I’ve read a couple of the #BBC2BetweentheCovers book club picks previously and found them excellent so when I saw the most recent picks, I hunted down a couple of them. Sixteen Horses, the debut novel by Greg Buchanan, was one of them.

This is a book I’d never have picked up otherwise. It’s a mixture of different genres - crime, horror, noir, literary fiction - a mix I’d usually steer clear of but I found myself engrossed in this strange, deeply unsettling, darkly atmospheric and cinematic book.

The opening is quite stunning and not for the faint-hearted. The heads of sixteen horses are found in a circular pattern in a remote field in the decaying seaside town of Ilmarsh, each with one eye facing the winter sun.

As Det Insp Alec Nichols and his indomitable sidekick, forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen, attempt to uncover who has committed this macabre crime, the reader is led down mysterious rabbit holes, diving into the past and present where nobody is without suspicion.

The writing is fragmented and (deliberately) vague in parts. Short sentences and varied chapter structures with different POV narratives add to the sense of unease and confusion you feel as a reader. I found the middle part of the book a little sluggish but the ending was well executed and very hard to put down.

An unnerving and gruesome read (CW: graphic descriptions of animal dismemberment and mutilation), with a unique sense of foreboding that is expertly done by the author. It’s definitely not one that will appeal to everyone but it is an accomplished debut. 3.5/5

Sixteen Horses will be published on 29 April. I was grateful to read an ARC courtesy of the publishers @panmacmillan via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*

I still can't believe this is a debut novel. It's a fantastic piece of work and what a story. It begins with the discovery of sixteen horse heads in a seaside town and turns into a dark and disturbing story that will stay with me for a long time. The characters made for compelling reading in this slow-burn chilling tale that borders on horror. I was hooked from the very first page and didn't want to put this book down. The story is unique and I'm sure it's going to be a huge hit with crime readers. If you love a dark read, this is for you.

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel - it is an incredibly accomplished, unsettling, claustrophobic whirlwind of a book.

Starting with the discovery of sixteen horses heads in a bleak, rundown seaside town this starts as police procedural and then suddenly dives into the dark underbelly of what really goes on behind closed doors. It's deeply unnerving and there's an atmosphere of dark, hidden secrets that insidiously gets under your skin.

If I wore a hat I'd take it off to Greg Buchanan - this is an amazing, haunting novel that will stay in my nightmares for a long time.

I'm still not 100% sure what to make of this one. Dark and disturbing. Excellently written with a docu /fly on the wall feel about it. Compelling characters and narrative. Definitely 5 stars.

Greg Buchanan's debut is a chilling slow burn of a literary mystery that ventures into gothic and horror territory, set in the dying English seaside town of Illmarsh with many living precarious and impoverished lives. It is bleak, atmospheric, disturbing, without a scintilla of light or hope, a novel that opens with the discovery on Well Farm of partially buried 16 horses heads with an eye facing up to the sky, with their tails nearby. Who could possibly be responsible for this macabre act, mutilating, murdering and decapitating the horses, horses that belonged to several different owners? Investigating is police detective, DS Alec Nichols, whose wife, Elizabeth had died from cancer, living with his young son, Simon. He is helped by a forensic veterinarian, Dr Cooper Allen, an outsider initially brought in for 4 days.

It turns out this terrifying event is merely an opening crime that has numerous edgy layers, past and present, and repercussions, including that of contamination and poisoning that results in a major incident, a narrative that reveals a town and people where the serial abuse, torture and killing of animals are recurrent happenings, a place where people are threatened and blackmailed, harbour secrets and hate, despair, have mental health issues, with there are numerous deaths, live fragmented despairing lives, endure trauma, guilt, grief, are irretrievably broken beyond repair, a community in which there is the presence of pure evil. None of the characters are as they first appear as the reader is hit by revelation after revelation, including Nichols and Allen. In this character driven and haunted story, there is the historical 1942 Gunard Island incineration of sheep, a government that tested weapons against sheep without cleaning up after themselves.

This is a novel that I cannot in all honesty say I enjoyed, it was just too dark for me at times, with its abuse of animals and vets facing the eternal conundrum in their profession, how to save the animals from their owners, given animals have no rights. Buchanan is undoubtedly a talented author, his writing is evocative, if splintered in its storytelling. This is a compulsive, thought provoking and original novel, just do not expect it to be like normal crime and mystery reading fare, although it has its share of twists and turns. I would recommend this for those readers that seek the darkest themes and corners in humanity. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.

