Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
This one did not hold up to Bauer’s other books that I’ve read.
Disappointed.
Disappointed.
Dark story lifted by a touch of humour...
Little Daniel Buck ran out of his house one morning four months ago and has never been seen since. Edie Evans was older when she went missing several months earlier, nearly a teenager, but the signs are even more sinister in her case, since blood was found beside her broken and abandoned bicycle. Edie's case still haunts DCI John Marvel, especially since he has convinced himself that she is still alive. In fact, so desperate had he become that he even put aside all his disbelief and cynicism and consulted a psychic. But to no avail, and the case is now officially classed as 'cold'. But when Marvel begins to suspect a tenuous link between the two very different disappearances, he's willing to clutch at any straw to have it reopened...
Belinda Bauer has the rare talent amongst crime writers of achieving a near perfect balance of light and shade, so that her books are always hugely entertaining even when they are addressing some pretty grim and disturbing subjects. In this book, she does this in two ways. Her third person multiple-viewpoint narration provides a tiny bit of distance between the reader and her characters, allowing her to show the emotional turmoil of losing a child without forcing the reader to spend too much time inside the bleakness of the parents' minds. She is also a mistress of the art of injecting little bits of black humour at just the right places to lift the tone without destroying the tension. Her humour is so black and so subtle, in fact, that it often feels as if it comes direct from the reader's mind rather than the author's pen, which is brilliantly disconcerting.
There are three main viewpoints in the book. James, Daniel's father, is riddled with guilt because he left open the door allowing Daniel to run off. But he's just about holding it together, providing strength and support for his distraught wife, Anna. James works in the garage across the road from his home and it was there that the last signs of Daniel were seen - his little footprints embedded in the wet cement of the new forecourt. The garage is staffed mainly by immigrants, legal and illegal, while James' boss is an unscrupulous bully. But this all-male environment gives James a kind of emotional support that helps him face things at home.
Anna is falling apart - she rarely leaves the house except to clean and polish the footprints to stop them from being worn away. Anna's story is the grimmest strand in the book - Bauer shows us the agony and guilt felt by a mother who loses her child, and when we first meet Anna we learn how close she is to complete despair and mental breakdown. But one day a flyer is put through her door for a spiritualist meeting and she is tempted to try to find out once and for all if Daniel has died.
The third viewpoint is DCI Marvel and it's in the sections relating to him that Bauer employs her humour. Marvel is a good cop, driven to succeed, but with little empathy for either the victims or his colleagues. Usually he sees each case as a competition between himself and the killer, but something about Edie has found his soft centre - maybe because she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, and this reminds him of his own boyhood dream. So when the Superintendent pulls him off a murder case to carry out what he sees as a trivial investigation, he's at first outraged but then decides to use it as leverage to force the Superintendent to reopen Edie's case. We also get to see Marvel's home life, and his relationship with his put-upon partner Debbie, which nicely rounds him out as a character. He loves Debbie but he clearly doesn't understand why she gets so frustrated with his behaviour. What's so odd about looking over autopsy pictures during dinner anyway?
There is a supernatural element to the book surrounding the spiritual church and the psychic involved in looking for Edie. Normally that would destroy the credibility of any book for me, but Bauer's writing is of such high quality that she carried me along and I was happy to suspend my disbelief. Marvel, too, is a cynic about such things and his down-to-earth scepticism prevents this aspect of the plot from becoming too fanciful.
Another excellent outing from Belinda Bauer, who seems to grow in skill and confidence with every book. Recently she has been producing standalones, as I believe this is, but I would be one delighted reader if she decided to bring DCI Marvel back for another case at some point - he's the kind of character who's fun to spend time with... complex, frustrating, sometimes unfeeling, but also amusing and likeable, and with a good heart. I may have to start a petition...
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Little Daniel Buck ran out of his house one morning four months ago and has never been seen since. Edie Evans was older when she went missing several months earlier, nearly a teenager, but the signs are even more sinister in her case, since blood was found beside her broken and abandoned bicycle. Edie's case still haunts DCI John Marvel, especially since he has convinced himself that she is still alive. In fact, so desperate had he become that he even put aside all his disbelief and cynicism and consulted a psychic. But to no avail, and the case is now officially classed as 'cold'. But when Marvel begins to suspect a tenuous link between the two very different disappearances, he's willing to clutch at any straw to have it reopened...
