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krobart's review against another edition
4.0
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2016/12/30/day-1018-the-beautiful-dead/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2016/12/30/day-1018-the-beautiful-dead/
sandin954's review against another edition
5.0
While I usually try to stay away from books with serial killers, I always enjoy this author and this was no exception. I loved the writing, the characterizations, and the understated humor.
nirvana_d's review against another edition
3.0
I’m a fan of Bauer’s writing and whilst this isn’t the best she’s done, it’s still a good read with enough going on to keep you interested. Might be slightly on the gory side for some.
tanninsandtales's review against another edition
4.0
Here is to hoping you all have had a lovely Christmas and one not as eventful as Evie Singer's, the main character in [b:The Beautiful Dead|27070075|The Beautiful Dead|Belinda Bauer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470285010s/27070075.jpg|45536243].
At the start of the story, London is decorated for the holidays and its people are hoping for (and betting on) a White Christmas while Evie still hasn't bought any presents. That is so because being the sole carer of a father who has Alzheimer and a TV crime news reporter has been rather time consuming. To make matters worse, a serial killer is on the loose and he thinks there is nobody better than Evie to publicise his doings.
[a:Belinda Bauer|2979481|Belinda Bauer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1336477232p2/2979481.jpg] has crafted a strangely heartwarming serial killer story. It is dark and grim but also humourous and uplifting. I thought it was a pity that publication date was set to the 3rd of January but, oh well, here is a great idea for a belated Christmas gift.
(Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!)
At the start of the story, London is decorated for the holidays and its people are hoping for (and betting on) a White Christmas while Evie still hasn't bought any presents. That is so because being the sole carer of a father who has Alzheimer and a TV crime news reporter has been rather time consuming. To make matters worse, a serial killer is on the loose and he thinks there is nobody better than Evie to publicise his doings.
[a:Belinda Bauer|2979481|Belinda Bauer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1336477232p2/2979481.jpg] has crafted a strangely heartwarming serial killer story. It is dark and grim but also humourous and uplifting. I thought it was a pity that publication date was set to the 3rd of January but, oh well, here is a great idea for a belated Christmas gift.
(Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!)
tyrshand's review
3.0
I thought it started off really promising with this real feeling, tense scene. However, the skill displayed there was actually the downfall of the novel (for me) later on. Those extra point of view scenes often felt too detail laden for a story that should be zipping along. It just killed the tension for me.
myrdyr's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and the writing. I look forward to reading more books by Bauer.
emma_jade91's review against another edition
I was enjoying the story but wasn’t keen on the narrators voice. I’ll be continuing with it physically instead of via audio
fictionfan's review against another edition
3.0
Murder as performance art...
TV reporter Eve Singer is on the crime beat, so she's called to the scene of a brutal murder committed in the foyer of an office building, just feet from where people are passing by on the pavement outside. This is a murderer who likes to perform his gory crimes in public, and then stage them as if it were some kind of performance art. When he makes contact with Eve, at first it seems like a great thing – she'll have the exclusive story and it will give her career a much needed boost. But soon she realises that she's becoming caught up in the murderer's schemes, almost to the point of becoming an accessory...
First off, let me say that I love Belinda Bauer. And this book has in it many of the things I love her for – the great writing, touches of humour, some nice building of suspense and an original and dramatic climax. However, for me, this isn't one of her best. It feels derivative – there are touches of Hannibal and Clarice in the relationship between Eve and the killer, and heavy shades of Psycho over the storyline. Perhaps there's not much new left to say in the serial killer novel – certainly it's been a while since I read one that felt fresh. But the derivations in this one seemed so blatant that I wondered at points if she was deliberately referencing some of the greats as a kind of inside joke, but if so, it didn't quite come off, and simply ended up feeling rather unoriginal.
