Brief

At first a seemingly high-functioning, successful and wealthy PR agent, we find he spends his spare time luring young men in as lovers and then carrying out brutal murders when he is done with them. A psychological thriller, “The Degenerate Opportunity” lets you experience the world through the eyes of a sadomasochistic, narcissistic serial killer who believes he is putting people out of the misery of being alive. But what happens when he finally meets someone he allows himself to fall for, only to realize that person is a cop who investigating the murders he was responsible for, including murdering the cop’s best friend?

What We Liked

Psychological thrillers have long been captivating audiences. The gruesome, voyeuristic experience pulls people in and the thriller and suspense makes them want to find out what happens next. The Degenerate Opportunity does exactly that. The slow reveal of the main characters psychosis, dropping hints that something is amiss but leaving the audience confused, works very well to add to the anticipation and curiosity that the story provokes.

Film: The book lends itself more naturally to a film adaptation. It fits well into the psychological thriller genre, which is very popular in film format. The slow reveal and descent from sanity to insanity maps out well into the major beats of a film. The first-person narrative makes the story more intimate and intense. Because the main character is gay, it would likely attract LGBTQ audiences who are into physiological thriller stories.

TV: This could work as a serialized TV show by building out the more cat-and-mouse part of the story – each episode following another murder by Seb, the antihero, and corresponding detective search by his lover Marco, who, unbeknownst to him, is the police detective on these assumed hate crimes. Having the story built in the form of a TV also allows for a more drawn out will-he or won’t-he find out that his lover is the killer? This type of cadence works well for a TV show to get people coming back each week to find out what happened.

Key points: It is a strong psychological thriller; Main character is very compelling; LGBTQ component; Has built-in audience

Synopsis

Set in London, the prologue opens on BOBS as he is escaping a sadistic rape and attempted murder after meeting a mysterious man online. His friend MARCO appears to help him get out, and they accidentally start a fire that burns down the whole Nightingale Hall apartment complex. The story starts 10 years later – following SEBASTIAN BOWMAN, aka SEB, a wealthy PR agent in his mid-thirties who just moved back to London and is looking to buy an apartment at Nightingale Hall. Through first-person stream-of-consciousness narration, we learn that Seb is an egomaniacal narcissist, who spends his time looking down on and judging the majority of people in society, referring to them as “degenerates.” We learn very few characters actual names, but rather the way Seb classifies these people in his head. The first half of the novel maintains a high level of ambiguity as we begin to see into his daily life. The ambiguity and omission of important details from the start makes Seb feel like an unreliable narrator, as we’re never quite sure what he’s really up to. Seb’s narration is broken up between describing his thoughts, his memories, and his present actions.

We meet Seb on his way to his first day of work in the London office of the same PR agency he worked for in NYC. We see Seb going about his life – we meet his colleagues ROD, NAT, RAJ, and BUNTY, who we learn some gossip about; we see Seb defend FATTY, after a man on the subway is rude to her; we follow Seb as he views the Nightingale Hall apartment and puts in an offer, and we see him find JOE, one of Nat’s friends, who also lives in the building. We also see his personal side, going to speed dating and meeting SIX, going online and meeting HAUNTED. Throughout this narrative, though, Seb does some suspicious things – he goes with Fatty to buy some knives, the way he sneaks back into the Nightingale trying to be unnoticed, and in general the way he refers to the men he's meeting and things he's done in his past, though he isn't explicit.

The second half of the book begins to become non-linear, going between narrated flashbacks and the present. We see that Seb gives money to a TRAMP who he lures back to a housing estate. He then recalls DRUNK, the first man he hooked up with when getting back to London, who he met in a club and was so drunk he took Drunk home. It turns out, the apartment that Seb is taking Tramp to, is Drunk’s apartment. This is where we first learn the truth about Seb – that he is a serial killer. Seb has been holding Drunk captive there and has Tramp rape Drunk and then subsequently kill both of them, making it appear like a lover’s quarrel. Seb goes to a psychic he refers to as SHE, who is able to see accurately into his past as well as his future. We learn that Seb had a sister and that his sister, ALEX, had Down Syndrome. He loved her very much and took care of her but ultimately killed her to spare her from the terribleness of being alive. The psychic panics when she sees in his future that he will kill thousands of people and asks him not to come back. The psychic, it turns out, is his mother.

Occasionally, Seb repents for his sins by allowing people to beat him. He goes back to the estate where he had previously ran away from a GANG and gets them beat him up. He wakes up in an unfamiliar place, bandaged and taken care of. He wanders around the apartment and comes across a room that looks like a detective’s room, with case files and pictures of all homophobic-related crimes, many of them, his doing. He is found by Marco, who tells him that he rescued him from the beating and brought him back to his apartment on his request to not go to the hospital. He then reveals that he is a police officer who has been investigating all of the hate crimes because he wants to avenge his friend, Joe’s, death. Things between the two men become intimate.

Seb then seeks out Haunted, who started dating one of Seb’s co-workers, RAJ, who he met at the office party Seb had taken him to. Feeling betrayed, he ends up pushing Haunted out the window . He goes to Marco’s place after Haunted's funeral and Marco shares that he has feelings for Seb and assumes they are reciprocal. But Seb is scared. After, Seb calls up DELIVERY GUY to go clubbing. At the club, he runs into PERSONAL TRAINER. The three end up going home together and having a threesome. Seb had also promised Six a trip and takes him to Lithuania. There, he violently takes his virginity while he is tied up, and hands him off to a sex trafficker who rapes him and sells him. We also learn that Seb is responsible for Joe’s death and gruesomely mutilated him.

Seb is back hanging out at Marco’s place and sees a picture come up on his screensaver that startles him. He sees Bobs, from the beginning of the story, and suddenly recognizes Marco’s voice as the person who came to help. Bobs was the only one of his victims who ever got away and poses a threat to out Seb and his relationship to MARTIN. We learn that Martin was a very rich old man who lived in the Nightingale that Seb used and stole all his money. Martin died in the fire, but Seb never found Bobs until just then. To cover up his surprise at the picture, Seb admits to Marco that he had slept with Personal Trainer, who is also in the picture. Marco gets upset and asks Seb to leave. While there, Seb had put a flash drive into Marco’s computer to get data off of it. When Seb gets back to his apartment, Marco is there waiting for him. He tells Seb that the men who had beaten him up were found dead and people said they saw a man all in blue leave the scene. Marco says he forgives Seb since they weren’t in a relationship when it happened, and they share an intimate moment. Marco goes to the bathroom, where Seb realizes the clothing he was wearing from the murder of the gang members is still in the shower. Marco walks out with the clothes. Seb confesses and says he did it because they hurt him. He then pulls out sword from his secret compartment. We flashback to him running away to Japan after the apartment fire and spending a year learning how to sword fight. It seems like he killed Marco.

In the epilogue, Seb shows up at MATT’s place, who turns out to be his life-long accomplice. He had given Matt the flash drive and Matt tells him that what he saw in it was that Marco isn’t a cop, he’s actually a spy working for the US government and that he’s planning a large attack on Iran. Seb reveals that he didn’t kill Marco, and that Marco is ok with keeping it a secret that Seb killed the gang.

About The Author

Mark Lakeram hails from London. The Degenerate Opportunity is his debut novel.