‘You can do anything if you decide something isn’t human.’
This book will win awards, and take the crime fiction world by storm. I was gripped from the first page, and could not put it down. The complexity of the characters, and the incredibly unique story, are just some of the brilliant things about this book. It is a truly unsettling read, and animal lovers should read with a glass of wine in one hand. It is a powerful exploration into humanity, loss and the troubled soul. Buchanan has re-moulded crime fiction as we know it, and I cannot believe this is a debut. It is utterly compelling, visceral and horrifically good. The story and its characters will remain with me for a very long time, and I think I’ll be having plenty of nightmares about it too

Many thanks to Net Galley, Pan Macmillan, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

Simultaneously captivating but at the same time, deeply disturbing, Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan gives a new meaning to the word ‘UNNERVING’.

WARNING TO READERS WHO CANNOT ABIDE ANIMAL ABUSE, the scenes are not cruelly graphic but imagination can sometimes be our worst enemy.

“Seagulls swooped from roof to roof. Middle-aged couples sat on benches, mostly silent. The air smelt of dust, salt, skin, tobacco.”

ILMARSH is a long-forgotten pleasure town, a place left to its own decay, devoid of anything new or exciting, a ghost town where every single thing is just waiting to fade into oblivion. But evil lurks in even the remotest corners of the earth as the heads of sixteen horses are discovered in WELL FARM by a farmer and his daughter. Thus starts the deciphering of the myriad strange things that are happening in the town by the lead detective sergeant Alec Nichols and forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen.

The writing technique used by the author is unique. There’s no gradual unfolding of the events in the story, it is more or less like watching a film with one scene cutting to the next with no rhyme or reason. In here, it works in obscuring the story and literally muddles the already muddy water. However, it may seem problematic for those readers who take frequent breaks in between their reading, in which case this jumping from one scene to the next, sometimes, leaving no clues to the narrator of the POV we are reading, may break the flow in the story and make it feel disjointed. That also could be the primary reason why the story and its characters never leave a mark but the town definitely does. Neither Cooper nor Alec induces any warm feeling and made it difficult to connect to them as a reader.

“People thought fiction was the problem-that films, television, games, comics would all desensitize the world to violence and horror. Real things were far harder to care about.”

The claustrophobic foreboding that has been created by the author was simply brilliant. The sounds, the description of the town and its people, the atmospheric thrill give a gothic vibe that was mind-blowing. But there were parts of the story, like in the middle, that lost its grip on me. It doesn’t matter thou, honestly, even the unveiling of the mystery didn’t seem important whilst reading, coz the author mesmerizes you with his story-telling. The whole uneasy unsettling dark aura that Greg Buchanan creates in his debut is worth a read and for that alone, I am going with 3.5 stars.

This review is published in my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India, Meduim.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

This was a really interesting read, not so easy to categorise but nevertheless a twisty, compelling and captivating book. Partly police procedural, but with the addition of a forensic vet, partly a family saga, also a mystery and a thriller. The style of writing took me a little while to get used to, it had a different sort of rhythm but was very atmospheric. The sense of place was amazing, I felt to really be able to visualise the decaying seaside town of Ilmarsh, bleak and dispairing. Full of complex characters, there was much to unravel. I did indeed need to find out who had buried sixteen horses in a farmers field and what on earth had posessed them to do it? An new author to watch out for.

I felt this book was slightly disjointed,but that added to the feeling of unease.
There were many times I had no idea where it was going,but I definitely turned pages quickly to find out.
Can't say I enjoyed it,but I will be recommending it to a few people.

Literary fiction? Police procedural? Psychological horror? “Sixteen Horses” is all these and more. A deeply dark and disturbing book which defies categorising.

Detective Alec Nichols is called to a crime scene on Well Farm, in the coastal town of Ilmarsh, and is confronted with the decapitated heads of sixteen horses buried in a field, each with one eye left exposed. In need of expert input, he calls on forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen to assist. When more deaths start to occur, the town descends into panic and paranoia and the pair are in a race to uncover the truth.

This book seemed to me as much about the journey as the destination. And what a twisting journey it is. The writing is dark, very dark, and almost claustrophobic in its mood. At the same time, the writing seems uneven in places, especially around the middle. There’s a jarring feel to some parts that often feel like a film – moving quickly from scene to scene to increase the tension. The story didn’t flow for me, as much as jump from event to event. On reflection, I think I developed better impressions of the town than I did the people in it.

