First of all, all apologies for my absence this last couple of months. I’ve been a bit unwell, plus any spare time I was well had to be devoted to my Open University course. Unbelievably, it was worth it, as I got 90! So I treated myself to reading some fiction – and I’ll get my catching up to do in the next few weeks!
I must say, I really struggled to put this book down. I’ve got Sixteen Horses, Buchanan’s debut, and heard nothing but good things about it. I will definitely be getting round to it asap after this beauty. Greg Buchanan’s prose is utterly pleasurable to read, even when he’s writing about gruesome things being done to animals post-mortem. Gone are the days of coppers and private investigators and the odd pathologist are your main characters – I clearly remember the excitement when Patricia Cornwell and the Kathy Reichs broke the mould there! No, Buchanan’s heroine Cooper Allen is a forensic veterinarian, investigating animals involved in crimes. No, I didn’t know this was a job either…
It of course put me in mind of a case here in Scotland several years ago whereby a man was convicted of murdering his wife – she was seeking a divorce, and would hit him hard in the pocket. After a trial and two re-trials he was re-convicted, and remains in prison.
And the animals and the crime…?
Two pigs, who ate the woman who kept them as pets. Can Cooper find any evidence that there’s anything other than a straightforward accident here? I remember as a child my Dad would warn us to stay well away from the pig pen in case they ate us and I was pretty sure he wasn’t joking! (A working hill farm and two small children’s not the best place for jokes!)
To add to the mystery, the victim, Sophie Bertilak, was a well-known, although now retired, photographer. Creepily, whoever was last in her home stripped all her photo frames of their pictures. And to add to the creepiness, Sophie’s first ever photo, taken the day she was gifted the camera for her birthday, was taken in the countryside near her home, and turned out to portray a girl who’d been missing for three years, accompanied by a man. Neither of them were even seen again. Is there a link to that mysterious picture that set Sophie on what was to come her career path?
This is a fantastic idea for a crime series.
Cooper’s an intriguing character, with an interesting backstory of her own. Her career is a particularly fascinating one too. There’s absolutely no question Greg Buchanan can both come up with an intriguing tale and write it beautifully too. Also, special mention for the wonderful cover art too – it’s so eye catching! I can’t wait to get reading Sixteen Horses…as well as see what’s next for Cooper!
Original crime fiction that I really enjoyed – highly recommended!
With many thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invitation, and Orion for the ARC. These have not influenced my opinion, and this is an original review.
Author Greg Buchanan
BLURB: A slick, smart, stylish – and shocking – thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction.
On a lonely farmstead, a 70-year-old woman falls down outside and, unable to move, is consumed overnight by two of her pigs.
It seems like a tragic accident, except the woman was well-known photographer Sophia Bertilak – and inside her house, someone has removed all her photos from their frames, seemingly erasing her past…
The first photo Sophia ever took remains her most infamous: a missing girl who was never seen again. Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen is drafted in for the post-mortem – and slowly becomes obsessed with the victim, her family, and the crimes she brought to light decades ago.
As Cooper pulls on a dark thread of deception, secrets and lies, she begins to unravel the case – as well as herself…
crimeworm 