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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
A very quick read and a perfect distraction when confined in a plane.
The characters were a little cliched, but the plot was well constructed and it's well paced.
The characters were a little cliched, but the plot was well constructed and it's well paced.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
To be fair, the one star is only representative of the first 1/4 of the book, because that's all of it I could stomach.
Stereotypical characters, boring plot, slow, and just plain badly written. There are literally hundreds of great thrillers out there, back away from this one and go and read something else.
Stereotypical characters, boring plot, slow, and just plain badly written. There are literally hundreds of great thrillers out there, back away from this one and go and read something else.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
TW: DV & Infant death
Natalie King is a forensic psychiatrist. She’s full of spunk - rides a Ducati and rocks it on stage. She’s also being stalked and she suspects it has to do with the case she’s working on.
I loved this book but, a word of warning, it gets quite heavy at times. I loved that Natalie wasn’t pretentious and that she was just your average gal with her own problems. I also love that her animal companion is a parrot who seemingly is the only character who is able to reign Natalie in.
Great book and the first in a series of 4 novels (so far).
Natalie King is a forensic psychiatrist. She’s full of spunk - rides a Ducati and rocks it on stage. She’s also being stalked and she suspects it has to do with the case she’s working on.
I loved this book but, a word of warning, it gets quite heavy at times. I loved that Natalie wasn’t pretentious and that she was just your average gal with her own problems. I also love that her animal companion is a parrot who seemingly is the only character who is able to reign Natalie in.
Great book and the first in a series of 4 novels (so far).
I didn't enjoy this book. The main problem was the characters. There were to many characters that come and went and come back and they were all so similar. Trying to remember who was who in the zoo was the biggest problem, especially when a name would be thrown in out of the blue and you had to figure out who they were. This detracted from the story so much.
A bit of a struggle.
A bit of a struggle.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
‘I need to speak to you, Dr King.’
Okay, so I am working backwards. This is the first novel in the Natalie King series, and the last I have read. I found the latest three books in the series fascinating so I went back to the beginning.
Natalie King is an interesting character: a forensic psychiatrist who sings in a rock band, rides a Ducati and doesn’t always take the appropriate amounts of her prescribed bipolar medication. She’s into a physical relationship with a married crown prosecutor but isn’t looking for anything more serious. In her role as a forensic psychiatrist, she works with victims and perpetrators of violent crime. Right now, she is working with a woman charged with murdering three of her children, and another woman whose daughter is missing. And Natalie is being stalked: someone is threatening her and sending her anonymous notes.
Could her stalker be a former patient? Or someone associated with one of her current patients? As the novel progresses, the stalker escalates. Natalie is also concerned with trying to find the truth about the women she is treating.
‘Natalie didn’t believe in evil. People were complex products of their genes and experiences.’
Ms Buist introduces a large cast of characters in this novel, and it takes concentration to keep on top of the various relationships and history. I recognised some names from the later novels but was mostly focussed on Natalie and her work with her patients. I enjoy novels where the hero is human and not flawless.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
For all my reviews, visit Clues and Reviews
www.cluesandreviews.wordpress.com
Medea’s Curse, a mystery by Anne Buist, follows forensic psychiatrist, Natalie King, works with violent criminals. Specifically, in this novel, her clients are all women who have committed infanticide. As she works through these women’s issues, she becomes entrenched in issues of her own as she begins receiving anonymous notes from someone. Someone who knows too much. Someone who may be putting her in danger….
The subject matter in itself was very interesting. All the characters that Natalie King treats are accused of committing infanticide. Each woman is equally complex and her stories are fully developed throughout the course of the novel.
Author, Anne Buist, is a bit of an expert on the subject matter discussed in Medea’s Curse. She is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and has twenty-five years of clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry dealing with cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide and murder. This makes the plot even more chilling; the reality of these scenarios had my stomach turning.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the development of Natalie King; she is smart, edgy and beats to her own drum. She was an excellent protagonist.
As much as I enjoyed our female lead, the character development, and the general plot, there are a lot of moving pieces to this novel; multiple characters all dealing with complicated backstories and plots. Sometimes, it was a struggle to place everyone. I found that it became jumbled and I struggled to pick up and put this one down. I feel like if you were to read this book in one sitting, it would be okay. Otherwise (and more realistically), you may struggle to keep people and plots in order.
