The Beauty of Murder

Always good to find a new author! I have several serial killer books unread and I am sure some of them are very good, but I really resist that theme. If it comes out here or I run into it somewhere, I will follow up on this book. It really is a gorgeous cover! This sounds like one for me, I love a bit of past and present in my reading and there does seem to be something for all types of crime fiction lovers in this book.

Thanks, Prashant, for your comment. Sarah, your review is ace and this book sounds totally up my alley. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Stephen Killigan is a newly arrived Cambridge lecturer who stumbles upon the body of a missing beauty queen and finds himself caught up in the web of Jackamore Grass, a man with the ability to time travel and a fascination with the apparent beauty of death.

The book itself is great. The writing itself it great, and for the most part the characters are interesting and believable. The only one who put me off a bit was, unfortunately, the protagonist himself. He was a little too cool, and little too instantly popular. And he seemed to have a habit of getting tattoos on a whim while just chatting to people.

Most of the time I had no problem with him, especially once the story got going and I was able to settle into him. It just be a little while to get comfortable. The other issue I had was the timeframe. Without wanting to give too much away, one of the main characters goes through a serious operation that would have required several weeks of recovery.

I just feel that there needed to be something more here to address this. But other than these two gripes I really enjoyed The Beauty of Murder. May 31, Snoakes rated it it was amazing. The Beauty of Murder has a fantastically twisty plot.

Hardback Editions

It's a murder mystery with the added complication of time travel. What if someone really amoral had the ability to travel in time? And if you were such a person, who would you murder? The main characters are all really well drawn - particularly the hapless Stephen Killigan who gets drawn into the unbelievable and sinister world of Jackamore Grass and Inspector Jane Horne - the officer investigating the case.

Atmospheric and unsettling - I rea The Beauty of Murder has a fantastically twisty plot. Atmospheric and unsettling - I really enjoyed this one. Cool story I must write I was a bit confused at times in this story. Time travel does that to me, I guess. However, I did like the story and recommend reading it as it has a cool approach to murder and time travel.

Paperback Editions

Unfortunately, when he leads the police to it, it's no longer there. This does not do his career any good. Nor does it endear him to Inspector Jane Horne -- even before another impossible corpse this one recently disinterred turns up in the Fellows' Garden of 'I feel more alive standing next to something dead. Nor does it endear him to Inspector Jane Horne -- even before another impossible corpse this one recently disinterred turns up in the Fellows' Garden of Killigan's college. Killigan, who is aware that this all looks highly suspicious, turns for help to his friend Satnam, and to librarian Lana Carver.

He also gets to know Robert Sachs, an academic with an interest in the aesthetics of death, and meets the eccentric Iris Burton view spoiler [, who gives him a copy of her book on time travel. I am not altogether convinced that 'a lecturer from the University of East Anglia' inscribed the words Reality Checkpoint on the lamppost at the centre of Parker's Piece, given that UEA is 65 miles away in Norwich.

Perhaps Benedict means Anglia Ruskin? Killigan is a charismatic and witty narrator: He becomes less likeable later in the novel, but I think that's simply that the plot ensnares him -- both in terms of the character becoming mired in unpredictable and acausal events, and of the author focussing more on those events, and on the other characters, than on Killigan's interior life.

I also liked Jane Horne a great deal: Benedict's writing is gorgeous, full of lovely turns of phrase and surprising metaphors. Even when Killigan's being a tad pretentious 'a library is a sanctuary, a paper city where the emotionally homeless can find haven between the pages' his part of the narrative is interesting, and when he's less epigrammatic his turn of phrase is a delight. Dec 15, Lindsay rated it really liked it Shelves: He is the most dangerous man I have ever met.

He can turn his hand to any skill and charm the pages from a book, the fur from a cat, the life from a man without once feeling remorse. One evening he finds the body of a young woman who has been missing, and informs the police, but when they go and look for the body it has vanished. The narrative moves between distinctive voices; first person accounts from Stephen and from the enigmatic Jackamore, and the investigation into the murders by the hassled police Inspector Jane Horne. The investigation is made particularly intriguing as the usual methods of detection are not always helpful in this case, when dealing with a criminal who can slip away through time.

The setting of Cambridge and the surrounding Fens landscape provides much history and atmosphere, and many secrets, all of which the author draws on and incorporates to good effect in her tale. There is much to admire and intrigue in this debut novel. It crosses over several genres to offer us a speculative thriller, complete with murder-mystery, police investigation, philosophy, the aesthetics of murder, time-travel and magic.

Reviewed for lovereading website. Nov 08, Sid Nuncius rated it liked it. This debut novel by A. Benedict involves time-travel, serial killers and some academic musings, especially in philosophy. It is reasonably successful but I have some reservations about it. The plot is bizarre but interesting. I don't want to give anything away, so I will say only that a Cambridge academic becomes embroiled in a weird series of murders which turn out to involve time-travel.

Benedict generally handles this well and, to her credit, makes the silly-sounding idea work. The plot swin This debut novel by A. The plot swings into life early on and I enjoyed the first pages or so very much, but I thought that things got tangled and messy and hence dragged rather in the middle of the book, and it could have done with some firm editing. There are, as seems almost compulsory these days, multiple narrators. They all speak in the present tense which in a time-travel novel is probably just as well for clarity but did feel a little mannered to me.

