Blacklands
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNAP
'Extraordinarily powerful and evocative . . . will leave you breathless.' Daily Mirror
VOTED CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR when it was first released, and still the most gripping, powerful thriller debut you will read this year.
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Steven Lamb is 12 when he writes his first letter . . . to a serial killer
Every day after school, whilst his classmates swap football stickers, twelve-year-old Steven digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. His uncle disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery - but his body has never been found.
Steven's Nan does not believe her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late - even if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son.
But when Steven realises this is an impossible task, he crafts a careful letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored psychopath . . .
Readers love Blacklands:
'A dark, gripping story . . . full of tension' *****
'A truly chilling and disturbing read' *****
'An intelligent crime thriller that seeps with atmosphere' *****
*Belinda Bauer's pulse-pounding new thriller, EXIT, is out now*
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
In this book, however, we see the loss not through the eyes of the mother or the sister of the murdered boy but through the eyes of a boy who wasn't born at the time of his death, a boy who would have been his nephew. And it actually kind of works.
Steven makes for a pretty good twelve-year-old who has a broken family and hardly any friends. I believed the character, and at times, he really broke my heart.
The other characters were not as fleshed out as I would have hoped. Even the serial killer who accounts for almost half the chapters feels a bit flat and one-dimensional. But perhaps a serial killer who targets young children only has one (very evil and disgusting) dimension. I did like that at no point were we asked to pity him or consider his feelings. I don't think I could have even if I tried.
I read that this was a debut novel, and it is my first by Belinda Bauer. I liked it - but didn't love it - enough that I would read more by her. While it didn't blow my mind, the story kept a good pace, and it was well written. I'm guessing/hoping her writing evolved as she went along based on her fan base.
3 Stars
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