There's no safety in numbers...
Eve Singer needs death. With her career as a TV crime reporter flagging, she'll do anything to satisfy her ghoulish audience.
The killer needs death too. He even advertises his macabre public performances, where he hopes to show the whole world the beauty of dying.
When he contacts Eve, she welcomes the change to be first with the news from every gory scene. Until she realises that the killer has two obsessions.
One is public murder.
Most people, when they encounter a book that just doesn't grab them, will put it down. They might come back to it in the future. They might put it in the charity pile, or pass it on to a friend. But not me. I struggle on to the end, determined to finish the damn book; good or bad. An example of this? The Book Thief. Don't judge me, but I HATED it. I found it boring, confusing, illogical. The list goes on, to be honest. But rather than put it down, I slogged through to the end, and then wondered what all the fuss was about! It's probably something to do with my Type A personality - I don't like to leave anything unfinished. It's silly really; I waste precious time on books I don't even like, when I could be reading something I do. But that's just who I am, and I don't see myself changing anytime soon!
The Beautiful Dead, then, was one of those books that I shouldn't have finished. Which is a shame, because it had all the makings of a fantastic crime fiction thriller. Super gory from the off, strong characters, a likeable, if ruthless, female lead and a heinous murderer. But something felt off about this novel, and I don't quite know what. I'd put it down to the writing style, if forced. It didn't flow naturally, it didn't really draw you in with a strong desire to read just one more chapter. It felt forced throughout, and although I wanted to know what happened, I could easily have, and probably should have, put this book down and moved on.
Would I recommend The Beautiful Dead? Probably, if you're a fan of the crime/thriller genre, and are looking for a gory and easy to follow read. But don't start reading The Beautiful Dead with high expectations, because you will be disappointed.
Rating: ***
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