Belinda Bauer

There’s no safety in numbers . . .

Eve Singer needs death. With her career as a TV crime reporter flagging, she’ll do anything to satisfy her ghoulish audience.

The killer needs death too. He even advertises his macabre public performances, where he hopes to show the whole world the beauty of dying.

When he contacts Eve, she welcomes the chance to be first with the news from every gory scene. Until she realizes that the killer has two obsessions.

One is public murder.

And the other is her . . .

This is my first experience reading a book by Belinda Bauer and what a great read it is. I adored her writing style. Keeping it very tense and chilling, but including some real tongue in the cheek humor, which complemented the story beautifully.

In no way is this your average, normal serial killer, if there is such a thing, but the killer likes a stage, wants people to watch and see the atrocities, killings created.

Eve Singer is a brilliant character. Forced to move back home when her father is deteriorating with Dementia. There are some very sweet and moving moments in these scenes and once again the genius humor portrays. In no way laughing at the condition, but the reality of what it must be like living under those circumstances.

It kept me very alert and intrigued. I thought it was a shift from a mainstream psychological thriller or crime fiction, just a bit different and quirky. Extremely clever writing, cleverly plotted and you get a real feel for the characters. A real intriguing, suspenseful page turner.

Certainly recommended! I enjoyed it - A good 4*… (more)

The Beautiful Dead is a fast paced thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in the days leading up to Christmas. He first appears on December first and murders a young woman who is working in her office alone on a Saturday. He doesn’t target a specific gender or age but does treat all of his killings as artwork. He calls them “Exhibitions” and sets out flyers advertising them in advance.

His attention is taken by Eve Singer a television reporter who he sees as simpatico and he draws her into his sphere. At first she is quite flattered by his attention and the benefit to her career, but she soon realizes that the last thing she wants is to be his enabler. Angered by her lack of attention he kidnaps her father who is afflicted with Early Onset Alzheimer’s and threatens to kill him if she doesn’t sacrifice herself to him instead.

As always Belinda Bauer delivers a chilling, scary story that she enhances with touches of humour and some strong characters. I am getting a little tired of serial killers who are so clever that they are always a step ahead of their pursuers for about 250 pages but this seems to be the norm for serial killer stories. If you haven’t read this author before I strongly recommend that you begin with Blacklands which is fantastic.… (more)

When I started reading Blacklands I had no idea it was Bauer’s first published novel and, now that I’m finished, I still wouldn't know if I hadn’t learned it from another review. This is an outstanding debut that has all the things in it I liked in her later books - suspense, grim humor, and the little touch of absurdity that kept the tension from going too far outside of my comfort zone. In addition, the book's desolate moorland setting gave every page a sense of foreboding that made it hard to put down. I’ll definitely be going on to the next one in the series.… (more)