The town could be lifted from an episode of “League of Gentlemen” – it’s almost a parody of all those forgotten, tucked-away communities where evil lingers. There’s blackmail, jealousy, so we’re definitely examining the dark side of human nature, and here the writing is excellent.

Those affected by animal cruelty and the abuse people inflict on each other will find parts of the book difficult, but sticking with it will reward most readers. This wasn’t my usual type of read, and I wasn’t as fully engaged as I thought I’d be, but fans of TV programs such as Broadchurch or Icelandic Noir, will love it.

This is Greg Buchanan’s first book, so he may still be finding his voice. I’ll await his next book to see how he progresses.

I have mixed feelings on this book. The premise was intriguing and I had heard some buzz so I was pleased to get a copy to read
I absolutely loved the setting. A dying seaside town is such a grim background, perfect for a crime novel.
I did not love the writing. It was very literary, almost dreamlike, and broken up so oddly into chapters and vignettes that seemed almost arbitrary. For me, it was bordering on pretentious.
I'm also not entirely sure what exactly happened in the plot.... I mean I understand broad strokes who did what etc but I'm not sure WHY and how all the small details come together. Maybe I am just not clever enough and didn't pay enough attention. But I still have a lot of questions.
I can see lots of 5 star reviews for this book which is great, and I certainly didn't hate it. I just didn't love it,

Sixteen horses heads, along with their tails, buried on a farm, one eye facing upwards towards the sky. Alec Nichols, a widowed detective, finds himself contemplating this gruesome scene in the company of a dour farmer.

Cooper Allen,forensic vet, is called in to help Alec investigate. They uncover a series of awful crimes and disappearances, arson attacks and the outbreak of a serious disease. People die, or kill themselves.

This is not your average crime novel/thriller. It's disturbing, devastating and takes no prisoners. I had to constantly remind myself and was surprised by the fact that it was set in England, in a small disintegrating town called Ilmarsh (which makes sense, really...ill marsh), instead of a wide open place somewhere in the U.S. It had a sense of space and distance and claustrophobia all at once.

It's full of strange characters, none of whom the reader never really gets to know. The prose forces you to concentrate, there is no escaping the strangeness of it all. Some sentences are repeated throughout the narrative, when describing the seaside town, full of seagulls and amusement arcades...nothing amusing about this story, though.
Difficult to put down, but brutal.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a prepublished copy in return for an honest review.

Sixteen Horses is a debut novel from Greg Buchanan where a spree of violence towards animals has lead to the division of a small seaside community. The storyline commences with a fairly graphic descriptions of animal cruelty as the bodies of sixteen horses (those referenced in the title are discovered). This creates an intriguing and attention grabbing start to the novel but I must admit that I did find the story difficult to read in parts due to the frequent references to the abuse of animals.
Our two protagonists are Alec, the local detective and Cooper, the forensic veterinarian, assigned to review the bodies and assist with the case. The story is told from several points of view, including both Alec and Cooper, along with commentary from various residents. At times, it was confusing to follow the events from the perspective of Alec and we quickly learn that we cannot trust all of the information that he provides.
The storyline did keep me guessing until the very end and the premise is both unusual and intriguing but I found it challenging at times to fully engage with the storyline and care about the characters. This may well be due to a certain ‘squeamish’ attitude on my behalf where animals are concerned and I think that other readders would enjoy the storyline more.

Sixteen horses has a great mystery at the heart of it, a fantastic sense of place, some genuinely surprising developments and a literary approach that at times creates a moments that you wouldn’t associate with a thriller- similar to Terrence malick in the thin red line focusing on a flower and not the battle.

However... for me it didn’t hang together, and the characters weren’t coming alive. There may be a deliberate sense of alienation intended, in which case mission accomplished! I’m afraid I wasn’t emotionally engaged and the closing sections felt rather mechanical.
Worth a read nonetheless - the strongest character is the town and surrounding countryside- desolate, down at heel and fading away... I’m interested in what Buchanan does next, despite not being sold on this

Where do I start with this one? A first time author I believe? If so, what a debut! Maybe not without it’s faults, and I’m sure it will not be for many people but, I was absolutely mesmerised by this.

Set in the English seaside town of IImarsh, a town that is well past its sell by date and falling apart(as much the star of this book as the characters),when a farmer and his daughter discover the heads of sixteen horses buried in a circle on their land one early morning, Alec, the local detective goes out to investigate. The heads are buried on their sides, all with one eye above ground, the tails in a bundle near by.

