Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Dead Silent by Mark Roberts (Thriller, 10/10E, short 'n' sweet review)

5 May 2016, Head of Zeus, 352 pages, Hardback, Review copy 

Content: extremely mature scenes, grisly murder, strong languages

Summary from Head of Zeus
HIS LIFE WAS DEVOTED TO ART.

HIS DEATH WAS A MASTERPIECE.

Leonard Lawson was a respected professor of medieval art. He lived a quiet life in a suburb of Liverpool with his grown-up daughter. As far as anyone knew, he had no enemies.
Louise Lawson watched her father die. Before she blacked out, she saw his body mutilated and deformed, twisted into a hellish parody of the artworks he loved.
Investigating a killer bringing medieval horror to Merseyside, DCI Eve Clay must overcome her own demons to unpick the dark symbolism of the crime scene. A fifty-year silence has been broken - with a message written in blood...
- See more at: http://headofzeus.com/books/dead-silent#sthash.Yqh3CE4W.dpuf
HIS LIFE WAS DEVOTED TO ART.

HIS DEATH WAS A MASTERPIECE.

Leonard Lawson was a respected professor of medieval art. He lived a quiet life in a suburb of Liverpool with his grown-up daughter. As far as anyone knew, he had no enemies.

Louise Lawson watched her father die. Before she blacked out, she saw his body mutilated and deformed, twisted into a hellish parody of the artworks he loved.

Investigating a killer bringing medieval horror to Merseyside, DCI Eve Clay must overcome her own demons to unpick the dark symbolism of the crime scene. A fifty-year silence has been broken - with a message written in blood...


Nayu's thoughts    
Despite being obscene in places it was a fantastic murder mystery. I'm surprised to be giving this full marks, as some of the content is obscene in what the evil doers do - it is for mature audiences only. Thankfully I have a lousy memory so there's a high probability of me eventually forgetting it. The problem with said memory is that because there is so much going on in the story, especially near the end with identities getting confused I did lose the finer details of the plot which are woven throghout the story and revealed at times when I was scared for those caught up in it. 

The book is amazing. Sick, but amazing. I love how I got so attached to LOUISE because she seemed like a frail elderly spinster. Ha! That's all I'm saying. No-one is who they seem. There is clearly a lot of back story for Clay, but I didn't feel left out from not knowin it, apart from the issue with her son which was one part I lost the plot thread for. The intensity of the murderer's cruelty and the creepiness of knowing who they are before everyone else did made it a high end thriller. 

I took the precaution of only reading it in daylight, I could have done without making beetroot coleslaw the following day as it reminded me of certain scenes (why does beetroot look like blood?), but I take away with me appreciation for the world in general (that will make sense when you read what happens in the book) ans awe of writers like Mark who can stomach writing that kind of work. Not a genre I ever intend to write in, but will happily (in daylight hours) read it. 

Find out more on Mark's website.


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