Mohammad, Putri Shanen J.

HUMALIT, A56
11509376/ AB-ISE August 16, 2017

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

Final Paper

In 1841, the first detective story ever created was by Edgar Allan Poe, who is regarded as the

“Father of the Detective Genre”, with his short story The Murders in Rue Morgue, furthermore Poe

continued to use the detective in The Murders in Rue Morgue, Detective Dupin, in several other short

stories (Detective Fiction: Definition, History & Authors, n.d.). In line with this, crime fiction is defined

as category of fiction wherein it deals with crimes, their detection, criminals, and their motives, while

detective fiction is a subcategory of crime fiction where a detective works to solve a crime (Crime Fiction

Genre, n.d.). In most detective and crime fiction stories there are common tropes or overused

themes/devices for characters or plots, which are being utilized within the story. For example, the

detective or cop has little respect for authority of administrators and the political games they must play; or

there is the amateur information gatherer that is thrown into the case and helps the detective to solve the

case; or the detective is always smart and thinks outside the box, however he/she is satisfied to be a

working officer rather than a head; or in the case of Smaller and Smaller Circles, the story begins with a

hook where nearly most of the time the crime or actions by the criminal are lead directly to the crime.

Moreover, most crime fiction novel plots share a common structure. First there is the crime, usually a

murder; then there is the investigation; and finally, the outcome or judgement, wherein it is often in the

shape of the criminal's arrest or death.

Moreover, the characters in the detective novel Smaller and Smaller Circles (SASC), both have

tropes and paradoxes that can be seen throughout the unfolding of events within the story. For instance,

the main detectives of SASC, Father Gus Saenz and Jerome Lucero have both have similarities and

differences with Detective Dupin, the detective in one of Edgar Allan Poe’s earliest works. Father Jerome

Lucero and Detective Dupin are not very sociable, and have limited colleagues to consider as friends,

however Detective Dupin in the counterpart of Father Gus Saenz who is gentle and has a compassionate
nature, according to F.H. Batacan (n.d.). Furthermore, Fr. Jerome a psychologist is blunt to the point of

occasional abrasiveness, while Detective Dupin is similar to the famous Sherlock Holmes wherein he sees

beyond the obvious clues that confuse the police and sees the small details that indicate what really

happened. Moreover, the antagonist of the novel, Alex Carlos who is a dentist in the mobile clinic where

the crime took place, follows the trope of a serial killer who must be caught before he kills again which is

very common among crime fiction novels like Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, or The Apprentice

by Tess Gerritsen. As the story follows, the victims of Alex Carlos have something common among them,

they we’re young boys that were his patients around the age of 11-13 that live around the area where his

mobile clinic is placed. Similarly, the victims also follow a certain trope, however the trope does not

apply to the victims, it appertains to the psychological trauma that their killer has faced which is prevalent

in detective stories. Furthermore, the milieu of SASC or the setting of the novel is the dumpsite of

Payatas in Quezon City, which is an area with a sort of disenfranchised population; this setting is not only

an ideal place for a series of killing because of its type of population, it is also a sort of trope as well. In

the novel, the two priests are working on this case together with the National Bureau of Investigation

(NBI), however the inefficiency of the NBI hinders them from solving the case and are forced to

overcome several challenges. Fortunately, they figure out the plans and intentions of the psychologically

disturbed killer, with the assistance of Joanna Bonifacio, an investigative journalist who uses her skills to

gather information from the bureaucracy. This is similar to the explosions at Radio City Music Hall

between the years 1940 and 1950. It was an ongoing series of bombings at New York City’s famed Radio

City Music Hall which involved more than a dozen explosions, this became very problematic for police

that it was one of the causes for the creation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Psychologist James

Brussel was able to determine that due to the intricacy and knowledge of the explosive devices, the

bomber was almost definitely an engineer, most likely at Con Edison; this profile directed the police

towards George Metesky which was later on confirmed that Metesky had done it. The remarkable

accuracy and efficiency of the forensic psychologist’s profile increased the demand for these experts

across the nation (Five Famous Cases Cracked by Forensic Psychologists, n.d.).
 Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan is a detective novel that is set into the Philippine

setting, that revealed the incompetence of its investigation department, not only in fiction, but also the

incompetence of the department in reality. Moreover, Batacan’s novel is differs from international

versions of crime/detective fiction, because it proved the reasoning that because no murder cases have

been classified as serial killer cases, does not mean there are no serial killers in the Philippines.

Furthermore, the victims of the perpetrator were not only the young boys that were murdered, it was also

the families of the boys, because most of the victim’s families relied on them as their main source of

income, however due to their untimely deaths their families were now affected. Similarly, the perpetrator

was not only Alex Carlos, to an extent, the perpetrator could also be the PE teacher who molested Alex,

because if the antagonist would not have become a killer without the traumatic experience he bore.

Additionally, in the novel it is shown that there is no justice in the Philippines, at least in the investigation

department. According to Ortuoste (2015), based on the novel it means that the Philippines lacks the

knowledge and resources to identify and solve similar cases. It is sobering indictment of the system and

an advocacy for a more effective, just, and incorruptible investigative system.

References:

Detective fiction: definition, history & authors. (n.d.) Retreived from

http://study.com/academy/lesson/detective-fiction-definition-history-authors.html

Crime fiction genre. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.findmeanauthor.com/crime_fiction.htm

Batacan, F.H. (n.d.) Fathers gus saenz and jerome lucero. Retrieved form

https://www.detecs.org/saenz.html

Five famous cases cracked by forensic psychologists. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.online-

psychology-degrees.org/list-articles/five-famous-cases-cracked-by-forensic-psychologists/

Ortuoste, J. (2015). Pinoy crime novel ‘smaller and smaller circles’ makes US debut. Retrieved from

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandculture/545387/pinoy-crime-novel-

smaller-and-smaller-circles-makes-us-debut/story/