Realising they need some specialist help, they call on the help of forensic veterinarian,Cooper to take a closer look. Herself and Alec reluctantly team up to try and find out what has happened and what is going on in the town.

That’s all you need to know. That’s all I knew going into this.

I felt I needed to read this book with a towel beside me such was the atmosphere dripping from the pages(ok I read it on kindle but the point still stands). I’ve never read a book before where the whodunnit part of the book or the mystery wasn’t that important to me. The writing. Bloody hell. I’m no literary snob, far from it, but the writing here was mesmeric. Unsettling, intriguing, oozing atmosphere, dark, gothic, pyhscotic, I could go on.

It feels like this book takes place in an alternative universe. A near post apocalyptic feel to it. The book is so incredibly dark, a little like the constant chiming of a bell at a funeral. The thing is, this was hugely enjoyable to read.

I’m sure if I dug down into it I could pick apart some parts, maybe even some plot holes, but it’s all irrelevant because what Greg Buchanan does is take you by the hand and lead you through a dark door and ever so slowly walks you through to the other side. Breathtakingly beautiful to read, I was trying to think of comparisons to the feeling of reading this. Maybe a David Lynch or Coen Brothers film.
Or the film Se7en. Remember that? The atmosphere of that film. Every outdoor shot it was raining, every indoor shot lowly lit, that is this book. That same feeling.

This is one I’d like to read again for the pure joy of it. Hard to put a tag on it. Noir? Gothic? Thriller? Police procedural? Social commentary?

Who cares. Maybe a bit of all but it’s certainly it’s own beast.(pun intended)

An absolute corker. Go read it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book, I liked it a lot. This a very dark story about guilt, hate and revenge. I liked the writing and the way the short sharp sentences were used to great effect to create a sense of tension. I loved the underlying sense of desolation that you felt reading the story and you just knew and understood the landscape in which this story was taking place. The characters were all written perfectly. The writing enabled you to just feel and understand who Cooper and Alec were. This book is as much about the people and places they live as it is about the story that is being told in fact the people and place really are the story. When I was reading this I was reminded of the best of Scandinavian noir so it would seem at last we have found our own gem of British noir.

With thanks to Greg Buchanan and Pan Macmillan for an advanced readers copy of this book.

I've thought about this review for a long time and I can't cant fine a better word than uncomfortable. This book made be incredibly uncomfortable.

The writing is fantastic, dream like and almost lyrical. The story itself is gripping driven by a pair of really interesting and well developed main characters (Forensic vets! who knew they were a thing!). The setting itself of a struggling seaside town really helps to set the atmosphere. However there is a lot of animal cruelty in this book, and its very graphic in places, I'm not usually bothered by violence in a book but this really stopped me from getting as lost as I could have been in it.

Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan is a thriller set in the ficional seaside town of Ilmarsh in England.

Local police officer Alex Nichols is called out to a farm, where he finds sixteen horses heads, arranged in a pattern so that one eye can be seen. He is joined in his investigation by forensic vet, Cooper Allen.

There is a lot of animal cruelty in this book and I am apparently one of those people who will gleefully wade through human torture, mutilation and murders in crime fiction, but harm one hair on the head of an animal and I am sickened. Yes, it's weird and a bit hypocritical, but I am British and that's how we are. We like animals more than people.

There is a strange, dreamlike quality to the writing of this book, which I wasn't sure of at the start, but I decided to embrace it and go with it and once I did that, the book worked better for me. The disjointed weirdness felt like a deliberate choice on the part of the writer, but I am not sure it will be for everyone.

The setting of the book worked quite well, the rundown seaside town struggling to survive, where everyone has a secret to hide. Scratch the surface and what will you find is a literal warning for this book.

My favourite character was Cooper Allen, the forensic vet, though this is perhaps because she was the most fleshed out character in the book for me.

The subject matter and writing style of this book will polarise its readers, it's going to be a Marmite book.

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.
Always been a fan of romantic fiction. And this book delivers without disappointing. Dive into this amazing book for an exciting story.

This is a really hard review for me to write as there were parts of this book I really liked but what made it almost impossible for me to finish was some of the subject matter. I can’t read about animal cruelty it hurts my heart and although I tried to skip the more graphic descriptions they were still there hovering in my mind which spoilt the book I’m afraid as these images were ingrained in my mind.
This was sad in many ways because the book had a lot to give and some of the prose was beautifully done, the read was atmospheric and the character’s interesting but sadly that just wasn’t enough on the whole.
So a three star read that I struggled with but as I say that was mainly due to some of the subject matter.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan, Mantle for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.