For fans of Tess Gerritsen and Kathy Reichs comes a gripping debut thriller introducing Camden's most exciting new forensic investigator.
Cassie Raven believes the dead can talk. We just need to listen . . .
People think being a mortuary technician is a seriously weird job. They can't understand why I choose to cut up dead bodies for a living. But they don't know what I know:
The dead want to tell us what happened to them.
I've eviscerated thousands of bodies, but never someone I know before - someone who meant a lot to me; someone I loved.
The pathologist says that her death was an accident.
Her body is telling me differently.
Body Language was published by Zaffre on 26th November 2020. You can purchase it from Bookshop, Waterstones and Amazon or your usual bookseller.
M Review:
Cassie Raven's life was going nowhere until a science teacher started chatting to her as she sold the Big Issue in a street corner. Geraldine Edwards believed in Cassie and it turned the young woman's life around. So when Mrs Edwards's body turns up at Cassie's mortuary she is devastated. But determined to learn what she can about the older woman's death.
I can't tell you how much I liked Cassie. Unconventional looking with her facial piercings and tattoos (I was reminded of the pathologist in Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne books who has a similar look) she loves her job and is very gentle and respectful with the bodies in her care. She talks to them, asks them what happened, how they died. And sometimes they answer. I was fascinated by her from the start. Her vulnerability shines through - whilst she is fine with the dead, she struggles in relationships with the living, can't get close to people. I really wanted to give her a hug so many times! And I was willing her on as she tries to find out what happened to her much loved teacher. The only other person Cassie is close to is her Polish grandmother, who I also adored - there was one point I laughed out loud at something she'd done and I'm sure I'm not the only person to do so.
Whilst the story is mainly told from Cassie's point of view we also hear from DS Phyllida Flyte who is brought in to investigate a crime at the mortuary. Initially, she is not an easy woman to like but for me that changed over the course of the book. I love the attention to detail the author gives her characters - small things about their appearance or little quirks. I also liked that women play most of the central roles.
The author has obviously done a great deal of research into what happens in a mortuary, effects of drugs and police procedure and it has paid off. It feels authentic . The story is part detective investigation, part forensic examination and it kept me turning the pages - I read it over two days.
Body Language is a really interesting thriller packed with detail and featuring an original, engaging protagonist. It's full of dead ends and surprises with a couple of sub plots intertwined with the main storyline. Really enjoyable.
The Author:
AK Turner's first foray into crime fiction was a detective thriller trilogy, written under the pen name Anya Lipska, following the adventures of Janusz Kiszka, a fixer to London's Polish community. All three books won critical acclaim and were twice optioned as a possible TV series. In her other life as a TV producer and writer, AK makes documentaries and drama-docs on subjects as diverse as the Mutiny on the Bounty, the sex lives of Neanderthals, and Monty Don's Italian Gardens.
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