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Belinda Bauer

Jul 2018 · Atlantic Monthly Press

About this ebook

A teenage boy hunts for his mother’s killer in this Man Booker Prize-longlisted novel by “the true heir to the great Ruth Rendell” (Mail on Sunday, UK).
 
Just before Jack’s mother disappeared up the road to get help, she put the eleven-year-old boy in charge of his two sister. As they wait for her on the shoulder of the road in their stifling, broken-down car, the three children bicker, whine and play I-Spy. But their mother never comes back. And after that long, hot summer’s day, nothing will ever be the same again.
At fifteen-years-old, Jack is still in charge—supporting his sisters any way he can while evading social services. Meanwhile, a young woman across town wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note reading I could of killed you. The police are tracking a mysterious burglar they call Goldilocks, for his habit of sleeping in the beds of the houses he robs. But the woman doesn’t see the point of involving the police. And Jack, very suddenly, may be on the verge of finding out who killed his mother.
 
The Gold Dagger Award-winning author of Blacklands reaffirms her reputation for masterful, twisty crime fiction with this “unnerving suspense novel” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times).

Ratings and reviews

4.5 Stars Jack and his 2 sisters lose their pregnant mother to a killer. The last time they saw her, she left them in their broken down car and went to find a phone. She was never seen again. Nothing will ever be the same again ... for any of them. Three years later Jack is in charge. Still living in their house, it's just the three of them. Their father has left and has never returned. Jack turns to robbing houses to make money enough to pay the few bills and keep food in the house. There is no such thing as school ... they are essentially living off the grid. Catherine While wakes only to find a note saying "I could have killed you" weighted down by a knife she's never seen before. She's in her third trimester of pregnancy and her husband is out of town. Should she call him ... call the police? She hides the knife and decides to do nothing. Jack, his sisters, Catherine, her husband, Adam, and the police .... all come to a crossroads. There are mistakes made, and several of them have secrets .... secrets that all have consequences should they be brought to light. This is such an imaginative story, well-written, by a well known author. The characters are memorable and Jack, especially, will stay with you for a long, long time. A couple of characters demand to be mentioned ... one is the knife-maker, the other is the detective's mother. There is so much in the action-packed book, I didn't want to put it down for any reason. The ending was quite explosive, and while exciting, still a tad disappointing. Many thanks to the author / Grove Atlantic / Netgalley / Edelweiss for the advanced digital copy of this riveting novel. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

About the author

Belinda Bauer is the author of seven award-winning novels that have been translated into twenty-one languages. The Beautiful Dead is her fifth novel to be published in North America. She won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award for Crime Novel of the Year for Blacklands, the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Rubbernecker, and the CWA Dagger in the Library Award for outstanding body of work. She lives in Wales.