Belinda Bauer has the rare talent amongst crime writers of achieving a near perfect balance of light and shade, so that her books are always hugely entertaining even when they are addressing some pretty grim and disturbing subjects. In this book, she does this in two ways. Her third person multiple-viewpoint narration provides a tiny bit of distance between the reader and her characters, allowing her to show the emotional turmoil of losing a child without forcing the reader to spend too much time inside the bleakness of the parents' minds. She is also a mistress of the art of injecting little bits of black humour at just the right places to lift the tone without destroying the tension. Her humour is so black and so subtle, in fact, that it often feels as if it comes direct from the reader's mind rather than the author's pen, which is brilliantly disconcerting.
There are three main viewpoints in the book. James, Daniel's father, is riddled with guilt because he left open the door allowing Daniel to run off. But he's just about holding it together, providing strength and support for his distraught wife, Anna. James works in the garage across the road from his home and it was there that the last signs of Daniel were seen - his little footprints embedded in the wet cement of the new forecourt. The garage is staffed mainly by immigrants, legal and illegal, while James' boss is an unscrupulous bully. But this all-male environment gives James a kind of emotional support that helps him face things at home.
Anna is falling apart - she rarely leaves the house except to clean and polish the footprints to stop them from being worn away. Anna's story is the grimmest strand in the book - Bauer shows us the agony and guilt felt by a mother who loses her child, and when we first meet Anna we learn how close she is to complete despair and mental breakdown. But one day a flyer is put through her door for a spiritualist meeting and she is tempted to try to find out once and for all if Daniel has died.
The third viewpoint is DCI Marvel and it's in the sections relating to him that Bauer employs her humour. Marvel is a good cop, driven to succeed, but with little empathy for either the victims or his colleagues. Usually he sees each case as a competition between himself and the killer, but something about Edie has found his soft centre - maybe because she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, and this reminds him of his own boyhood dream. So when the Superintendent pulls him off a murder case to carry out what he sees as a trivial investigation, he's at first outraged but then decides to use it as leverage to force the Superintendent to reopen Edie's case. We also get to see Marvel's home life, and his relationship with his put-upon partner Debbie, which nicely rounds him out as a character. He loves Debbie but he clearly doesn't understand why she gets so frustrated with his behaviour. What's so odd about looking over autopsy pictures during dinner anyway?
There is a supernatural element to the book surrounding the spiritual church and the psychic involved in looking for Edie. Normally that would destroy the credibility of any book for me, but Bauer's writing is of such high quality that she carried me along and I was happy to suspend my disbelief. Marvel, too, is a cynic about such things and his down-to-earth scepticism prevents this aspect of the plot from becoming too fanciful.
Another excellent outing from Belinda Bauer, who seems to grow in skill and confidence with every book. Recently she has been producing standalones, as I believe this is, but I would be one delighted reader if she decided to bring DCI Marvel back for another case at some point - he's the kind of character who's fun to spend time with... complex, frustrating, sometimes unfeeling, but also amusing and likeable, and with a good heart. I may have to start a petition...
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
How does one deal with life after a child goes missing? This tale of a lost child does not follow the stereotypical path of dwelling on the grieving parents. Yes, they are overcome with their grief, but the story switches from them to other characters involved in the missing child case that it never gets weighed down with grief and loss to the degree that I couldn't keep reading. Interesting character development and twist.
this didn't grab me like her latest novel did. i thought it was overly and unnecessarily long.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Really liked this book, the story itself is sad but I didn’t see it coming
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Shut Eye is a spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat thriller about a woman who gets involved with a psychic who may be able to find her missing son. Five footprints are the only sign that four-year-old Daniel Buck was ever here. And now they are all his mother has left.
So this book will be going down as the most underrated and unrecognised book I have read this year. When it came up as my next read I put a little poll out and practically nobody had heard of it and no one had actually read it. Why???
It’s brilliant! The storyline is unique for a thriller in this style, the characters are written exceptionally well and the twists and turns are fantastic! There are unanswered questions that don’t need to be answered and a dysfunctional detective at the centre of it all.
Sometimes if I read a thriller on the back of another one I feel over saturated but this didn’t happen at all with this as there was just something so different about it.
I found myself racing through it and picking the book up (well Kindle) constantly to inhale a few more pages. I think I read it in 2 or 3 days which is fast for me!
There are lots of moments of wry humour throughout, as well as some sad heartbreaking moments and of course the shock ick factor too!
I definitely recommend you read this book if you like thrillers and I will be seeking out more books by Belinda Bauer.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was not at all what I thought it was going to be! And that turned out to be fabulous, as I totally enjoyed this book!
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes