#BlogTour ‘The Embalmer’ by Alison Belsham

About the book…

Has the ancient Egyptian cult of immortality resurfaced in Brighton?

When a freshly-mummified body is discovered at the Brighton Museum of Natural History, Detective Francis Sullivan is at a loss to identify the desiccated woman. But as Egyptian burial jars of body parts with cryptic messages attached start appearing, he realises he has a serial killer on his hands.

Revenge, obsession and an ancient religion form a potent mix, unleashing a wave of terror throughout the city.

Caught in a race against time while battling his own demons, Francis must fight to uncover the true identity of the Embalmer before it’s too late…

The third in the rather fantastic ‘Tattoo Thief’ series, ‘The Embalmer’ is published in paperback by Trapeze publishing, available from all good bookshops! Huge thanks to Alex Layt of Orion books for the gifted review copy of what I am sure is going to be a huge success!

This book is BRILLIANT.

It takes the previous 2 novels in the series, builds upon the relationships created in them and moves them forward with a natural fluidity that makes for a very visual, almost cinematic reading experience.

This time around,the police team are trying to recover themselves following the shocking conclusion of ‘Her Last Breath’, a new team member is introduced (Gavin) and a highly unusual crime scene discovered…

At the Brighton Museum of Natural History-a very loose translation of the word  ‘museum’, a glass display case with two sea eagles in it is found to have been emptied overnight and replaced with a new exhibit, a freshly emblamed mummy, surrounded by canopic jars.

Rose, the local pathologist, initially dismisses this as following in the footsteps of the latest ‘craze’, mummified cat organs (why, just….why?!!!) but on closer inspection, this is a body which has not only been embalmed according to Egyptian tradition, but also had been held somewhere for 40 days to allow for the process to take full effect.

Meanwhile, tattooist Marni Mullins, who has helped Detective Francis Sullivan with his previous two cases, has been arrested following the brutal death of her husband. Fran has blurred the lines between personal and professional with Marni so has to watch from the sidelines, convinced that Marni is innocent, but how can he prove it?

And with more jars arriving at the local newspaper office, and dead bodies turning up, Fran and his team may have met their most devious and twisted criminal mind yet…

It is a brutally faced paced story which relies on the reader to pay close attention to what is going on, the chapters revolve between Fran, Marni and the Embalmer himself, giving you an insight into where his psychology lies. He is someone aspiring to immortality via the sacrifices required to the gods he believes in, in return for the abuse and degradation he has experienced throughout his younger years, taking a ‘god complex’ to literal new heights. This enhances the race against time aspect of the chase to bring him to ground, you have this unique insight and are just on the edge of your seat waiting for the clues to be picked up by Fran, Angie, Gavin and Rose.

The dynamics between the police are so interesting, the way that you approach such a highly skilled, professional role without letting it spill over into your personal life is so well described. And the tattoo aspect is pure genius, the way that something which is often taken as a negative, something that marks a person out for a choice they made to write their journey on their skin (often seen as a way of distancing the self from others, and looked down upon) is elevated and seen as worthy.

It all combines to create a deliciously dark atmosphere, once again set in Brighton which is so well described over the series that I feel like I have been there, and once more Alison  peels back the veneer of what is commonly assumed to be a millionaires beach front playground, to reveal the stained and dirty underbelly which exists beneath the postcard perfect surface.

Still wish you here?

About the author…

Alison Belsham initially started writing with the ambition of becoming a screenwriter — and in 2000 was commended for her visual storytelling in the Orange Prize for Screenwriting. In 2001 she was shortlisted in a BBC Drama Writer competition.

Life and children intervened but, switching to fiction, in 2009 her novel Domino was selected for the prestigious Adventures in Fiction mentoring scheme.

In 2016 she pitched her first crime novel, The Tattoo Thief’, at the Pitch Perfect event at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival and was judged the winner, followed by the sequel, ‘Her Last Breath’

Links-http://www.alisonbelsham.com/

Twitter @AlisonBelsham@TrapezeBooks