BLOG TOUR: Killer Bodies - Heleen Kist

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

In a prestigious Edinburgh apartment building, gym receptionist Evie whiles away long hours doodling the deaths of residents who’ve annoyed her.

On her birthday of all days, a man slumps off the exercise bike — dead. She tries to get help, but someone has locked the doors and the phones are out of reach.

When another resident collapses inexplicably, Evie realises the deaths resemble those she drew … and her sketchbook is missing.

Was she framed...

... or is she next?

 

What did I think?

After reading Killer Bodies, I can say for certain that I won't be setting foot inside a gym...not that I would want to go anyway.  Exercise is bad for you and it's certainly lethal for some of the characters in Heleen Kist's new novel.

There are a lot of entitled and dislikeable characters in the book but I absolutely loved Evie, the gym receptionist.  Evie was supposed to be off work for her birthday but she is called in to work at the last minute and she finds herself locked in the gym with a bunch of residents whose deaths she has imagined and drawn in her sketchbook.  Then the residents start dying exactly how Evie imagined...

Yikes!  This is a pretty dark novel but it has a sprinkling of humour and some really funny drawings that had me laughing out loud.  I think I suspected every single character at one point or another as it really could have been any of them.  It's very cleverly done and impossible to work out as there are so many different (and dare I say, amusing) ways that people are killed.

Entertaining, imaginative and suspenseful, Killer Bodies is a brilliant locked room murder mystery that had my eyes glued to the page from start to finish.  It's so good that I want to read it again!  Very highly recommended.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

About the author:

Heleen Kist is a Dutch, formerly globetrotting career woman who fell in love with a Scotsman and his country, and now writes about its (sometimes scary) people from her garden office in Glasgow. 'Killer Bodies' is her fourth novel, inspired by her hatred of exercise.

She was chosen as an up-and-coming new author at Bloody Scotland 2018. Her novels have been finalists in a variety of awards, both in the UK and USA, and she years to some day 'be the bride'.

Heleen hopes you enjoy her writing, and would love to hear from you on twitter (@hkist), Facebook (@heleenkistauthor) or Goodreads. You can also sign up to her newsletter on www.heleenkist.com

Follow the tour:

The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley

In a beautiful old apartment block, deep in the backstreets of Paris, secrets are stirring behind every resident’s door.

The lonely wife

The party animal

The curtain-twitcher

The secret lover

The watchful caretaker

The unwanted guest

One resident is missing. Only the killer holds the key to the mystery… 

What did I think?

Yowzers! Reviewing this book without giving anything away is going to be tricky so this may be a short review, but it’s no reflection on how completely brilliant the book is.

I love Lucy Foley books and The Paris Apartment is no exception.  I absolutely raced through it and couldn’t put it down, greedily devouring every single word until I had discovered all of the skeletons in its closet.  The residents of these luxury apartments have more skeletons in their closets than Halloween, that's for sure.

Jess is visiting her brother in Paris but when she gets there he has disappeared.  Jess seems to be the only one worried about Ben, despite his friend being one of his neighbours.  Told from various points of view, Jess begins her search for Ben whilst the reader peeks through the keyhole of each apartment.

The characters are drawn brilliantly; I was suspicious of all of them and I thought I had worked out what had happened to Ben (and where he was) but of course it's a Lucy Foley book so I was completely wrong.  I love being wrong like this though and there are so many jawdropping moments in the book that I'm surprised I didn't have jaw ache.

Brilliantly written, The Paris Apartment is a twisty, addictive and entertaining mystery.  It's reminiscent of Agatha Christie and I'd love to see this on the big screen.  C'est magnifique!

I received a gifted paperback for the Tandem Collective readalong and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

Waterstones