Cassie Raven. Goth. Smart-mouth. Mortuary assistant.
Working in a Camden mortuary, Cassie cares for the dead as if it is her sacred duty. Sometimes when she is cleaning them up, she even feels as if they speak to her. When in the same week a body goes missing from her care, and a woman Cassie loved as a mother turns up at the mortuary - in a body bag, she thinks there's more going on than meets the eye.
At first I felt that this was a classic clue-heavy crime novel, but as I got into it I found that it was well paced, genuinely surprising, and with a wonderfully fresh narrator. I enjoyed Cassie as much as you would expect, she reminds me of a lot of people I have worked with and meet in Bristol pubs.
I like the way the book fringes on the supernatural, with Cassie's intuitions guiding her when she is stuck. The way it was established from the start succeeded at making it an integrated part of the story instead of a deus ex machina, which is important.
This isn't going to be my new favorite novel or anything, but for a modern urban crime story it was good fun, nicely paced and it kept me reading avidly till the end.
Working in a Camden mortuary, Cassie cares for the dead as if it is her sacred duty. Sometimes when she is cleaning them up, she even feels as if they speak to her. When in the same week a body goes missing from her care, and a woman Cassie loved as a mother turns up at the mortuary - in a body bag, she thinks there's more going on than meets the eye.
At first I felt that this was a classic clue-heavy crime novel, but as I got into it I found that it was well paced, genuinely surprising, and with a wonderfully fresh narrator. I enjoyed Cassie as much as you would expect, she reminds me of a lot of people I have worked with and meet in Bristol pubs.
I like the way the book fringes on the supernatural, with Cassie's intuitions guiding her when she is stuck. The way it was established from the start succeeded at making it an integrated part of the story instead of a deus ex machina, which is important.
This isn't going to be my new favorite novel or anything, but for a modern urban crime story it was good fun, nicely paced and it kept me reading avidly till the end.