THE GRAFFITI KILLER

Milnes’ novel follows a disillusioned 69-year-old art afficionado who embarks on a quest to push back against a cultural “tide of trash.”

The creepy, nameless narrator is a failed actor of surpassing paleness (he was “Ghoul 14” in the 1971 Charlton Heston movie The Omega Man) and a former band promoter who once worked on Barry Manilow’s U.K. tours. Now, living in Spain with a detestably superficial woman who considers herself an artist—she paints what he describes as “kitsch rubbish”—something inside the man (who deeply loves art and its connection to culture and history) snaps. Armed with a rifle, he sets off on a mission to rid the world of “trasheteers,” those he sees as villains forcing trash culture down upon him. His first victims are a group of graffiti artists who have defiled iconic locations all over Europe that have been featured in famous paintings. (“In Spain you were in the landscapes of Goya, Bustillo Salomón, Velasquez, in France you were in the landscapes of Lorraine, Monet, Cezanne, Lavieille.”) After that, he targets more well-known artists, like the now 81-year-old Manilow, who is in London on a tour, and novelist Bernadine Evaristo, the president of the Royal Society of Literature, to name a few. Equal parts unhinged manifesto, thinly veiled social commentary, and serial killer’s meandering travelogue through Europe, this circular narrative is decidedly disturbing—particularly with real figures like Evaristo and others being targeted for death. (Readers will never experience a Barry Manilow song in quite the same way again.) But it’s the depth of depraved character development that truly powers this twisted tale. The narrator’s skewed view of the world, as seen through the lens of his frustration and anger, is, unsettlingly, almost understandable, especially considering his many failures, both personal and professional, throughout his largely unfulfilled life.

Readers won’t soon forget this dark little novel.