The Beautiful Dead

September 26, 2016
This is one exclusive that Eve Singer, an attractive iWitness News crime reporter, doesn’t want, in this taut thriller from British author Bauer (The Shut Eye). While covering the stabbing of a young woman just feet from throngs of London Christmas shoppers, Eve catches the eye of the murderer, who decides she would be the perfect amanuensis to aid his grandiose series of gruesome “exhibitions.” Bauer puts the sympathetic, conflicted Eve and the heart-tuggingly demented father for whom she is caring in escalating jeopardy, along with several memorable minor players, including Det. Sgt. Emily Aguda, whose small size leads people to underestimate her formidable skills (she’s a black belt in kickboxing and Judo). Though less of the killer, who’s pretty much a stock type, would have been more, readers will root for Bauer’s spunky heroine on this suspenseful slay ride through a snow-globe London. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory & Company (U.K.).

This thriller brings together two outstanding British talents, award-winning crime writer Belinda Bauer and narrator Andrew Wincott. The combination is deeply satisfying. Ambitious crime reporter Eve Singer catches the attention of a moodily brilliant psychopath, and there begins a wrenching cat-and-mouse pursuit, with death lurking in the shadows. Skillfully written as it is, the audiobook is enhanced by Wincott's measured, profound, even silkily compelling narration, which casts a controlled mood over the story of secret thoughts and hidden emotions from both the deeply conflicted pursued and the highly manipulative pursuer. And then the tables turn . . .. D.R.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine