The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer
There’s no safety in numbers . . .
Eve Singer needs death. With her career as a TV crime reporter flagging, she’ll do anything to satisfy her ghoulish audience.
The killer needs death too. He even advertises his macabre public performances, where he hopes to show the whole world the beauty of dying.
When he contacts Eve, she welcomes the chance to be first with the news from every gory scene. Until she realizes that the killer has two obsessions.
One is public murder.
And the other one is her . . .
When I hear that a new book by Belinda Bauer is coming out I cannot wait to get my hands on it. I just love her style and the fact that her books have a quirky edge and certainly do not conform to any stereotypes.
Eve Singer is a television crime reporter and when she reports on a series of murders where putting on an exhibition is important to the killer, she finds herself the reluctant centre of the killer’s attention.
This is no ordinary serial killer story though. The focus is very much on Eve, who I thought was a brilliant character. As always with Bauer’s work, there is some incredibly sharp and skillful writing and I had to smile sometimes whilst I was reading. I don’t generally quote from books in my reviews but I just had to mark a couple of bits that I thought were really clever.
She was a large woman with the beginnings of a Fu Manchu and big arms covered in soft white skin, as if she were made of raw dough and ready to roll.
Isn’t that just fantastic? And
She and Joe emerged from the toilets at the same time, like wooden folk in a Bavarian clock.
Just really clever writing.
The Beautiful Dead is full of twists and turns and I never knew how it would end (although I knew what ending I was hoping for). At times it is deliciously creepy and twisted. There are some really interesting supporting characters too and whilst this is very much a book focusing on Eve and the killer, the other characters add so much to the story.
This is a brilliant, fast-paced book and I found it very hard to put it down.
5/5
With thanks to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for the review copy. The Beautiful Dead is published by Bantam Press on 17th November 2016 (UK) and Grove Atlantic on 3rd January 2017 (US).
I like the sound of this. I can’t remember when I last read a Belinda Bauer book, but think the last one I read was from the series of novels set on Exmoor, and I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book from the series.
I’ve ordered this from the library.
Would you say the authors writing is the same as the early novels, or different?
Hi Caroline, I’ve always liked her work so it’s hard to say, but I think there has been a change in her style since the Exmoor trilogy, yes. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
I have a copy of this which I’ll be reading soon too although my recent perusal of my TBR turned up a copy of The Facts of Life and Death which unaccountably, I haven’t read yet. Great review I’m looking forward to this creepy outing even more now.
Hi Cleo, I hope you enjoy The Beautiful Dead. I’ll look forward to your review. Despite the fact I love Belinda Bauer’s books, I too have The Facts of Life and Death and also Rubbernecker still to read. The TBR books tend to get pushed aside for review books.