
Human Remains
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Narrated by:
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Karen Cass
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By:
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Elizabeth Haynes
About this listen
How well do you know your neighbours? Would you notice if they lived or died?
Police analyst Annabel wouldn’t describe herself as lonely. Her work keeps her busy and the needs of her ageing mother and her cat are more than enough to fill her time when she’s on her own. But Annabel is shocked when she discovers her neighbour’s decomposing body in the house next door, and appalled to think that no one, including herself, noticed her absence. Back at work she sets out to investigate, despite her police officer colleagues’ lack of interest, and finds data showing that such cases are frighteningly common in her own home town. A chilling thriller and a hymn to all the lonely people, whose individual voices haunt the pages, Elizabeth Haynes’ new novel is a deeply disturbing and powerful thriller that preys on our darkest fears, showing how vulnerable we are when we live alone, and how easily ordinary lives can fall apart when no one is watching.
About the Author
Elizabeth Haynes is a police intelligence analyst. She started writing fiction in 2006 thanks to the annual challenge of National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) and the encouragement of the creative writing courses at West Dean College. She lives in a village near Maidstone, Kent, with her husband and son. Her first novel, Into the Darkest Corner, was the winner of Amazon's Rising Stars and has been translated into 30 languages. Her second novel, Revenge of the Tide, was published in March 2012.
©2013 Elizabeth Haynes (P)2013 Audible LtdCritic reviews
Decent listen
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An enjoyable listen
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Not what I expected!
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I tend to buy biographies and autobiographies and other nonfiction on Audible but with my monthly credit I have sometimes bought the more expensive fiction - especially when there is three books making up a trilogy by buying one book a month with my credits.
This then is not as expensive as some fictional audio books I have bought.
I don't want to spoil the plot of this book for other readers so not too much here about the story's plot.
The narrator (female) takes the parts of both male and female characters.
The main character is a female crime analyst working with percentages more than criminals or people. She notices a rise in the number bodies being found usually in domestic circumstances where there is no crime suspected. She informs her superiors but no one seems to realise what she is saying. The deceased are not all elderly people.
One night she goes home and her cat decides it wants to go out. It does not come back right away and as she wants to go to bed she goes out to find it. She follows it into the garden next door and notices flies on the window. She knocks on the glass of the door and somehow the glass breaks. She goes in the house and discovers a body. The lady neighbour seems to have sat in her chair and died.
Our narrator goes on to become in their turn, civilian colleagues, police colleagues, friends and acquaintances and others.
These people of course converse with each other too which is where the audio aspect of the book aided my enjoyment of the mystery as it is not always the main character who is speaking.
The person responsible is an acquaintance of an acquaintance who is befriending the lonely and the depressed.
I am going to stop here as I don't want to reveal any more to spoil the story for others.
This book is definitely not for young teens or those of a very squeamish nature and I have to say that I enjoyed it.
Better listened to than read - that's what I think
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I disagree with much of the criticism of the narrator's voice. I felt that Karen Cass generally produced a good contrast between the female and male voices, there was variety in her delivery and she certainly captured the intensity and the cold, unnerving quality of Colin in his lack of empathy and understanding. My criticism - such as it was - lay more in the repetitious nature of the narrative as Colin engaged with each of his victims. His words, his thoughts, his responses became rather 'samey' and at times I felt "Oh, not again!" A different approach with different victims would have helped to sustain reader interest. But overall, I found the book compelling and the workings of the mind of this disturbed man were entirely plausible. I particularly enjoyed his rationalizing of the situation once he had been arrested and found myself wondering whether it would actually be possible to convict him of murder. It provided an interesting and different perspective.
Elizabeth Haynes (and Karen Cass) built the tension most effectively and I certainly wanted to keep listening. I look forward now to exploring Elizabeth's other novels. If they are as good as "Human Remains", I shall thoroughly enjoy them.
Different.....dark and compelling
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Gruesome but good!
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Fantastic
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I was going to give it only 2 stars which I awarded for the authentic police background and for creating the criminal mind of Colin. No more because the book is dragged down by a totally inadequate narrator. Unfortunately the book is structured as a stream of consciousness from two main characters - male and female - and a string of minor characters. The narrator has only one voice for all the female voices and one, only slightly different voice, for all the male characters. To make things worse the author also appears to use identical phrasing and speech patterns for everyone regardless of age, background and gender. Maybe if I had read rather than listened to the book I would have enjoyed it more as I could have created different "voices" for myself. As it was only the dreadful weather outside meant that I kept picking it up again after vowing I just couldn't be bothered to carry on. The ending redeemed the book a little and so I have grudgingly given it 3 stars.
Was going to give this 2 stars
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I found myself very curious about the characters, including the enigmatic Policeman..
Was left wanting more, so although the story was concluded, was there a whiff of more to come?
Hope so!
menacing and plausibly scary. Great characters.
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Good story but a disappointing ending!
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