"'Find what you were looking for, Inspector?' "
" "
"Every day the same question. A different uniform but the same question. They thoug... read full description
reviews
Jun 06, 2011
Blair
rated it: 
I literally read Rupture in one sitting: decided to start it at a quarter to midnight because I couldn't sleep, and finally turned the light off at 3am after turning the last page. So I don't need to point out that it's compelling. Ostensibly, this is a crime novel; the story of a man called Samuel Szajkowski, a young history teacher who one day carries a gun into his school and kills three pupils and a fellow teacher before shooting himself. It's also the story of Lucia May, the police inspect
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Jun 05, 2011
Gill
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In a London comprehensive during a stifling heatwave, a teacher kills three pupils and a colleague before turning the gun on himself, but in the aftermath it becomes clear that the man who pulled the trigger is not the only one responsible for the crime.
Rupture is not really a school shooting story as such, focusing instead on the ensuing police investigation. The structure is interesting, with witness accounts dispersed as chapters throughout the book, all seen from the lead investiga More...
Rupture is not really a school shooting story as such, focusing instead on the ensuing police investigation. The structure is interesting, with witness accounts dispersed as chapters throughout the book, all seen from the lead investiga More...
Apr 27, 2011
Jennie
rated it: 
Even with disturbing tales of student suicides evoked by ruthless bullying screaming from recent headlines, few of us are willing to delve into the unremarkable daily tortures behind the spectacle. Lelic brings the issue of bullying—in the school and in workplace, by children and adults—home with his unsettling, penetrating debut novel. Through his protagonist, police investigator Lucia, he asks, “Why was the onus always on the weak when it was the strong who had a liberty to act? Why were the w
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Dec 30, 2010
Tony
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Lelic, Simon. A THOUSAND CUTS. (2010). ****. This is an excellent first novel from this author who has worked as a journalist and now lives in Brighton. It is both a psychological and sociological crime novel about a topic that is very current in today’s news – violence in the schoolplace. Samuel Szajkowski, a recently hired history teacher, walks into a school assembly with a gun, and murders three students and a colleague before turning the gun on himself. It was a tragedy that could no
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Nov 16, 2010
Jenn
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I read this all in one evening when I should have been doing something else. Excellently paced story...thriller? mystery? It's one of those stories where the voice of the narrator seems to shift a lot but it is the voice of several interviewees. That is the sort of device that I quite enjoy, though I know it can bother other people.
It takes place around an incident in a British public high school, where a teacher opens fire on a school assembly and kills three students, a teacher, More...
It takes place around an incident in a British public high school, where a teacher opens fire on a school assembly and kills three students, a teacher, More...
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Nov 05, 2010
Patrick
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Oct 14, 2010
Trish
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An outstanding piece of work. As direct and in-your-face as a Broadway show, and as searing and unforgettable. At times I found myself imagining the staging--I loved the author giving chapters to different voices. Even without knowing who was speaking initally, we are drawn in until there was no question who the speaker could be. Life in a corporation was never so baldly drawn, and one can believe life in a public corporation like the police force would reflect some of the insanity it deals with
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Oct 12, 2010
Kristie
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A Thousand Cuts takes place in the aftermath of a school shooting in London. Surprisingly, the action surrounding the shooting takes up very little space in the book; however, that doesn't make this novel any less horrifying. Some of the story is told from the perspective of Lucia May, the detective who is investigating the shooting. Lucia's point of view is combined with her interviews with various students, teachers, parents, and school employees. Simon Lelic's writing drew me completely into
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Sep 08, 2010
Beth
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Simon Lelic’s first book, A THOUSAND CUTS, is a perfect story for our time. Samuel Szajkowski, the grandson of a Polish immigrant and a history teacher, walks into an assembly and kills three students and a teacher before killing himself. Detective Inspector Lucia May is assigned the case, an easy one, because there is no doubt about the identity of the killer. Still, Lucia finds herself returning day after day, drawn to the school because she can’t make herself believe that t More...
Aug 02, 2010
A Thousand Cuts, by Simon Lelic, A-minus, narrated by the following narrators: Patricia Conolly, James Clamp, John Curless, Elizabeth Jasciki, Colin McPhillamy, Charlotte Parry; produced by Recorded Books, downloaded from audible.com
This is a debut novel, and one not to be easily surpassed. A teacher walks into school assembly one day and shoots three students, a teacher colleague, and finally himself. Everyone wants to view it as an open and shut case. The school is looking to e More...
This is a debut novel, and one not to be easily surpassed. A teacher walks into school assembly one day and shoots three students, a teacher colleague, and finally himself. Everyone wants to view it as an open and shut case. The school is looking to e More...
