Hello there readers, how are you? I hope that you’re well and ready for a must read recommendation from moi! Today is my stop on the tour for A. K. Turner’s second in the Cassie Raven series, Life Sentence. I’d like to thank both Tracy and Zaffre Books for my spot on the tour and for the gifted copy of this book in preparation of the tour!
This intriguing new instalment of the Camden forensic sleuth Cassie Raven series is available to purchase now, and while you’re at it, you’d better grab the first of the series Body Language, because why not?! You can find it here.
Mortuary technician Cassie Raven believes the last thoughts of the dead linger like static in the air…
Cassie has always had a strange affinity with death, ever since her parents were killed in a car crash when she was four. At least that’s what she grew up believing…
But that was a lie. Cassie’s father is alive. He was convicted of murdering her mother and spent years behind bars. Now he’s out – and he’s looking for her.
He swears he didn’t do it. And Cassie wants to believe him.
To find the truth, she must turn detective. As she seeks answers, help is to be found in inexplicable places – for the dead are ready to talk.
Well, what can I say that’s beyond PERFECTLY brilliant?! Okay, here’s a few things…
I love a series, and I must admit, when I signed up for this tour, I had yet to read A. K. Turner’s debut Body Language – I am thrilled that I’d waited so long to read, as I was able to devour both books in quick succession! I absolutely loved Life Sentence, it had everything that I wanted and didn’t know I needed. Let’s chat our protagonist, Cassie Raven, the way that A. K. Turner is able to get into her character’s head, how she has created her to be an empathetic, heart – led and intelligent heroine of the story has me cheering. I love that Cassie is different from the stereotypical crime fiction heroines we read about, she’s a goth, bisexual and emotionally mature. Cassie is a mortuary technician, one who believes that the thought of the dead linger after their last breath has left their bodies. The bodies that arrive on her table, aren’t just bodies, they’re people, with families, they’ve loved and been loved, they have lived a life up to this point and to her they deserve all the respect and recourses that she can give. It like their last dance between life and death.
When a person arrives in the mortuary, Cassie walks down the detective root again because she isn’t one bit convinced of the pathologists final thoughts concerning the death of a young man. something doesn’t sit right with her and again, she is led with by her heart, rather than the ‘Cut and shut’ principle of her superior. While playing detective in her professional life, an revelation in her personal life also comes knocking on her door – one where she must dig into the past however much it may hurt. Life Sentence, could be read independently of the first novel, as A. K. Turner does recap to a degree BUT as a reader you will definitely get more out of the parallel storyline and Cassie as a developing character by reading Body Language first.
Life Sentence is one of those books that you can’t help but get tangled up in, there’s several elements that drew me in to the point where I need book three, Case Sensitive NOW! These elements of course include Cassie, but also the area the series is set; Camden, London. Can you get any more quirky and down to earth than Camden? I’ve visited Camden several times and I could SEE it, I could imagine Cassie’s haunts and that also added to my visual of her in my mind. Every single element, layer and stitch of Life Sentence is created with precision and allows the chapters to flow into one another effortlessly. This is an absolute chef’s kiss of a medical sleuth, crime fiction novel. AND I NEED MORE!
If you’re looking for a moreish, suspense-filled, on-point mystery THIS is the book for you!
GRAB A COPY!
The Reading Closet 