The Beauty Of Murder by A. K. Benedict

The Blurb On The Back:

Stephen Killigan has been cold since the day he arrived in Cambridge. Seven hundred years of history staining the stones of the university have given him a chill he can’t shake. Then he stumbles across the body of a missing beauty queen – a body that disappears before the police arrive …

Killigan enters the sinister world of Jackamore Grass on a trail that reaches back to seventeenth-century Cambridge. It’s a world of cadavers, tattooists, philosophers and scholars of deadly beauty, a world where a corpse can be found before someone goes missing and of a city and a killer that hold many secrets written in blood.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

A. K. Benedict’s debut crime novel mixes time travel, murder and the philosophy of beauty to mixed effect. I picked this up because I loved the idea of a time-travelling killer and for the most part Jackamore Grass is a suitably creepy antagonist whose unusual abilities have made him arrogant and disconnected to such an extent that it’s only the discovery that Killigan shares his time-travelling gift that brings some excitement back to his life. Unfortunately I found Killigan a less interesting protagonist – a drifter for most of his life he flits from supporting character to supporting character and never really develops a relationship with anyone, whether it’s his supposed best friend Satnam or his love interest, Lana (who are brought in and out as the plot dictates it). I was particularly frustrated by his failure to push anyone for information – especially in his scenes with Robert Sachs, which don’t really go anywhere and served to irritate me as much as Killigan. I actually found myself wanting more of Hart, whose battle with breast cancer made her easy to empathise with and whose struggle to come to terms with what Killigan tells her is well depicted. The biggest let down of the novel though is the lack of resolution and while that is in keeping with the philosophical themes in the book, it made for a disappointing end. Ultimately, although this book didn’t quite work for me, there’s enough here for me to read more of Benedict’s work.

The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland

The Blurb On The Back:

England, 1321. Welcome to the Dark Ages.

Deep in the heart of the countryside lies an isolated village governed by a sinister regime of Owl Masters. Theirs is a pagan world of terror and blackmail, where neighbour denounces neighbour and sin is punishable by murder.

This dark status quo is disturbed by the arrival of a house of religious women, who establish a community outside the village. Why do their crops succeed when village crops fail, their cattle survive despite the plague? But petty jealousy turns deadly when the women give refuge to a young martyr. For she dies a gruesome death after spitting the sacramental host into flames that can’t burn it – what magic is this? Or is the martyr now a saint and the host a holy relic?

Accusations of witchcraft and heresy run rife while the Owl Masters rain down hellfire and torment on the women, who must look to their faith to save them from the lengthening shadow of Evil … a shadow with predatory, terrifying talons.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Karen Maitland’s second novel skilfully mixes historical fiction with mystical elements and a strong feminist screed that kept me turning the pages from beginning to end. I particularly enjoyed how Maitland switches points of view in the novel to keep the action moving and at the same time bring together the independent plot strands to form a cohesive whole. Particularly good are those chapters told by Servant Martha and Father Ulfrid, each of whom has their own secrets that make them both desperate and bring them into insurmountable conflict with each other. I also enjoyed learning more about beguinages – a group that was common in Europe but which never really got a footing in the UK and again, the conflict between Christianity and pagan custom forms a neat tension within the book that the hapless villagers find themselves caught between. Maitland does well at making the history feel authentic and the feminist themes feel modern without contradicting the time period. I did find some of the characters – notably Robert D’Acaster and his slimy nephew Phillip, but also Ulfrid’s lover, a little two-dimensional – and the downbeat ending may disappoint some, but I found myself gripped by what was happening so that while this is a very long book, I read it very quickly and will definitely check out Maitland’s other work.

Thanks to Penguin Books for the review copy of this book.