I think all fans of a slower paced and well-developed psychological thrillers will enjoy this first novel in, what I believe, will become a series. However, if you want something simplistic that you can read mindlessly, this would not be your choice. Overall, I gave this one a 3/5 stars.
www.cluesandreviews.wordpress.com
Medea’s Curse, a mystery by Anne Buist, follows forensic psychiatrist, Natalie King, works with violent criminals. Specifically, in this novel, her clients are all women who have committed infanticide. As she works through these women’s issues, she becomes entrenched in issues of her own as she begins receiving anonymous notes from someone. Someone who knows too much. Someone who may be putting her in danger….
The subject matter in itself was very interesting. All the characters that Natalie King treats are accused of committing infanticide. Each woman is equally complex and her stories are fully developed throughout the course of the novel.
Author, Anne Buist, is a bit of an expert on the subject matter discussed in Medea’s Curse. She is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and has twenty-five years of clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry dealing with cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide and murder. This makes the plot even more chilling; the reality of these scenarios had my stomach turning.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the development of Natalie King; she is smart, edgy and beats to her own drum. She was an excellent protagonist.
As much as I enjoyed our female lead, the character development, and the general plot, there are a lot of moving pieces to this novel; multiple characters all dealing with complicated backstories and plots. Sometimes, it was a struggle to place everyone. I found that it became jumbled and I struggled to pick up and put this one down. I feel like if you were to read this book in one sitting, it would be okay. Otherwise (and more realistically), you may struggle to keep people and plots in order.
I think all fans of a slower paced and well-developed psychological thrillers will enjoy this first novel in, what I believe, will become a series. However, if you want something simplistic that you can read mindlessly, this would not be your choice. Overall, I gave this one a 3/5 stars.
After reading the blurb for this book I couldn’t wait to read it.
Natalie is a great protagonist. Her job is certainly not the easiest of ones and reading of her chats with her patients at times was very harrowing. You can tell she really cares about the women that are her patients and even though she has to go behind the actions of their crimes to find out the truth, it can’t be easy to not judge someone, especially a mother who has killed their child.
I like how Natalie doesn’t really rely on anyone. She has a man in her life. Probably not one that’s suitable, but it doesn’t matter to her, I think she just prefers the benefits it brings.
The story does jump around quite a bit which did make me struggle to keep up with what was going on. One minute I would be reading of Natalie with one of her patients the next Natalie would be with her ‘boyfriend’ or somewhere else and I have to admit I don’t think it flowed as well as it could have done. If it had flowed better I think the story would have grabbed me a lot more than it did.
The story line itself is a really good one and when the connections start to fall into place for Natalie, it makes for quite a sinister read.
Medea’s Curse has all the elements of a great book. It’s still a decent read but for me if the story had just flowed better, it would have been an outstanding read, instead of ending up being an okay one.
My thanks to Legend Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Natalie is a great protagonist. Her job is certainly not the easiest of ones and reading of her chats with her patients at times was very harrowing. You can tell she really cares about the women that are her patients and even though she has to go behind the actions of their crimes to find out the truth, it can’t be easy to not judge someone, especially a mother who has killed their child.
I like how Natalie doesn’t really rely on anyone. She has a man in her life. Probably not one that’s suitable, but it doesn’t matter to her, I think she just prefers the benefits it brings.
The story does jump around quite a bit which did make me struggle to keep up with what was going on. One minute I would be reading of Natalie with one of her patients the next Natalie would be with her ‘boyfriend’ or somewhere else and I have to admit I don’t think it flowed as well as it could have done. If it had flowed better I think the story would have grabbed me a lot more than it did.
The story line itself is a really good one and when the connections start to fall into place for Natalie, it makes for quite a sinister read.
Medea’s Curse has all the elements of a great book. It’s still a decent read but for me if the story had just flowed better, it would have been an outstanding read, instead of ending up being an okay one.
My thanks to Legend Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Really meh honestly. And weirdly surprisingly male-gazey.