Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

review by Maryom

 After eight years in Homicide with Detroit police department, detective Gabi Versado thought she'd seen every possible way to die - but the latest death still shocks her. Only the upper half of the young boy's body is there - below the waist it's been attached to the lower half of a deer! What kind of monster would do such a thing and why?
 While Gabi and her team try to track down the killer, others have their own concerns; her teenage daughter Layla and friend Cas are trawling the internet looking for paedophiles; journalist Jonno is trying to put grief and his life in New York behind him and make a new start in Detroit; TK is emptying the contents from abandoned homes and businesses, and helping out at the homeless shelter; and down on his luck artist Clayton Broom thinks he's found inspiration at last....

 Broken Monsters is the new thriller from Lauren Beukes, the author of The Shining Girls, and again she's mixing nail-biting thriller with a touch of the supernatural. I know this isn't quite everyone's taste - they prefer their crime, no matter how disturbing, to be set very firmly in the real  world - but I loved it. What matters to me is that the characters, and their motivations and desires, ring true, and they do here. And what an array of characters and story-lines! All of the sub-plots are up in the air at once, weaving in and out of each other, deftly juggled so none falls flat, and leading to a dramatic meeting of the ways.
 Detroit is almost a character is its own right; a fabulous setting - a contrast of derelict buildings and vibrant art scene with 'pop-up' installations and events in abandoned properties - absolutely the right place for a thriller of this kind.
It's a hard-hitting and disturbing novel which opens with a real stomach-churning moment but the writing style pulled me in and held me. If I could have read it cover to cover without a break, I would have!


Maryom's review - 5
Publisher - Harper Collins (Harper)
Genre - Adult crime thriller 

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

review by Maryom

Harper is a serial killer with a difference - he's discovered the key to never being caught; the key to a house which enables him to travel through time to commit his atrocious acts and slip away into the past to avoid discovery.
But just once he makes a mistake.... Kirby has survived one of his horrific attacks but feels that there must be women out there who weren't as lucky - and for them as well as herself she wants the attacker brought to justice.

I'd heard a lot of praise being heaped on this book, seen it nominated for awards, praised by other crime writers etc, so when I spotted it at the library I decided it was time to read it. It's certainly an original take for a crime thriller - how can anyone track down a man who can effectively disappear at will? - and raises lots of side-questions particularly about free will, and cause and effect; would Harper have become such a monster without the house? was he lured into committing these murders because of the 'memorabilia' he found in the house or would he have acted this way regardless? 
Even without getting into such muddy waters, it's a compelling read, one which gives as much thought to the victims as to the perpetrator. All of Harper's 'shining girls' have special qualities, something that makes them stand out from the crowd, which makes their deaths seem even more tragic.

As with any good time travelling novel, there's a satisfying tying off of loose ends, a joining-up of the little random-seeming events to make a closed loop. In a way though this took away some of the tension from the novel - Harper himself notices that there are a finite numbers of victims featured among the house's 'memorabilia', so the reader knows that sooner or later he'll be caught - though the 'how' remains a mystery.

Maryom's review - 4.5
Publisher - Harper Collins (Harper)
Genre - Adult crime thriller