I enjoyed this book. I thought the characters were interesting. The story started out stronger then the ending and was very predictable.

Wasn’t familiar with any books by James Morrow but this one caught my attention and I appreciate netgalley giving me a chance to read and review it..
Baz Clifford is the main character and is a medical biochemist working towards completing her PHD. As part of her research into specific information from preserved brain matter one example stood out as an anomaly against the rest of her findings.
She then turns herself into a tenacious detective and invariably finds herself in trouble with the hierarchy in her laboratory and then with the police.
I did find the beginning of the book quite interesting and informative but unfortunately as the narrative went on with her quite unbelievable actions I did struggle to finish it.
Sorry just not one for me.

I have an interest in science and medicine, so I was immediately drawn in with the premise of this book. I had high expectations, but unfortunately I feel as though it fell flat.

It was a very interesting concept, however I didn't enjoy the writing style. I found it hard to read, and I feel as though those normal interested in science as I am would struggle even further.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

I received a free ebook of this title from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

This had a really interesting premise. A young Phd candidate is reviewing her data and finds an anomaly in some tests run on some brain matter retrieved from a corpse. The victim was supposed to have died peacefully in their sleep according to the police report but Baz’s findings contradict that. She needs to be able to explain the anomaly to defend her research so she starts to look into the source of the brain matter, one Cathy Marsden. The problem is the Cathy’s death has been marked a closed case and no one really appreciates her poking her nose in.

The idea for this novel is really interesting. The character of Baz is a great female lead with a strong science bend, which is somewhat unusual. The book does need some editing in terms of writing dialogue and tightening up. There is a long section of Baz explaining her research that dragged on right at the very beginning that almost had me put the book down. I think a good editor could have made this a much stronger book. As is, there are definitely good elements to it.

Hmmm. I honestly am not quite sure what to say about this book so let's start with a summary. 'The Fly and the Tree' follows Baz, a Biochemistry PhD student studying the fear response. When she gets an anomalous result from one of her samples, she decides that the person whose sample this is from couldn't possibly have died the way the postmortem says, and instead something much more nefarious is going on.

The first half of this didn't exactly blow me away but it was enjoyable enough. The writing was decent, the characters okay, and the plot had me slightly intrigued. I did have some issues with some of the science in this but it was something I could deal with, and while I didn't have the highest expectations going into this novel I found myself enjoying it and intrigued to know more.

For me the second half of this is where it all started to fall apart, the writing and especially the dialogue started to go downhill (I felt the ending was horribly written for a technical perspective as well as a plot perspective) and the ending became quite predictable. I feel this was largely due to James I Morrow being slightly heavy-handed with the hint. I wish this had been more of a character study, with more focus on Baz's relationship with John (I honestly think if this had been told from John's perspective, with this new woman in his life who seems to be up to something it would have been INSANE). Instead, I found this book really lost steam as it went along, and tied up all too easily.

Personally I also felt the storyline with Frankie felt surplus to requirements, it felt too far-fetched with the whole drug ring storyline for what it contributed to the plot. I either feel this section of the book should have been erased completely or embellished more to have a more prominent role in the plot so that that last chapter didn't feel completely ridiculous and pointless.

All in all this story had some potential and started stronger than I expected. But then it all went downhill I'm afraid.

Unique premise and well-drawn characters, with plenty of "left turns" along the way to keep the reader intrigued. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to all readers searching for top-rate writing. Perfect summer read!

*I received this book as an ARC from the author/publisher in return for my honest review.*

This book wasn’t for me. The science part really made it hard to read, I had to re read several pages just to full understand what was going on. I also felt the sentences were unnecessarily long in places, as though the author was trying to cram in more words for the sake of it. Not for me.

An amazing scientific discovery and a murder. A scientist makes a incredible discovery and then turns up dead. A lot of people believe that her death was an accident except for two people. Those two people began an intrepid investigation into what took her life and whom. I highly recommend this book.

<i>Baz Clifford, a young medical biochemist makes an important discovery in the course of her research that seems to cast doubt on the nature of a young woman’s death.

The woman died as a result of a terrible accident.

At least, that is what everybody believes…</i>

Interesting premise - but fell so flat. The dialogue felt clunky and forced and the story itself felt unbelievable and dry. I don't like giving bad reviews, but I could not get behind this one at all.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.