Consumed

If you like your reads with a distinctly gothic vibe, you’ll be right at home with Consumed. Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen becomes entangled with the disappearance of a child. Also involved is lauded photographer Sophia Bertilak. Cooper is a hard individual to be get the measure of. Given to self analysis and flights of fancy, Cooper appears rudderless but has a feel for those things that hover just outside of our surroundings. The story focuses on Cooper and Sophia and how they are connected to the missing child but the narrative doesn’t follow traditional detective or missing person crime novels. The whole is more of a walk through ancient woods, never quite knowing where your next step will take you and questioning whether it is night or day. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter add a delicious sense of the ethereal to proceedings and with the supporting characters often having opaque agendas, you feel assured of some unhappy outcomes.

A foreboding and wicked read, ideally enjoyed in a haunted house with a rocking chair creaking somewhere.

A dark and chilling story which fans of Sixteen Horses will love.

Sometime after the events of "Sixteen Horses", Cooper Allen is about to go on a short holiday with her estranged mother and sister, an event she is not looking forward to. Luckily, fate intervenes when she is asked to use her forensic veterinary skills to investigate some pigs which are suspected of eating their owner. What seems like a tragic accident, soon turns into a murder investigation.

And without further ado, the reader is drawn into another dark, disturbing and chilling story of family, power, deception and revenge. "Consumed* is a standalone novel, but fans of "Sixteen Horses" will be pleased with the way the author has picked up threads from that book developed them into a story as much about Cooper as the murdered woman, Sophie. We learn more about Cooper, her family and background, and gain an inkling into why she is, the way she is. The way in which past events link her, Sophie, and Sophie's own history do eventually tie up nicely, but it's a windy and torturous path the reader is led up.

As ever nowadays, the book moves between several time periods, as we slowly learn of the events which have led to the murder. As with the previous book, the author's writing style takes a bit of getting used to, but it certainly has no problems painting a dark and haunting picture of human failings. Cooper, her family, and the people she meets are all deeply flawed people, and there's plenty to love, hate and despair of, in all of them.

I was pleased to receive a Netgalley ARC for review, and I enjoyed the book enough I'll probably return to "Sixteen Horses" before getting my hands on a copy of "Consumed".

Heartily recommended.