History Literature / SmallerAndSmallerCircles

* JurisdictionFriction: The Quezon City police, in addition to being generally [[PoliceAreUseless useless]] at their work, can be very territorial, especially against higher authorities like the National Bureau of Investigation. According to an NBI official:

* UnreliableNarrator: In-universe. Other news reporters regularly fudge the details of the case; for instance, they label Fr. Saenz as a ''doctor'' and Jerome as a ''criminal'', not a ''clinical'', psychologist.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The NBI Director, who actually sees the killings as a serious threat, and even chews out Atty. Arcinas for screwing up with the investigation. Also, Councilman Mariano, who lends his own time and resources (in this case the free dental missions he sponsors for street urchins) to help identify the murder victims.

* SurroundedByIdiots: Well, really only one idiot: this is Jerome's reaction whenever he's in Atty. Arcinas' presence.

* AmateurSleuth: Both priests. Fr. Saenz and Fr. Lucero are consulted by the government in murder cases due to their academic experience in forensics and the government's sore lack of usable manpower.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The NBI Director, who actually sees the killings as a serious threat, and even chews out Atty. Arcinas for screwing up with the investigation. Also, Councilman Mariano, who lends his own time and resources to help solve the murders.

* PoliceAreUseless: A defining tone in the novel. In at least one murder, the Quezon City police do nothing to process or contain the crime scene properly, and as a result, a vital piece of evidence goes missing, possibly stolen by locals for scrap. Luckily for IntrepidReporter Joanna, her camera footage of the scene is clear enough for Fr. Saenz to later identify the evidence as [[spoiler: [[DepravedDentist a dental instrument]]]].

* IntrepidReporter: Joanna Bonifacio, who (with good reason) seems to delight in exposing Atty. Arcinas' screw-ups. This being the Philippines, however, being in media is an especially dangerous job—her father ended up becoming a RedShirtReporter when he went out investigating one night and never came back alive.

* SurroundedByIdiots: Well, really only one idiot: this is Jerome's reaction whenever he's in Atty. Arcinas' presence.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Atty. Arcinas, who diverts resources from the Payatas murder cases in order to go chasing after much more sensational crimes.

* PoliceAreUseless: A defining tone in the novel. In at least one murder, the Quezon City police do nothing to process or contain the crime scene properly, and as a result, a vital piece of evidence is stolen, possibly by locals in desperate need of money. Luckily for IntrepidReporter Joanna, her camera footage of the scene is clear enough for Fr. Saenz to later identify the evidence as [[spoiler: [[DepravedDentist a dental instrument]]]].

* JurisdictionFriction: The Quezon City police, in addition to being generally [[PoliceAreUseless useless]] at their work, can be very territorial, especially with higher authorities like the National Bureau of Investigation. According to an NBI official:

* PoliceAreUseless: A defining tone in the novel. In at least one murder, the Quezon City police do nothing to process or cordon off the crime scene properly, and as a result, a vital piece of evidence is stolen, possibly by locals in desperate need of money. Luckily for IntrepidReporter Joanna, her camera footage of the scene is clear enough for Fr. Saenz to later identify the evidence as [[spoiler: [[DepravedDentist a dental instrument]]]].

* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler: As the police mow him down, Alex Carlos manages a smile—[[RedemptionEqualsDeath perhaps the only time in his sad life he could afford one]].]]

* SadistTeacher: [[spoiler: Alex Carlos' gym teacher sexually abused him and his other boy classmates. Unsurprisingly Alex later murders said teacher in revenge.]]

* GoOutWithASmile: As the police mow him down, Alex Carlos manages a smile—[[RedemptionEqualsDeath perhaps the only time in his sad life he could afford one]].

While the main plot focuses on the investigation into the boys' murders, ''Smaller & Smaller Circles'' also uses the investigation to remark on the role played by the Philippine government—specifically, how skewed priorities, corruption and general incompetence in the government can retard practical solutions to social ills, including the commission of violent crime.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The NBI Director, who actually sees the killings as a serious threat, and even chews out Atty. Arcinas for screwing up with the investigation.

* AmoralAttorney: Atty. Ben Arcinas, who prefers to chase the limelight with sensational cases involving high-profile victims. He almost callously dismisses the Payatas murders and even has a generic street urchin framed for them until the next murder surfaces and bites Arcinas in the ass, seriously jeopardizing his career.
* [[spoiler: DepravedDentist: Alex Carlos, the SerialKiller.]]

''Smaller & Smaller Circles'' is a Filipino novel by journalist and media worker F. H. Batacan. Set in metropolitan Manila at the TurnOfTheMillennium, it follows the adventures of a pair of Jesuit priests who moonlight as {{AmateurSleuth}}s and are sometimes asked to solve murders. The novel won the Carlos Palanca Grand Prize for the English Novel in 1999.

The premise: Young boys from the slums have been turning up dead in Payatas, the metropolis's largest landfill. Most of them have been gruesomely murdered and eviscerated in creepily consistent fashion. Because PoliceAreUseless and the government places little priority on solving urban crime, nobody seems to notice or care that this is possibly the work of a SerialKiller—until the Jesuit priests, Father Gus Saenz and Father Jerome Lucero, are brought in to investigate. Saenz, with his foreign training in forensic anthropology, and Lucero, with a background in clinical psychology, then put their minds together to track down the suspect, all the while dodging {{ObstructiveBureaucrat}}s in the National Bureau of Investigation and helped along on the outside by IntrepidReporter Joanna Bonifacio.

AmateurSleuth: Both priests. Fr. Saenz and Fr. Lucero are consulted by the government in murder cases due to their academic experience in forensics and the government's sore lack of usable manpower.
AmoralAttorney: Atty. Ben Arcinas, who prefers to chase the limelight with sensational cases involving high-profile victims. He almost callously dismisses the Payatas murders and even has a generic street urchin framed for them until the next murder surfaces and bites Arcinas in the ass, seriously jeopardizing his career.
ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The NBI Director, who actually sees the killings as a serious threat, and even chews out Atty. Arcinas for screwing up with the investigation.