Blacklands (original 2010; edition 2010)

Blacklands - what an original and compelling novel this is. Belinda Bauer's story grips from page one, and the frenzied plot about a boy who starts up a correspondence with the man who murdered his child-uncle, makes uncomfortable but compelling reading. Bauer handles the central theme of child abuse and murder without gratuitousness, but nevertheless you feel she has explored it in an original and multidimensional way. There's a visceral feel to her descriptions of relationships, disenfranchised family life and childhood, and I was really impressed by her empathetic tone. This is an author to watch for sure and I'm looking forward to her next book.
© Koplowitz 2012 ( )

This debut novel by Belinda Bauer has won this year’s CWA Golden Dagger Award so I was keen to give it a go. Within the first few chapters I found myself getting pulled into the story, and soon found it hard to put it down. I kept setting arbitrary points at which I would stop reading and get on with all the things I should be doing, but as soon as I hit my stop point I found a reason to set a new point and just carry on reading.

The plot is a carefully crafted one that deals with some potentially difficult topics. A lot of time is focused on Arnold Avery, the child killer and paedophile, and at times reading what he is thinking and plotting does make for uncomfortable reading. I have seen other reviewers draw parallels with the Moors Murders and can see that for some this would be a challenging read. I personally thought the balance was well kept, and a lot of crime thrillers contain content that isn’t suited to all readers’ tastes.

I thought the characters were well crafted, and the plot was certainly engaging. I will be looking forward to reading what Bauer writes next.

“Blacklands” is published in paperback by Corgi Books in the UK. Whilst I was provided with a review copy of the book all of the opinions expressed are my own. ( )

This debut novel by Belinda Bauer has won this year’s CWA Golden Dagger Award so I was keen to give it a go. Within the first few chapters I found myself getting pulled into the story, and soon found it hard to put it down. I kept setting arbitrary points at which I would stop reading and get on with all the things I should be doing, but as soon as I hit my stop point I found a reason to set a new point and just carry on reading.

The plot is a carefully crafted one that deals with some potentially difficult topics. A lot of time is focused on Arnold Avery, the child killer and paedophile, and at times reading what he is thinking and plotting does make for uncomfortable reading. I have seen other reviewers draw parallels with the Moors Murders and can see that for some this would be a challenging read. I personally thought the balance was well kept, and a lot of crime thrillers contain content that isn’t suited to all readers’ tastes.

I thought the characters were well crafted, and the plot was certainly engaging. I will be looking forward to reading what Bauer writes next.

“Blacklands” is published in paperback by Corgi Books in the UK. Whilst I was provided with a review copy of the book all of the opinions expressed are my own. ( )

Twelve year old Stephen Lamb’s fragile family was damaged long before he was born. When he was a similar age to what Stephen is now his mother’s brother Billy was kidnapped and killed by paedophile Arnold Avery 18 years ago, though Billy’s body was never found. Stephen’s grandmother has been waiting at the window for Billy’s return ever since and his mother has lived most of her life with the knowledge that her mother’s favourite child was the one who died. Stephen believes that he might make everything well again if only he can find Billy’s body.

Blacklands is an astonishingly well-written début. Although others play minor roles in the story, the vast bulk of the action unfolds in alternating chapters from the points of view of Stephen Lamb and Arnold Avery and Bauer manages to be utterly convincing in both voices. Stephen comes alive as a boy so starved for affection that a lone throw-away piece of praise from a teacher who can’t even remember his name is savoured and allowed to influence him beyond all proportion to its meaning. And Arnold Avery soon forms into the kind of disturbed, repugnant person one might assume a paedophile to be but all the more disturbing because of his ability to imitate normality. It is a rare book that can be carried almost entirely by two characters and when one is a child and the other the most heinous kind of murderer it must be near impossible not to stray into melodramatic or macabre territory but Blacklands does neither. The character portraits are understated, intimate and totally compelling.

The story is actually quite uncomplicated, and probably only fits loosely within a definition of crime fiction, but there is beauty in the simplicity of Stephen’s yearning for a life in which he is, for once, loved. There is ugliness too in the form of Avery’s more sinister quest but it is the details of the two converging journeys that provide a reason to keep reading just a little bit more. Rather than the roller coaster ride of a traditional thriller, Bauer tends to lull readers with the kind of barely perceptible rising tension that allows you to forget you’re in the middle of a dark tale until you can’t help but remember, just like the proverbial frog that doesn’t realise he’s in boiling water until it’s too late to jump out.

Although its’ subject matter is grim I do highly recommend Blacklands as a novel of genuine psychological insight and suspense. I’m not normally a particular fan of being ‘inside the mind of a killer’ but I found in this instance there was no glorification or provision of prurient details just for the heck of it. I shall definitely be ordering Bauer’s second novel, Darkside, when it is released next January, although I will try to hang on long enough to see if it will once again be recorded in audio format and narrated by Colleen Prendergast who did a superb job with Blacklands.

My rating 4.5/5 ( )

Arnold Avery is a convicted child molester and child killer. One of his victims was twelve-year Billy Wright. Years later, Billy’s nephew Steven Lamb spends all his free time digging holes in Dartmoor to see if he can find the body and help his grandmother. He starts a cryptic exchange of letters with the killer. ( )