BLOG TOUR – Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney

An incredible debut that’s quite unlike anything I’ve ever read before! Marie Tierney has created some unforgettable characters in this very unique, compelling story.

Blurb:

Thirteen-year-old Ava Bonney is unlike other children. Exceptionally bright, she has an obsessive interest in the rate at which dead animals decompose. The motorway she lives by regularly offers up roadkill, and in the dead of night Ava likes nothing better than to pull her latest discovery into her roadside den so she can study it.

But one day when she arrives she stumbles across the body of fellow pupil, Mickey Grant.

DI Seth Delahaye is given the case, one of the most challenging of his career. But Ava is not the sort of person who will step back and let someone else take charge when children like her are dying. She uses all her unusual skills and deep local knowledge to try to track down the serial killer in her community.

My Review:

In 1980’s Birmingham, life isn’t all that grand for 13-year-old Ava. The author sketches a vivid portrayal of the harsh realities facing those for whom life is more of a struggle than it might be for others. It’s clear that Ava’s family is one that doesn’t have much, although they do have each other. She shares a room with her two younger siblings, and their mother doesn’t seem too concerned about her whereabouts most of the time.

So the fact that she regularly wanders the streets on her own at night is unsurprising. What is surprising though, is her ‘hobby’ of studying dead animals and the rate at which they decompose in varying conditions! As she lives near a highway, she has a lot of subject matter to work with. But one night when she ventures out, she discovers the body of a missing teenager. But because Ava is not your average 13-year-old, what happens next is not what would normally happen if someone (who’s basically still a child) discovers a dead body (of someone they happen to have known)!

This entire story is unexpected! It’s told from the alternating points of view of the two main characters: Ava and DI Seth Delahaye – I loved them both! This allows us to see the unfolding plot from the perspectives of both Ava and her community, and Delahaye and his team working on the case.

Seth Delahaye is a breath of fresh air. Far too many crime novels focus on cops who are angry, drunk (half if not most, of the time), cynical, jaded and bitter. But Delahaye is not any of these things. He notices small details and is savvy enough to immediately pick up on the fact that as much as Ava is trying to play down how much she actually knows, and even though she’s just a child, she is going to be a very valuable asset to this case. I found his warmth and empathy towards her, as well as his acknowledgment of her intelligence and resourcefulness, extremely heartwarming.

The forensic details throughout are fascinating – some may find them a bit too detailed and technical in places, but it is never gratuitous. I loved that Ava was so meticulous in documenting her findings, and had such a depth of feeling for each of the creatures that she studied. Far from being morbid, her kindness shone through every time, expressed in her reciting of the Rabbit’s Prayer from Watership Down, which was the only prayer relating to death that she knew, but she thought it was suitable and I completely agree! It’s evident in all of her actions that she will go out of her way to spare anyone or anything pain or suffering, if at all possible.

This is a brilliant read, and I hope that Marie Tierney is planning on writing more about Ava and Delahaye. I’d love to hear what’s next for both of them!

Thank you to Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for a fabulous blog tour.