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Summary
Summary
"Belinda Bauer is a marvel. Her novels are almost indecently gripping and enjoyable."--Sophie Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Monogram Murders and Woman with a Secret
Belinda Bauer is an award-winning British crime writer of the highest caliber, whose smart, stylish novels have captivated readers and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic and earned her a reputation as "the true heir to the great Ruth Rendell" ( Mail on Sunday (UK)). Her latest, The Beautiful Dead , is a riveting narrative centered on a down-on-her-luck journalist and a serial killer desperate for the spotlight.
TV crime reporter Eve Singer's career is flagging, but that starts to change when she covers a spate of bizarre murders--each one committed in public and advertised like an art exhibition. When the killer contacts Eve about her coverage of his crimes, she is suddenly on the inside of the biggest murder investigation of the decade. But as the killer becomes increasingly obsessed with her, Eve realizes there's a thin line between inside information and becoming an accomplice to murder--possibly her own.
A seamlessly-plotted thriller that will keep readers breathless until the very end, The Beautiful Dead cements Belinda Bauer's reputation as a master of heart-stopping suspense.
Author Notes
Belinda Bauer is the author of seven award-winning novels that have been translated into twenty-one languages. The Beautiful Dead is her fifth novel to be published in North America. She won the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger Award for Crime Novel of the Year for Blacklands , the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Rubbernecker , and the CWA Dagger in the Library Award for outstanding body of work. She lives in Wales.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This is one exclusive that Eve Singer, an attractive iWitness News crime reporter, doesn't want, in this taut thriller from British author Bauer (The Shut Eye). While covering the stabbing of a young woman just feet from throngs of London Christmas shoppers, Eve catches the eye of the murderer, who decides she would be the perfect amanuensis to aid his grandiose series of gruesome "exhibitions." Bauer puts the sympathetic, conflicted Eve and the heart-tuggingly demented father for whom she is caring in escalating jeopardy, along with several memorable minor players, including Det. Sgt. Emily Aguda, whose small size leads people to underestimate her formidable skills (she's a black belt in kickboxing and Judo). Though less of the killer, who's pretty much a stock type, would have been more, readers will root for Bauer's spunky heroine on this suspenseful slay ride through a snow-globe London. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory & Company (U.K.). (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Guardian Review
The Dry by Jane Harper; The Hermit by Thomas Rydahl; The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer; The Watcher by Ross Armstrong; The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer Parched and crackling after a two-year drought, the Australian town of Kiewarra is the highly combustible setting for Jane Harper's first novel The Dry (Little, Brown, [pound]12.99). Nature isn't the only thing that's dangerous in this small town in the middle of nowhere -- when policeman Aaron Falk returns from Melbourne to attend the funeral of childhood friend Luke Hadler, who apparently shot his wife and six-year-old son before turning the gun on himself, he finds a community rife with poverty, alcoholism and despair. It's Falk's first visit since he was run out of Kiewarra as a teenager, suspected of killing his classmate Ellie Deacon. Many people still believe he's guilty, and he wants to get out of the place as soon as possible. Hadler's parents, who have discovered that Falk and their son gave each other false alibis for the day of Ellie's death, persuade him to stay and investigate, and he finds himself trying to untangle two crimes that occurred 20 years apart. Solid storytelling that, despite a plethora of flashbacks, never loses momentum, strong characterisation and a sense of place so vivid that you can almost feel the blistering heat add up to a remarkably assured debut. Thomas Rydahl's first novel, The Hermit (Oneworld, [pound]16.99, translated by KE Semmel), which won the prestigious Glass Key award in Denmark, is set on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. The title is a misnomer: sixtysomething Erhard Jorgensen, an expat Dane, may live in a remote shack with only two goats for company, but, as a taxi driver-cum-piano tuner, he's familiar to many of the islanders. This comes in useful when a car containing a dead baby is found on a beach and Erhard, realising that the PR-conscious authorities are attempting a cover-up in order to avoid deterring tourists, decides to investigate. Although he knows nothing about computers, he calls in favours and finds himself drawn into a web of corruption. The pace may be stately, but a humane and appealing protagonist and plenty of local colour make this an engrossing and enjoyable read. The Chemist (Sphere, [pound]20) by Stephenie Meyer, bestselling author of the Twilight saga, is an awkward, not to say preposterous, hybrid of action thriller and romantic suspense. The eponymous chemist -- or, more accurately, torturer -- goes by a variety of aliases, but is usually known as Alex. Formerly in the employment of a secret US government agency, she was wont to extract confessions using chemical concoctions of her own devising until, for reasons that aren't entirely clear, her mentor was killed and she was forced to go on the run. At the start of the book, she is hiding out in a variety of heavily booby-trapped locations where she sleeps in a bath while wearing a gas mask and keeps a lot of gadgetry, including a pair of actual killer earrings, close at hand. Despite this, when an old colleague emails her, she agrees to kidnap and extract