The Corpse Reader by Antonio Garrido
Dec. 27th, 2013 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Inspired by the life of a thirteenth-century Chinese academic – the world’s first forensic-science expert – this compelling story revolves around a medieval scholar with an uncanny gift for reading the marks left on corpses. After experiencing unimaginable loss and betrayal, the young Ci becomes a lowly gravedigger, honing the forensic skills that eventually earn him a place at a prestigious university. Fate steps in when the Emperor orders him to the Imperial Court to examine the mutilated victims of a savage killer and identify the perpetrator. As his graphic investigations lead him ever closer to the truth, Ci struggles with old loyalties – and his desire for an enigmatic beauty.
It’s the year 1206. 17-year-old Ci, his father, mother and sister, Third, live with Ci’s elder brother Lu in a small village in Jianyang while his father serves out the required period of mourning for Ci’s grandfather. Ci dreams of a return to the capital city Lin’an where he and his father worked for Judge Feng and Ci was learning how to investigate crimes by examining the bodies of the dead but such a return seems impossible given his father’s determination to stay in the village.
Ci’s life changes forever when he discovers a body while ploughing Lu’s field. Soon he’s on the run with Third, making his way to Lin’an where he finds work as a gravedigger and takes up with a conman keen to use Ci’s ability to make money from mourners. Instead Ci’s abilities lead to an offer of study at the Ming Academy where he comes to the attention of the Imperial Court, which is threatened by a string of violent and unexplained deaths. Ci’s investigations though threaten to reveal his past while also threatening his loyalties and his very life …
Antonio Garrido’s historical crime novel (translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead) is a fictionalised look at the life of the real Ci Song, the father of forensic science. As an ‘origins’ story it sticks Ci with a heavy-handed background filled with tragedy and a genetic disease that makes him immune to pain before pitching him into the central mystery about half-way through the book. For me it’s an overwritten book whose translation uses anachronistic terms (e.g. Ci recognises that Third has a genetic disease and characters use modern idiom, including ‘okay’) and although it did keep me turning the pages, the villain was easy to guess and the obligatory femme fatale character was undeveloped. If this becomes a series, I’m not sure I’ll read on.
Ci seems incapable of learning from his mistakes and his supposed dilemmas of his own making have simple solutions that he refuses to implement, and although Judge Feng is an interesting counterpoint, Blue Iris doesn’t have enough page time to become a rounded character and in fact there are no real female characters in the book. There’s also a lot of torture, which got repetitive after a while.
Ultimately it’s an okay read but not a great one and I’m not sure I’d continue with a series.
The Verdict:
Antonio Garrido’s historical crime novel (translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead) is a fictionalised look at the life of the real Ci Song, the father of forensic science. As an ‘origins’ story it sticks Ci with a heavy-handed background filled with tragedy and a genetic disease that makes him immune to pain before pitching him into the central mystery about half-way through the book. For me it’s an overwritten book whose translation uses anachronistic terms (e.g. Ci recognises that Third has a genetic disease and characters use modern idiom, including ‘okay’) and although it did keep me turning the pages, the villain was easy to guess and the obligatory femme fatale character was undeveloped. If this becomes a series, I’m not sure I’ll read on.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
Inspired by the life of a thirteenth-century Chinese academic – the world’s first forensic-science expert – this compelling story revolves around a medieval scholar with an uncanny gift for reading the marks left on corpses. After experiencing unimaginable loss and betrayal, the young Ci becomes a lowly gravedigger, honing the forensic skills that eventually earn him a place at a prestigious university. Fate steps in when the Emperor orders him to the Imperial Court to examine the mutilated victims of a savage killer and identify the perpetrator. As his graphic investigations lead him ever closer to the truth, Ci struggles with old loyalties – and his desire for an enigmatic beauty.
It’s the year 1206. 17-year-old Ci, his father, mother and sister, Third, live with Ci’s elder brother Lu in a small village in Jianyang while his father serves out the required period of mourning for Ci’s grandfather. Ci dreams of a return to the capital city Lin’an where he and his father worked for Judge Feng and Ci was learning how to investigate crimes by examining the bodies of the dead but such a return seems impossible given his father’s determination to stay in the village.
Ci’s life changes forever when he discovers a body while ploughing Lu’s field. Soon he’s on the run with Third, making his way to Lin’an where he finds work as a gravedigger and takes up with a conman keen to use Ci’s ability to make money from mourners. Instead Ci’s abilities lead to an offer of study at the Ming Academy where he comes to the attention of the Imperial Court, which is threatened by a string of violent and unexplained deaths. Ci’s investigations though threaten to reveal his past while also threatening his loyalties and his very life …
Antonio Garrido’s historical crime novel (translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead) is a fictionalised look at the life of the real Ci Song, the father of forensic science. As an ‘origins’ story it sticks Ci with a heavy-handed background filled with tragedy and a genetic disease that makes him immune to pain before pitching him into the central mystery about half-way through the book. For me it’s an overwritten book whose translation uses anachronistic terms (e.g. Ci recognises that Third has a genetic disease and characters use modern idiom, including ‘okay’) and although it did keep me turning the pages, the villain was easy to guess and the obligatory femme fatale character was undeveloped. If this becomes a series, I’m not sure I’ll read on.
Ci seems incapable of learning from his mistakes and his supposed dilemmas of his own making have simple solutions that he refuses to implement, and although Judge Feng is an interesting counterpoint, Blue Iris doesn’t have enough page time to become a rounded character and in fact there are no real female characters in the book. There’s also a lot of torture, which got repetitive after a while.
Ultimately it’s an okay read but not a great one and I’m not sure I’d continue with a series.
The Verdict:
Antonio Garrido’s historical crime novel (translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead) is a fictionalised look at the life of the real Ci Song, the father of forensic science. As an ‘origins’ story it sticks Ci with a heavy-handed background filled with tragedy and a genetic disease that makes him immune to pain before pitching him into the central mystery about half-way through the book. For me it’s an overwritten book whose translation uses anachronistic terms (e.g. Ci recognises that Third has a genetic disease and characters use modern idiom, including ‘okay’) and although it did keep me turning the pages, the villain was easy to guess and the obligatory femme fatale character was undeveloped. If this becomes a series, I’m not sure I’ll read on.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