May 28, 2010
Bernadette
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As the book opens we learn there has been a shooting at a London school and that three students, a teacher and the gunman are dead. Lucia May is the police Detective assigned the case but everyone, including her boss and the school’s headmaster, assumes she will wrap it up neatly and quickly. However as she interviews those connected to the shooting she unravels the thousands of moments of bullying and torment that led to the shooting and realises it’s not an open and shut case.
Most of More...
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May 09, 2010
Taracuda
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The premise is a cop investigating a school shooting, and in the course of her investigation, she discovers a bullying epidemic. The set up is topical, bordering on cliche, but how the story progresses really pulls you in. It's also set in England, which added some complexity to me as an American reader.
The story is told from both the investigating reporter's POV and from her reports as she interviews all the usual suspects. There are the bratty undisciplined kids, the jock of a gym More...
The story is told from both the investigating reporter's POV and from her reports as she interviews all the usual suspects. There are the bratty undisciplined kids, the jock of a gym More...
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Jul 30, 2011
Lennongirl
rated it:
A very gripping, painful read that made me angry. Not at the book itself, but at a lot of its characters, their helplessness, their stuborness, their easy way of looking the other way and the general unfairness of it all. It really touched me and made me so, so angry. Wah. I wanted to slap so many of these evil people in this book. And hug a lot of others.
Mobbing and psychical abuse are the main themes of this book. Both are written very clear and palpable, as reader, you can feel th More...
Mobbing and psychical abuse are the main themes of this book. Both are written very clear and palpable, as reader, you can feel th More...
Jan 24, 2012
S. J.
rated it:
There's been a lot of hype about Simon Lelic lately, especially on social networking sites. Personally, I hate it when authors just don't live up to the hype; but I hate it a whole lot more when they do! Rupture, I have to admit, is truly excellent.
A London school is reeling in the aftermath of a savage act of violence. Apparently without warning, the history teacher walked into school assembly, shot three pupils and a teacher, before turning the gun on himself. For the school autho More...
A London school is reeling in the aftermath of a savage act of violence. Apparently without warning, the history teacher walked into school assembly, shot three pupils and a teacher, before turning the gun on himself. For the school autho More...
Apr 10, 2011
Spuddie
rated it:
The book was originally published with the title "Rupture" in the UK--a much more appropriate title, I thought. Blast publishers who feel the need to tweak titles in different countries!
This is a first novel, a police mystery about a school shooting in London where the perpetrator was a teacher who shot several students, a fellow teacher, and then himself. The teacher, Samuel Szajkowski, was the new history teacher at an exclusive prep school and had apparently endured unr More...
This is a first novel, a police mystery about a school shooting in London where the perpetrator was a teacher who shot several students, a fellow teacher, and then himself. The teacher, Samuel Szajkowski, was the new history teacher at an exclusive prep school and had apparently endured unr More...
Feb 03, 2012
JChipol
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Detective Inspector Lucia May investigates a school shooting, and as she investigates the assumed 'text book case' she realises that she has sympathy for the assailant. As DI May discovers, the murderer was mercilessly bullied and she realises that others have to take part in the blame. Sadly her superiors do not agree.
Two parallels run alongside the case: a young boy, at the same school, is bullied and beaten to the point of committing suicide. At the same time, DI May is being sexual More...
Two parallels run alongside the case: a young boy, at the same school, is bullied and beaten to the point of committing suicide. At the same time, DI May is being sexual More...
Nov 15, 2011
Laura
rated it:
I started Simon Lelic’s novel and almost didn’t finish it. It seemed too brutally predictable, in spite of a genius first chapter. “A Thousand Cuts” is the story of a young history teacher who inexplicably walks into an assembly at his school and shoots down 3 students and a teacher before turning the gun on himself. It is also the story of a young detective who is assigned to the case and simple cannot get to the foregone conclusion. As she investigates the shooters’ background and intervie
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Jan 01, 2011
CT
rated it:
Also known as A Thousand Cuts (USA edition)
Simon Lelic’s gripping debut novel isn’t your typical mystery or a thriller. In fact, we are told exactly who started shooting during a school assembly, leaving five dead – the shooter was a teacher. What inspector Lucia May discovers about that fateful day is appalling. In the wake of the tragedy, it’s clear that the shooter isn’t the only one responsible.
Alternating chapters from witness narratives and Lucia May’s own investigat More...
Simon Lelic’s gripping debut novel isn’t your typical mystery or a thriller. In fact, we are told exactly who started shooting during a school assembly, leaving five dead – the shooter was a teacher. What inspector Lucia May discovers about that fateful day is appalling. In the wake of the tragedy, it’s clear that the shooter isn’t the only one responsible.