information from schoolteacher Daniel Beach who is, supposedly, part of a plot to release a deadly virus. After subjecting the poor man to considerable agony, she realises that it's a case of mistaken identity and apologises -- whereupon he falls in love with her. After a great deal of moving from place to place and hanging out, together with much canoodling and a makeover sequence, the pace picks up again, but it's too little, too late, and way too implausible. Ross Armstrong's debut The Watcher (Harlequin Mira) begins with a blizzard of attention-seeking staccato sentences -- the literary equivalent of being jabbed repeatedly with a pair of compasses -- but it's worth persevering for an eerily atmospheric reworking of Hitchcock's Rear Window with a nod towards The Girl on the Train, set in rapidly gentrifying north London. When troubled birdwatcher Lily turns her binoculars on her neighbours from her new-build flat, she realises that something sinister is happening in the marked-for-demolition block over the road. An elderly neighbour, Jean, tries to phone Lily just before she is killed, and, when the police are dismissive, Lily decides that she must investigate... An intriguingly unreliable narrator, plenty of suspense and the added bonus of name-spotting fun for Hitchcock aficionados. While it's not quite up there with her best (Blacklands, Rubbernecker), fans of Belinda Bauer certainly won't be disappointed by The Beautiful Dead (Bantam, [pound]12.99). Not only is Eve Singer struggling to care for her father, who has dementia, but her career as a TV crime reporter is threatened by younger and blonder talent, so, when a serial killer offers her the chance of a scoop, she bites. At first, the killer welcomes the publicity, but when Eve agrees to cooperate with the police in a news blackout, he turns on her. A disturbing, intelligent and, at times, genuinely moving story, The Beautiful Dead is written with subtlety and an impressive lightness of touch. - Laura Wilson.
Kirkus Review
A serial killer menaces London in general, and a TV journalist in particular, in Bauers latest gorefest.The mayhem begins with the stabbing of a woman who made the mistake of working on a Saturday when her office building was desertedexcept for a verse-spouting serial killer. First to arrive on the scene of the murder is Eve Singer, who works for one of Londons TV news networks specializing in if it bleeds it leads reporting. Lately, Eves career has been flaggingshes pushing 30 and a brunette, and her boss keeps threatening to replace her with a younger blonde. At home, Eves problems are also escalating: she's the sole caretaker for her once stalwart father, Duncan, whose dementia has gotten out of control. Other voices take up the narrative, including the killers, several of his victims, police officers, and Eves neighbors. The killer, apparently of aristocratic stock, inhabits a crumbling mansion, supporting himself and his grisly pursuits by selling off family art treasures. He cared for his own elderly parent until her death, and somehow no one wondered what happened to her body. (As in Psycho, mummified Mom hasnt left home.) His homicidal compulsion appears to spring from overhearing doctors say, after a heart transplant in childhood, that he was living on borrowed time. Every murder, according to his twisted logic, is another extension of the loan. At first he welcomes the publicity afforded by Eves lurid reports on his handiwork, but as she agrees to cooperate with a police blackout, risking her job, he turns on her. (And, since he followed her home one night, he knows where she lives.) As the murderseach staged as an exhibitionmount up, the killers cat-and-mouse game with the police and Eve grows breathlessly suspenseful even as we suspect we are being lured into the clutches of yet another thriller with a contrived and predictable ending. Bauers way with character and repartee helps to keep our interest in what would otherwise be pretty standard fare. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Award-winning novelist Bauer winner of the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger in the Library Award for outstanding body of work returns with the Bridget Jones-flavored tale of Eve Singer, a journalist struggling to nail a tough job while a younger, more glamorous wannabe nips at her heels. Adding to Singer's load is the care of her dad, who lives with her and suffers from dementia. Things don't look good, but Eve's luck turns, in a macabre way, when a serial killer decides that she should be his media contact. Singer and the police butt heads while pursuing an increasingly unhinged man who seems to relish the spotlight and who doesn't hesitate to draw the journalist into his exhibitionist antics. Readers who like police procedurals with a snarky, jaded onlooker on the side will enjoy this thriller, which is something between Tana French and Karin Slaughter and will work for readers who stay up late reading either of those authors.--Verma, Henrietta Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Reporting a gruesome murder places television reporter Eve Singer directly in the crosshairs of a serial killer. As the executioner continues to construct his highly stylized murders, Eve must handle not only her demanding, competitive job but also the endless demands of her demented father. In the midst of this, she becomes a pawn in the games of an obsessed, psychotic serial sadist who thrives on Eve's reports about him. The fast-paced action only lets up as Eve gets distracted by her declining parent and is forced to play catch-up on all fronts until the final minutes. Andrew Wincott's wonderful baritone doesn't quite compensate for an excessively slow delivery that contrasts poorly with the speed of the plot. VERDICT A well-thought-out thriller that will appeal to fans of Sharon Bolton, Karin Slaughter, and Mo Hayder. ["A taut, psychological thriller": LJ 1/17 review of the Atlantic Monthly hc.]-Janet Martin, -formerly with Southern Pines P.L., NC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.