Beyond evidence is a novel by Emma L clapperton and published by Bloodhound books – it has an interesting premise that after reading one of her novellas made me very excited to read one of her novels
The story:
In an alleyway in Glasgow lies a decomposing corpse of a slain female baking in the midday heat. No one has found her yet, but medium Patrick McLaughlin knows she is there. It is not the first time he has dreamt of death… and it will not be the last.
When several bizarre murders take place the local police start to request DNA samples from twenty something year old men.
Through a hunch, and in the belief that the terrifying dreams hold the key to the identity of the murderer, Patrick works alongside the police to track down the predator before they can strike again. But as the nightmares increase they begin to threaten Patrick’s sanity.
my thoughts:
I enjoyed the novella featuring these characters and I think this made me buy into it a little more. In a full length novel this book suffered a little from first novel syndrome to much establishing the characters and premise which sometimes impacted the story.
That said the idea of a true psychic helping solve crimes is very unusual, the only other place i’ve seen it done is in Charlaine Harrises grave sight series which is one of my all time favourite series of books.
The premise was entertaining however and the crime moved along well with the influence of the characters. The characters felt fleshed out and interesting and the element of supernatural was handled well and believably.
I on the whole enjoyed this novel and would happily read another in the series. I think the author could be a fresh new voice in crime fiction offering valid supernatural crime novels set in the UK. This is a solid 4* read for me.
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