary thriller that sheds light on the societal divisions and the undercurrent of political violence that beset Guyana in the 1950s and continued beyond independence in 1966. ...''The Murderer'' is a strange, luminous, and beguiling work by a writer with a mysterious and captivating Caribbean voice." Heath's son Rohan has recalled that his father wrote ''The Murderer'' in six weeks.

Editions

* 1978: London:

* 1984: Fontana Paperbacks * 1986: New York: Persea Books * 2022: Penguin Books (Penguin Modern Classics), . US: McNally Editions, (distributed by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murderer, The 1978 British novels Allison and Busby books Novels set in Guyana