Laboured mortuary set crime caper that drags with two underdeveloped mystery elements.
Having enjoyed A.K Turner’s Kiszka and Kershaw novels written under her pen name of Anya Lipska I was keen to read Body Language, despite the kooky premise of a mortuary technician with a sixth sense communing with the dead. Twenty-five-year-old Cassie Raven is an archetypical rebel with tattoos, piercings, a shaved undercut and a serious mistrust of the police but she is also very conscientious and not to underestimated. Having worked as a mortuary technician for five years and acquired enough qualifications at evening classes to train to become a coroner she prides herself on treating the dead with respect and taking the utmost care of her clients. Brought up by his Polish grandmother after her parents died in a car crash in her early years, Cassie has long had a strange relationship with death and has difficulty forming lasting romantic relationships, being reluctant to let people in.
Cassie’s personal involvement in her job goes to new lengths when she unzips a body bag to be confronted by the face of the woman who taught her science and was pivotal in taking her from squats and casual drug usage to her current career. Discovering that Geraldine Edwards (“Mrs E”) was only fifty-one and in the best of health, Cassie gets a intuitive feeling that there is something a little fishy about the way she died. Deciding to do a bit of her own investigating and ensure Mrs E gets the justice she deserves Cassie is surprised to learn about her recent engagement and the arrival of her alcoholic adult son pushing for a quick cremation adds to her concerns. Meanwhile the theft of a body overnight from the mortuary sees the officious DS Phyllida Flyte arrive to investigate. A recent transfer from leafy Winchester for personal reasons and none too keen on her grubby new beat, DS Flyte quickly takes a dislike to Cassie’s alternative appearance and surly demeanour and makes her number one suspect for the body theft. As the gradual frostiness between cop and mortuary technician thaws, each coming to realise that they might both be able to help each other, Cassie decides to shed some light on the missing body in return for DS Flyte doing a little bit of digging about the circumstances of Mrs E’s death.
Although there are two mystery elements at play I didn’t find either particularly compelling not helped by the fact that so much is overexplained, slowing the narrative down and dragging the story out. Whether Cassie experiences the apparitions and words of the recently deceased or whether she projects them onto the customers she is taking care of is not made entirely clear but either way I found it a far too tenuous starting point for a realistic mystery, particularly one that uptight DS Phyllida Flyte’s goes to entirely unrealistic lengths to investigate. Narrated in the third person the story switches between focusing on Cassie and DS Flyte, allowing the reader to be privy to both of their separate efforts. Overall I just think the book tried too hard to be edgy and descended into a stupidly far-fetched caper with policing along the lines of a cosy mystery. The main characters had me cringing and Cassie’s supposedly druggy past and DS Phyllida Flyte’s awkward persona were harped on about to the point that it became tiresome.
Despite being set in a mortuary the story isn’t dark or gritty at all and both mystery elements become a little farcical and I doubt I will be following any future outings. I was, however, very impressed with the obvious amount of research undertaken and the author did a superb job of broadening my knowledge of the post-mortem procedure and illustrating the differences between a routine and a forensic post-mortem.
Cassie’s personal involvement in her job goes to new lengths when she unzips a body bag to be confronted by the face of the woman who taught her science and was pivotal in taking her from squats and casual drug usage to her current career. Discovering that Geraldine Edwards (“Mrs E”) was only fifty-one and in the best of health, Cassie gets a intuitive feeling that there is something a little fishy about the way she died. Deciding to do a bit of her own investigating and ensure Mrs E gets the justice she deserves Cassie is surprised to learn about her recent engagement and the arrival of her alcoholic adult son pushing for a quick cremation adds to her concerns. Meanwhile the theft of a body overnight from the mortuary sees the officious DS Phyllida Flyte arrive to investigate. A recent transfer from leafy Winchester for personal reasons and none too keen on her grubby new beat, DS Flyte quickly takes a dislike to Cassie’s alternative appearance and surly demeanour and makes her number one suspect for the body theft. As the gradual frostiness between cop and mortuary technician thaws, each coming to realise that they might both be able to help each other, Cassie decides to shed some light on the missing body in return for DS Flyte doing a little bit of digging about the circumstances of Mrs E’s death.
Although there are two mystery elements at play I didn’t find either particularly compelling not helped by the fact that so much is overexplained, slowing the narrative down and dragging the story out. Whether Cassie experiences the apparitions and words of the recently deceased or whether she projects them onto the customers she is taking care of is not made entirely clear but either way I found it a far too tenuous starting point for a realistic mystery, particularly one that uptight DS Phyllida Flyte’s goes to entirely unrealistic lengths to investigate. Narrated in the third person the story switches between focusing on Cassie and DS Flyte, allowing the reader to be privy to both of their separate efforts. Overall I just think the book tried too hard to be edgy and descended into a stupidly far-fetched caper with policing along the lines of a cosy mystery. The main characters had me cringing and Cassie’s supposedly druggy past and DS Phyllida Flyte’s awkward persona were harped on about to the point that it became tiresome.
Despite being set in a mortuary the story isn’t dark or gritty at all and both mystery elements become a little farcical and I doubt I will be following any future outings. I was, however, very impressed with the obvious amount of research undertaken and the author did a superb job of broadening my knowledge of the post-mortem procedure and illustrating the differences between a routine and a forensic post-mortem.