#BlogTour ‘Body Language’ by A.K Turner

About the book…

THE DEAD CAN TALK – WE JUST NEED TO LISTEN . . .

Camden mortuary assistant Cassie Raven has pretty much seen it all. But this is the first time she’s come face to face with someone she knew on the slab. Someone she cared about.

Geraldine Edwards, the teacher responsible for her returning to education after she got ensnared in a life of drugs. The woman who acted as a second mother to the orphaned Cassie.

Deeply intuitive and convinced that she can pick up the last thoughts of the dead, Cassie senses that there must be more to the ruling of an accidental death. With Mrs E.’s evasive son demanding the release of his mother’s body, Cassie knows that time is running out to find answers. Is her grief making her see things that aren’t there? Or is her intuition right, and there’s something more sinister to Mrs E’s death than the ME thinks? Harbouring an innate distrust of the police, Cassie sets out to investigate the death and deliver justice for the woman who saved her life.

For fans of Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series and Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan comes a new heroine for forensic medicine.

Massive thanks to the ever awesome Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invite, and publishers Zaffre Books, for my gifted ebook review copy of ‘Body Language’ by AK Turner (aka Anya Lipska) which is out now in paperback format!

This is the first in a new series by Anya Lipska writing under the name A.K Turner, and it is a doozy! Cassandra(Cassie) Raven is a mortuary techinician with a difference-she talks to the dead, and they answer back. She uses her skills to pinpoint things that others might overlook and her forensic and psychic skills, allow her to help the people who come across her path to rest in peace.

A new mortician is assigned to work with her who she doesn’t immediately get to grips with, he is the opposite of her, well-educated, well off and distant. Named Cuff-which makes you think of a BP cuff which tightens on your arm and causes you pain-he and Cass do not get off to a great start.

But when the inexplicable happens-a body goes missing from their morgue-and the police start investigating as Cass was the last one to use a code to enter the builiding, and Cuff is distraught that this could have happened on his watch, they need to work together to find out what happened to the elderly gentleman  whose body vanished overnight.

Alongside this, you have the policewoman sent to investigate, Phyllida Flyte, who is running away from some unamed trauma and is determined to get her teeth stuck into this case-and she immediately sets her sights on the unusual Cass with her tattoos, body piercings and undercut.

And whilst all this is taking up Cass’ mindspace, one day, she opens a body bag to find the woman who set on the path to her profession, her night school science teacher, Mrs E. The cause of death is mysterious, even more so is the appearance of the son that Cass never knew she had. And why is he acting so strangely?

It’s an engaging and intriguing series opener which makes you want to know more about Cass, her Polish nana Weronika who is as ferocious as her granddaughter, and the fascinating insights into a mortician’s art. I think it’s no accident that Cass shares a first name with the character from Greek mythology who was cursed to see visions and have no one believe her, and her surname with a bird that is considered a psychopomp-one that transports souls to heaven…or hell.

In a book about digging deep beyond the surface, this is not a mere whodunnit, this is dive into the intricacies of the death, the way that people experience and react to it, and the effect on those left behind. It’s a great read and I highly recommend it!

About the author…

A.K.’s first foray into crime fiction was a detective thriller trilogy, written under the pen name Anya Lipska, following the adventures of Janusz Kiszka, tough guy and fixer to London’s Polish community. The first of the trilogy led Val McDermid to select her for the prestigious New Blood panel at Harrogate Crime Festival. All three books won critical acclaim and are currently under option as a potential TV crime series.

Set in a Camden morgue, A.K.’s new novels feature crime-solving Goth-girl mortuary attendant Cassie Raven. Cassie has already appeared in Cut and Paste, a crime short for BBC Radio 4, who are interested in commissioning further stories featuring the character.

In her other life as a TV producer and writer, A.K. makes documentaries and drama-docs on subjects as diverse as the Mutiny on the Bounty, the sex lives of Neanderthals, and Monty Don’s Italian Gardens.

Twitter @AnyaLipska @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n

Link-http://www.anyalipska.com/