#WinterChills ‘Deadly Animals’ by Marie Tierney

About the book…

Thirteen-year-old Ava Bonney possesses an unusual intellect far beyond her years. While her friends play, Ava’s fascination lies in the intricate process of animal decomposition, studying roadkill found in the streets around her home.

But, one night, Ava’s secret nocturnal routine takes a chilling turn when she stumbles upon the lifeless body of fellow schoolmate, Mickey Grant.

As Detective Seth Delahaye takes charge of the perplexing case, Ava refuses to sit idle. Determined and resourceful, she embarks on a daring quest to unveil the truth behind the string of chilling deaths plaguing her community.

Armed with her unique skills and unrivalled local knowledge, Ava becomes an unlikely force in the race to apprehend the elusive killer before more lives are claimed.

Thanking myself for having the good taste to pick up this novel-this happens to me a lot since books started being stocked in supermarkets, they just follow me home!-‘Deadly Animals’ was published in hardcover by Zaffre in February and has just been released in glorious paperback.

The only regret that I have is that in reading this book once, I can never again read it for the first time so would beseech you, if you are looking for something new to read, pick up a copy of this glorious debut because trust me, it is something special.

Ava is a character who leaps from the page, fully formed. She is the odd kid, the one who doesn’t fit in at home or at school, the one who experiments and researches bodily processes via her careful documentation of dead animals. These are the victims of the new road which mercilessly provides her with material for her burgeoning body farm, it is an escape from her confusing and fractured home life where her mother’s boyfriend is paying her just a little too much attention…

However, when one of her trips out of the house, at night away from this life, she finds a missing boy. Torn between exposing her nocturnal trips and losing this privilege of being away from her finds, and doing the right thing by this child, she makes an annonymous phonecall to the police, using one of her many voices and characters to disguise herself.

And so begins a personal and cultural journey through a summer in the 1980’s , as a new to town detective has to both make his mark and lead a team who are dubious and mistrustful of him. DS Delahyde and Ava narrate the majority of the book showing from both sides of the thin blue line, just what horror can be visited on a community where children grow up hardscrabble and defensive against authority figures who barely seem to notice them at all.

Ava is almost at the other end of the continuum from Miss Marple in that either as a young girl, or an older woman, you appear to be invisible in the eyes of larger society that seems fit to determine what you should and should not be interested in.

Ava knows this hobby of hers is macabre but is powerless to do anything about it, her driving intelligence and need to know, to show and experience life, and nature, red in tooth and claw is what keeps this fiercely intelligent girl one step ahead of the investigation. She is written s brilliantly that you ache to give her the most massive hug as she tries to process trauma in a world where no one really gives her her dues. So when that finally happens, it allows her to be truly herself and admit to how she is feeling, and it is truly heart-breaking and wonderful all at the same time.

This is an absolutely superb novel which straddles a crime/horror/thriller genre whilst appealing to fans of them all. I cannot wait to read the sequel, which I have only just discovered that Marie is working on, hurray!

About the author…

Marie Tierney was a finalist in the Daily Mail First Novel competition. When she isn’t researching criminal history, she writes plays and poetry.

Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Marie dedicated almost twenty years to working in education before becoming a full-time writer. She lives in East Anglia with her husband and son.

Twitter @ZaffreBooks