The Professor and the Madman

The Professor and the Madman
Simon Winchester
1999

The first chapter of this book is clearly seen by everyone as a hook. The book begins with the story of William Minor, an American surgeon, insanely shooting down an innocent men walking in the street. When the police arrive, they find Minor calmly standing over the body, he even admits to the murder. He is taken to court and there they decide that Minor is insane as his story is that he saw a man standing over his bed in the night so he got up, chased him out of the house, and shot him down. There was no such man.
This beginning chapter kicks off into the rest of the book. This hook is not concealed, but it does not need to be. The thrill and suspense of the first chapter is brilliant. The reader is snagged and obligated to continue. The beginning led me to anticipate the end in a most peculiar way. I expected an ending that would equal the thrilling suspense of the first chapter. However, the ending was quite anticlimactic. It ends with the Oxford dictionary being completed. There were no killings, deaths, or insane people of any kind. So, since the first chapter is brilliant and sets up the body of the story, it is contradictory to the end of the book. The closure of this book is disappointing to thrill seekers who were intending to recieve emotional, dramatical, and suspenseful stories from this book.