Mediocre serial killer thriller that required finessing with a lead detective with a wildly OTT backstory.
The Art of Death is a pretty run-of-the-mill serial killer thriller set in London and introduces newly promoted thirty-year-old DI Grace Archer as she prepares to start her first day at Charing Cross Police Station, where she is due to replace the detective she arrested for corruption. Prepared to face hostility from boss, DCI Clare Pierce, who was in a relationship with the corrupt cop, Grace’s first day is a baptism of fire that begins when she and DS Harry Quinn are called to a grotesque art installation outside a central London landmark. Confronted by the corpses of three homeless men floating in glass vitrines of formaldehyde, all being live streamed on social media, it is the latest work of an incognito artist who calls himself @nonymous. With more ‘exhibits’ in the same vein promised to follow in quick succession Grace is immediately on the back foot with a muckraking tabloid journalist eager to expose her own brush with death in childhood.
DI Grace Archer’s backstory is wildly over-the-top and unbelievable (specifically that at the age of twelve she escaped from and became the sole survivor of a child serial killer) and Fennell elaborates extensively on it to the point where it intrudes on the investigation and the book begins to feel all about Grace facing down a second serial killer. Together with the implausibility that she would have been immediately drafted into the position of the detective she had arrested, and expected to report to DCI Pierce, it is not the most auspicious start to the book. However DI Grace Archer and sardonic DS Harry Quinn make an agreeable team despite Archer initially ruffling a few feathers by demanding to lead the investigation and parachuting in transsexual NCA analyst, friend and tech whizz, Klara Clark. There were early signs of a rapport developing between this trio who all have seem to have a solid work ethic and sense of humour which bodes well for future outings, with bigoted DI Rodney Hicks keen to undermine Grace and take the lead in the investigation.
The novel is narrated in the third person and largely told from the perspective of Grace with the exception of interludes that follow @nonymous and the lives of his intended victims prior to falling into his clutches. The investigation is largely reactive due to the quick succession in which further exhibits appear meaning there is precious little opportunity to even begin identifying possible future targets. The results mostly come by way of Clark’s deft scrutiny of CCTV and monitoring of ANPR cameras, not making for a particularly exciting case. The novel itself cracks along at a decent pace and whilst suspension of disbelief is pretty much standard with every serial killer novel, with The Art of Death it is a necessity with laughably gory deaths, fantastical staging and a hefty body count. Whilst it’s obviously nigh on impossible to bring anything new to the serial killer thriller genre I was disappointed at how cliché-ridden and hackneyed The Art of Death felt even down to what seems to be the now de rigueur method of selecting victims via social media. The perpetrator isn’t particularly well disguised and, along with his obvious intention to target DI Grace Archer, the reveal is very little of a surprise. Overall a solid read but not one that left me particularly excited about future outings from DI Grace Archer or offerings from David Fennell.
DI Grace Archer’s backstory is wildly over-the-top and unbelievable (specifically that at the age of twelve she escaped from and became the sole survivor of a child serial killer) and Fennell elaborates extensively on it to the point where it intrudes on the investigation and the book begins to feel all about Grace facing down a second serial killer. Together with the implausibility that she would have been immediately drafted into the position of the detective she had arrested, and expected to report to DCI Pierce, it is not the most auspicious start to the book. However DI Grace Archer and sardonic DS Harry Quinn make an agreeable team despite Archer initially ruffling a few feathers by demanding to lead the investigation and parachuting in transsexual NCA analyst, friend and tech whizz, Klara Clark. There were early signs of a rapport developing between this trio who all have seem to have a solid work ethic and sense of humour which bodes well for future outings, with bigoted DI Rodney Hicks keen to undermine Grace and take the lead in the investigation.
The novel is narrated in the third person and largely told from the perspective of Grace with the exception of interludes that follow @nonymous and the lives of his intended victims prior to falling into his clutches. The investigation is largely reactive due to the quick succession in which further exhibits appear meaning there is precious little opportunity to even begin identifying possible future targets. The results mostly come by way of Clark’s deft scrutiny of CCTV and monitoring of ANPR cameras, not making for a particularly exciting case. The novel itself cracks along at a decent pace and whilst suspension of disbelief is pretty much standard with every serial killer novel, with The Art of Death it is a necessity with laughably gory deaths, fantastical staging and a hefty body count. Whilst it’s obviously nigh on impossible to bring anything new to the serial killer thriller genre I was disappointed at how cliché-ridden and hackneyed The Art of Death felt even down to what seems to be the now de rigueur method of selecting victims via social media. The perpetrator isn’t particularly well disguised and, along with his obvious intention to target DI Grace Archer, the reveal is very little of a surprise. Overall a solid read but not one that left me particularly excited about future outings from DI Grace Archer or offerings from David Fennell.