A slick, smart, stylish - and shocking - thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction featuring forensic veterinarian-turned-detective Cooper Allen.
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 autopsy - and slowly becomes obsessed with the victim, her family, and the crimes she brought to light decades ago.
Consumed is published by Orion and came out on Thursday.
My Review
Before reading Consumed I read Greg's debut novel, Sixteen Horses, which introduced us to forensic vet Cooper Allen . It had been languishing on my bookshelf for far, far too long and this blog tour was the perfect prompt to see where it all started. Sixteen Horses was bleak and unsettling with some upsetting scenes but it was compulsive reading. I wondered what Consumed had in store for Cooper Allen and the reader.
Cooper is visiting the town of Lethwick for a reunion with her mother and sister that she was neither consulted on not does she want to attend but dutifully she turns up, arriving a day early and makes friends with another hotel guest during a power cut. From what I've gleaned about Cooper so far I don't think making friends is something that comes easily or naturally to her so this is a big deal. On the day her mother and sister arrive Cooper is contacted by the local police to consult on the death of a local woman, eaten by her own pigs. The more she finds out about the woman, the more she is drawn into the mystery surrounding her death, but also with the shocking discoveries the woman, Sophie, discovered trying out her new camera on her 17th birthday, over 50 years earlier.
The action moves backwards and forwards in time and is also written from several points of view so you do need to keep your wits about you. The novel is very atmospheric as Buchanan sets up each scene fully, often bringing in seemingly irrelevant information that but helps to build the picture. The sentences are often short, punchy, staccato bursts. The result is a little unsettling for the reader, which I'm sure is the aim, because it feeds into the uneasy nature of the subject matter. Buchanan reminds me of Will Carver - two very different authors writing in different styles, but both giving us books that challenge us and make us feel uncomfortable.
The main storyline moves backwards and does slowly revealing pertinent facts to the readers. Alongside this we have descriptions of the brief, awkward reunion that Cooper has with her family, and her relationship with her new friend. Nothing is easy or comfortable and most of the supporting cast are troubled in some way or other. And there is a certain police officer who actually made my skin crawl.
The story is complex, detailed and sad. As I've said before it's not necessarily an easy read, often making the reader uncomfortable and uneasy. It's long but bold. I didn't find it as shocking as Sixteen Horses with less animal cruelty but it still held me all the way through. And the ending had a real 'Woah!' moment for me. So, another unsettling but compulsive read and I would definitely read more from Greg Buchanan.
The Author
Greg Buchanan is a BAFTA-longlisted writer for interactive and screen. His acclaimed debut novel SIXTEEN HORSES was selected for BBC Two's Between The Covers and was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. A TV adaptation produced by Gaumont Television is on the way.
Author Social Media Links
Twitter: @gregbuchanan
Instagram: @gregbuchananwriter
No comments:
Post a Comment