Alternating chapters from witness narratives and Lucia May’s own investigat More...
Nov 28, 2010
Rachel
rated it:
The writing style of this novel was very refreshing. Just about each chapter is someone else talking to Lucia, a homicide detective. Lucia's questions to the witnesses are families are rarely recorded in this novel, but it does not make it hard to follow at all. Leaving the authority- Lucia- out of the testimonials makes the novel edgy and raw. The testimonials seem more raw and emotional this way. I also liked how Lelic took a controversial issue in our schools today and showed us what can happ
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Aug 05, 2010
Franchesca
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jun 09, 2010
Liz
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A Thousand Cuts is compelling and timely reading. Lelic uses the conventions of a detective novel to explore some of the most relevant social themes of our era, bullying and the violence it begets. There's no real "mystery" to the book. As it opens, the central event has already taken place: a teacher has opened fire on a school assembly, killing three students, another teacher and himself. Lucia May is the homicide detective assigned to the case, a case that everyone from the school p
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Mar 14, 2011
Brad
rated it: 
I don't know if I've recently read a book as unrelentingly grim as A Thousand Cuts, by Simon Lelic (well, not since I read Box 21 last fall). The latter was about the trafficking of prostitutes, this one is a much more immediate and universal topic--school bullying.
There is a difference here, though. Lelic has structured his book around a crime, but it's a teacher taking a gun and shooting up a school assembly. Detective Inspector Lucia May investigates the case, and as she interview More...
There is a difference here, though. Lelic has structured his book around a crime, but it's a teacher taking a gun and shooting up a school assembly. Detective Inspector Lucia May investigates the case, and as she interview More...
May 15, 2011
Laura
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 13, 2011
Olivier
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Par un été torride, Samuel Szajkowski, prof d’histoire dans une école secondaire, entre en salle de réunion, ouvre le feu et tue trois élèves et un collègue avant de retourner son arme contre lui. Les voix de quinze témoins interrogés par Lucia May illustrent la complexité du drame. Souvenirs flous, mensonge, omissions, incohérences, mauvaise volonté des professeurs, des élèves et du directeur de l’école, convainquent Lucia de la nécessité de poursuivre l’enquête. Malgré la version officielle :
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Dec 03, 2010
Sera
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Wow, just when I thought that I had run out of 5-star reads to read this year, along comes this masterpiece. I listened to it on audio and it was captivating for reasons that I will describe it more detail below. Basically, this is a story of a school shooting, but not your typical story along this line or what you might see on television, because of the person who does the shooting and why. More importantly, however, this book is about bullying, extreme bullying toward the point of abhorrent
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Jan 02, 2011
Summer
rated it:
I picked this book up wandering through the library on a whim. It took me about 75 pages to really get into it, and to be honest I only kept reading because of the reviews I found online. Half-way through the book I was totally hooked and the last 75-100 pages were heart wrenching as you finally were able to fully realize what had happened to not only Mr. Szajkowski, but to the other students and how teachers and the headmaster all turned a blind eye to it. This book was heart-breaking and as I
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Mar 06, 2011
Jennifer
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A Thousand Cuts is a story of bullying that leads to a school shooting. And, as if having one person getting relentlessly bullied wasn't enough to drive home a message, there are multiple characters suffering almost constant torment from their peers and coworkers. The teacher who executes the shooting has been bullied mercilessly by the students and the school principal, a child who dies in the shooting was bullied and urinated on during a school bus ride, another student was severely beaten a
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Mar 16, 2010
Susan
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I was a senior in high school when the shooting at Columbine High school took place. Remembering the anxiety and fear that followed will forever remain a part of me. This past experience is what compelled me to wanting to read this book. An intriguing story that delves into the events that surround such a tragedy. Though this story is set in London, England it mirrors what takes place here in the states as well. Most of us see such events on the news in a desensitized way that we have become ac
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Jan 20, 2010
Dixie
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A gripping and thought-provoking read, Rupture looks beyond the headlines of a school shooting and examines the endemic nature of bullying in society. AS DI May pieces together evidence in the aftermath of the tragedy a series of witness statements, some funny, some painful, some truly horrifying, are woven together to form a complex and emotive picture of life at a north London comprehensive school. What perhaps made the novel and its conclusions all the more chilling is that many of the incide
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Mar 03, 2011
Patty
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Astonishing, intense and very very sad. This book is a story of what awful awful things can happen when someone is bullied. In this book what is most interesting is that the inspector investigating the incident is also being bullied by her own team. This is such a tough subject to read but this was done in an amazing manner. I really did not want to put this book down. My empathy for the characters was very strong. I imagine all readers will feel for them and the injustices they were force
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