The Man Made of Smoke

In an early section of the novel, Fleming, the police officer investigating John’s disappearance, asks Dan how he manages to study serial killers and bring himself “to talk to them like they’re human beings” (30). Dan responds that he treats his patients as humans because “there’s no such thing as monsters” (31). In asserting the humanity of his patients, Dan busts the myth that people who commit the worst crimes are otherworldly or fringe elements. Dan’s comment is also a reference to real-world vocabulary, like “monsters” and “animals,” often used to describe people responsible for heinous crimes. However, the truth is that unspeakable evil is committed by regular, ordinary people and in everyday spaces and situations. For instance, the Pied Piper, the sadistic killer at the center of the novel, is revealed to be unremarkable looking and just another average person. By highlighting the ordinariness of evil and the violence that goes on in everyday spaces, the novel suggests that these spaces can’t be presumed safe for the vulnerable.

The greatest example of the juxtaposition of extraordinary evil and ordinary spaces is the service station. When the Pied Piper killer walks in through the arcade in broad daylight, people hardly notice him or the boy next to him, even though Dan’s description makes it clear that James looks visibly imperiled, streaked with dirt, and dressed in oversized clothing.