The structure also doesn't feel up to Bauer's usual standard. We are given biographies of the characters rather than being allowed to get to know them through the plot – whatever happened to 'show, don't tell'? Eve's father suffers from dementia and this is used partly to give some humour to the book – always tricky with such a sensitive subject and I felt it occasionally passed over into tastelessness. And while I thought the portrayal of his dementia was well done for most of the book, when it became part of the plotting in the later stages it crossed the credibility line and began to feel contrived and inauthentic, and I found myself feeling that this awful disease was being used for entertainment purposes rather than being given the empathy it deserves. The humour didn't work as well for me as usual, I didn't take to Eve much, and the amount of lazy swearing throughout became utterly tedious, not to mention Eve's need to vomit every time a corpse turned up.
On the upside, there are passages where Bauer achieves that delicious feeling of creepiness, for example, when Eve thinks she's being followed home in the dark, and it does have a great thriller ending which redeemed it a little in my eyes. I was also pleased that this murderer was pretty eclectic in his choice of victims, not exclusively butchering vulnerable young women. But overall, this is one I'm going to put down to an off day, and go back to waiting avidly for her next offering. I've given it three stars but, in truth, I think one of those stars is from a mixture of loyalty and the feeling that I may be judging it too harshly because of my perhaps overly high expectations. Because, despite this one, I do love Belinda Bauer. I can't help wondering in general if the pressure to get a new book out every year is really a good thing in the long run...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Grove Atlantic.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
TV reporter Eve Singer is on the crime beat, so she's called to the scene of a brutal murder committed in the foyer of an office building, just feet from where people are passing by on the pavement outside. This is a murderer who likes to perform his gory crimes in public, and then stage them as if it were some kind of performance art. When he makes contact with Eve, at first it seems like a great thing – she'll have the exclusive story and it will give her career a much needed boost. But soon she realises that she's becoming caught up in the murderer's schemes, almost to the point of becoming an accessory...
First off, let me say that I love Belinda Bauer. And this book has in it many of the things I love her for – the great writing, touches of humour, some nice building of suspense and an original and dramatic climax. However, for me, this isn't one of her best. It feels derivative – there are touches of Hannibal and Clarice in the relationship between Eve and the killer, and heavy shades of Psycho over the storyline. Perhaps there's not much new left to say in the serial killer novel – certainly it's been a while since I read one that felt fresh. But the derivations in this one seemed so blatant that I wondered at points if she was deliberately referencing some of the greats as a kind of inside joke, but if so, it didn't quite come off, and simply ended up feeling rather unoriginal.
The structure also doesn't feel up to Bauer's usual standard. We are given biographies of the characters rather than being allowed to get to know them through the plot – whatever happened to 'show, don't tell'? Eve's father suffers from dementia and this is used partly to give some humour to the book – always tricky with such a sensitive subject and I felt it occasionally passed over into tastelessness. And while I thought the portrayal of his dementia was well done for most of the book, when it became part of the plotting in the later stages it crossed the credibility line and began to feel contrived and inauthentic, and I found myself feeling that this awful disease was being used for entertainment purposes rather than being given the empathy it deserves. The humour didn't work as well for me as usual, I didn't take to Eve much, and the amount of lazy swearing throughout became utterly tedious, not to mention Eve's need to vomit every time a corpse turned up.
On the upside, there are passages where Bauer achieves that delicious feeling of creepiness, for example, when Eve thinks she's being followed home in the dark, and it does have a great thriller ending which redeemed it a little in my eyes. I was also pleased that this murderer was pretty eclectic in his choice of victims, not exclusively butchering vulnerable young women. But overall, this is one I'm going to put down to an off day, and go back to waiting avidly for her next offering. I've given it three stars but, in truth, I think one of those stars is from a mixture of loyalty and the feeling that I may be judging it too harshly because of my perhaps overly high expectations. Because, despite this one, I do love Belinda Bauer. I can't help wondering in general if the pressure to get a new book out every year is really a good thing in the long run...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Grove Atlantic.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com