The prose is readable and the book is generally well written, but particularly the often mildly ironic tone of the central character, the philosophy don Stephen Killigan, did get a bit much at times. I could certainly have done without things like the description of a dawn outing beginning, "The sun is barely breaking wind under the duvet of clouds when we climb into the boat," the like of which crop up fairly regularly. I also found some anachronisms rather spoiled the atmosphere for me - saying "It's okay" in , for example, or talk of banknotes in the same year they weren't in use until much later and so on.

I don't want to nit-pick, but there was enough of this sort of thing to interfere somewhat with my enjoyment. Good editing and some serious tightening up could have made this a very good book. As it is, I can offer only a somewhat qualified recommendation. Feb 07, Lucinda rated it it was amazing.

This distinctive debut novel delicately interweaves classic contemporary crime, with a thrilling time-travelling twist. Containing intense multi-layered meaning and profoundly affecting narrative, this darkly sinister spinechilling read is simply stunning. Beautifully blending genres as to create a refreshingly original outlook, I was deeply entranced with the hypnotic plot and inspired vision. The exquisite blend of bloodcurdling horror, in-depth character-study amid detailed historical elements is dazzling.

Impressive scope on a par with Arthur Conan Doyle and as gritty as Camilla Lackberg or Stuart MacBride, and yet which has an instinctive flair and singular edge to the sharp writing. The characters empathetic qualities draw you into the story, by adding such realism to the dynamic, heart pounding plot wherein I gripped the pages as to turn my knuckles white. Instantly connecting with Stephen Killigan who is swept into the midst of a deadly murder within the ghostly archaic backdrop of Cambridge, one is propelled along a hidden trail of deception.

Shrouded within an impenetrable veil are enigmatic philosophers and secretive scholars spanning past ages, with the missing links between the seventeenth-century and an unearthed corpse being either astutely linked or mere folly. A striking speculative thriller that is provocative, enriching and substantially multi-layered.

Sep 09, Jonathan rated it liked it. It was the great premise of a time travelling serial killer that appealed to me the most, with this book. I discovered it in our local library, which is not something I do very often as I often plan with lists of the novels I want to read. However it's always refreshing to discover a new author. It just seemed like a brilliant idea, murder mystery meets H.

Thankfully I wasn't disappointed as A. Benedict made a valiant attempt of fully utilising these ideas to their full potential, w It was the great premise of a time travelling serial killer that appealed to me the most, with this book. Benedict made a valiant attempt of fully utilising these ideas to their full potential, with mostly successful results.

I was left with a feeling that it was more akin to a beginning of a series and some aspects were not as comprehensively explored as they could have been. This was due mainly to the fact, at certain points in the narrative, such a great deal of effort was made for you to sympathise and relate to the main protagonist's confusion, that sometimes it fell into the trap of the story losing its thread and being genuinely hard to follow.

I understood the reasons why this was needed, and it certainly was needed, but a little less sometimes goes further. The open ending suggests there may be more books to come.

Without giving too much away, the murderer and the main protagonist escaped unscathed at the end, although a little less so for the good guy. Some of the elements were not fully explained so this too would suggest there is more to come. Benedict is an author with great potential and obviously well-educated and intelligent, considering the subject matter and the philosophical elements of the story.

If Benedict's career is as successful as that little list, then this is a potential great writer in the making. Apr 07, Lacer rated it it was amazing. AK Benedict is purported to be the next Ben Aaronovitch and the publishers seem to be encouraging this obviously with a book cover rather similar to the Rivers of London books the audiobook cover anyway - not pictured here. I can definitely see the similarity beyond the book covers , although actually I think The Beauty of Murder is actually a bit deeper.

The Beauty of Murder is about a newly arrived Cambridge academic, Stephen Killigan, who discovers a body which then disappears.

Killigan AK Benedict is purported to be the next Ben Aaronovitch and the publishers seem to be encouraging this obviously with a book cover rather similar to the Rivers of London books the audiobook cover anyway - not pictured here. Killigan studies metaphysics, so in the chapters from his viewpoint expect lots of deep thinking but his character does have a rather nice way with words. The villain of the piece though is much less well rounded and he veers very close to pantomime villain territory.

The villain's sidekick is not much better. I did like the policewoman character, Jane, though and she goes through an interesting side story. I really liked the premise behind the story it's one of those fantastical ideas you'd really wish was actually true and the ending was written in a way that you could definitely imagine some more stories with these characters, so I hope there will be.

It's a little worrying that Benedict's next book which I'll definitely be reading soon , seems to feature completely different characters, so more Killigan please! Apr 08, Anna Richards rated it it was ok. Intriguing premise, but sadly a sloppy execution. Many ends left untied at the end of the book, and questions left unanswered. And not in the good way, the enigmatic way that leaves you wondering, but in the slapdash way of writers who have left hints, and then forgotten to build on them.

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Was the mother trying to time travel in the sea, or was she simply suicidal? How did Iris and Jackamore meet and fall in love? What is their backstory? Why even bring that into the b Intriguing premise, but sadly a sloppy execution. Why even bring that into the book at all when it had no purpose, as Jackamore still managed to escape from the trap?

What was the significance of the constant hints to Stephen to look in the mirror? A serial killer with all the time in the world From a stunning new voice in crime fiction. Stephen Killigan has been cold since the day he arrived in Cambridge. Seven hundred years of history staining the stones of the university have given him a chill he can't shake. Then he stumbles across the body of a missing beauty queen - a body which disappears before the police arrive Unwittingly, Killigan has entered the sinister world of Jackamore Grass on a trail that reaches back to seventeenth-century Cambridge.