Buy it here:

Clash books website, Bookshop

Synopsis:

Jonas Williker is considered one of the most sadistic serial murderers of the modern era. This epistolary novel explores the aftermath of his arrest and the psychological trauma of those who lived through it. The Pennsylvania native brutalized his way into the zeitgeist during the early part of the new millennium, leaving a trail of corpses across five states before his eventual arrest. All told, Williker was responsible for the rape and murder of 23 women, and is suspected in the deaths of dozens more. His calling card—a torn piece of fabric found on or inside the bodies of his victims—helped popularize his now ubiquitous nickname. The Purple Satin Killer.  In the years following his arrest, Jonas Williker received hundreds of letters in prison. Collected here, these letters offer a unique glimpse into a depraved mind through a human lens, including contributions from family, the bereaved, and self-professed “fans.” They represent a chilling portrait of the American psyche, skewering a media obsessed culture where murderers are celebrities to revere. What you learn about the man from these letters will shock you, but not as much as what you learn about yourself.

Review:

Jonas Williker is a serial killer who has murdered 23 women and is finally caught due to an assault charge in Nevada. He has been extradited to Indiana, tried, sentenced, and put to death by the state. Letters to the Purple Satin Killer is a collection of the letters that were found in his belongings and arranged to tell a narrative of his story and the people who are influenced by him. He recieves letters from his mother, his old childhood friend, his ex-girlfriend, a victim who survived, and tons of admirers, from women obsessed with him to memorabilia collectors to a Satin Killer themed death metal band that also happens to be from my hometown. The interesting thing is that all of the letters are to The Purple Satin Killer, and we do not get a single word from Jonas Williker himself, only a few instances of people reacting to letters he had written in response. 

In a way Joshua Chaplinsky has put us behind bars with Jonas Williker. We are given the brief outline of what he did in the preface, but after that, all we do is wait and receive correspondence from the people who have written to him. None of these letters are forced. There is nothing that can make someone write a letter to a serial killer, even if he is your son. So we are getting glimpses of those outside of his cell and how they perceive him are reacting to him. The only indications we get of Jonas responding is when there is a reaction in the next letter. Everyone is motivated by their desires. We are just the interlopers in the story, but we also feel a closer kinship to the coldness of Jonas Williker than to those who are communicating with him. 

This novel is over 400 pages of letters, and most of them are linked and bring a character arc. From his mother, to an obsessed woman, to one of his victims that lived, to his childhood friend that wonders if their friendship was legitimate or something that Jonas needed to “look normal”, as Williker gets closer and closer to his execution, the letters become more erratic, more off-kilter, more desperate, and you can feel the authors of the letters spiraling out of control. The people who are obsessed with him or blame will no longer have that person, this scapegoat where they can funnel their feelings. In the end the whole novel is cloaked in a feeling of loss, sadness, and despair that has become a major part of every single person Jonas Williker encounters. You cannot help but feel the loss of Jonas Williker as well when the final pages are read.

I received this as an ARC from the author for an honest review, but I will be getting a hard copy when it is released. This is one of the few novels I already want to reread.