Many moons ago I read Blacklands: published in 2009 it was part of a set referred to as the Exmoor trilogy and was the debut novel of Belinda Bauer. It concerned a young boy Steven who spent his days digging on Exmoor hoping that he might uncover the dead bones of his nan’s son who went missing, presumed dead, many years ago. It is assumed the killer was a known paedophile Arnold Avery who was imprisoned but never admitted his guilt. Stephen tries to help his nan and makes contact with Avery in the hope of a confession and what results is brilliant edge of the seat crime writing and one particular scene (which I will not disclose 😀) has remained with me ever since. So why do I refer to a book written some years ago when talking about this later book “The beautiful Dead” published in 2016…..the reason is simple the aforementioned is dreadful, the premise utterly ridiculous……Eve Singer is a crime reporter and loves nothing more than a good bloody murder, she will do anything to be the first person on site and claim all the credit. In short she is the best. A crazed serial killer realizes that he can use Eve to showcase his bloody acts and thus he forms a bond with her, he will commit the crimes, direct Eve to the scene, and she will be the first to report and claim all the praise…a win win situation. What a bizarre story, whatever happened to the great storytelling capabilities of thIs author I once revered. The only slight saving grace was the relationship that Eve enjoyed with her father who in the depths of dementia is presented to the reader with great sympathy and understanding.
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