Author David Pryke has put together a fascinating time-line, showing how events in the life of John Lennon's assassin Mark David Chapman followed a pattern that in some respects mirrored that of his heroes, Holden Caulfield (the fictional protagonist of Catcher in the Rye) and musician Todd Rundgren (who in turn seems to have modelled himself on Lennon and the Beatles.)

What emerges is a haunting account of Chapman's schizophrenic world, in which drugs, psychiatry, the Bible, pop music and television all played their part. David Pryke does an excellent job of dissecting the process whereby Chapman came to believe that signals and messages in his environment were urging him to murder a man who, in the Beatle's own words, had once been "more popular than Jesus."

He also builds a timeline showing how parallel events in the lives of Chapman, Rundgren and Lennon began to come together in the final months of 1980, to create a three-way mirroring effect, which Pryke sees as the working of "Fate."

It's interesting, as well as chilling, to note that Todd Rundgren's musical career served as encouragement for Chapman's tormented beliefs regarding John Lennon. Rundgren's own creations often mirrored the Beatles, and could turn into angry parody. This was especially evident in his album DEFACE THE MUSIC, released a few week's before Lennon's murder on December 8, 1980.

Lennon's own final album, DOUBLE FANTASY, released in October 1980, also contained themes and images that Chapman interpreted as giving him permission to go forward with his plan to stalk and kill the man who had once inspired him to dream of making the world a better place.

This 55-page book is well structured, highly readable, and filled with illustrations.

What I found fascinating was how Pryke exposes the fine line between fandom and insanity. The world of rock music, heavily based in drugs and narcissism, valorized schizophrenic states of mind. In such a world, success can be dangerous, and a star can slip from being a beloved Idol, to a hated nemesis in the mind of a deranged listener -- without even leaving his apartment.