This book seemed a little longer than necessary and a very slow read. I like books with short chapters, but I feel like a lot of it was not needed as part of the story. This book was dark and witty, but I didn't love it.

Fourteen-year-old Ava Bonney has a curiosity about dead things. She keeps a secret roadkill body farm in an abandoned garden near the local motorway and likes to sneak out of her flat in the dead of night to note the decomposition rates of her finds. But on this particular evening in May 1981, she discovers the putrefying body of her classmate Mickey Grant, who disappeared from a local disco two weeks ago. “Ava knew him as an unpleasant boy, a bully you couldn’t walk past without him saying something spiteful. When he went missing, Ava hadn’t cared.” But she telephones the police and, not wanting to reveal her unusual hobby, disguises her voice as Mrs. Poshy-Snob, a woman with a low voice and flawless diction. When he interviews Ava during his inquiries, Detective Sergeant Seth Delahaye is impressed by the teen’s intelligence and self-possession. Signs point to a monstrous serial killer at work after Ava and her best friend John find another mutilated corpse, that of a six-year-old boy. In alternating chapters, Tierney’s compelling narrative follows Ava’s and Delahaye’s separate investigations until the two threads braid into a chilling climax. Ava’s precocity may remind readers of Alan Bradley’s 11-year-old amateur sleuth, Flavia de Luce, but Ava uses her morbid studies to escape an unhappy home life, and her territory is not a cozy English village but the gritty, impoverished suburb of Rudery, South Birmingham. Selected as a finalist in the Daily Mail First Novel competition, this astonishing, beautifully written debut is creepy, gruesome, and heartbreaking. One of the best thrillers of the year.

Deadly Animals

By Marie Tierney

Review of Uncorrected ARC (Not sure if its the U.K. version or American)

Ava is a teenager who has an obsession with dead things. She enjoys studying the decomposition of animals, usually roadkill, which she keeps in various places around her town. One day while checking on one of the "subjects" she finds the body of a boy. She recognizes him from her town and knows the death wasn't natural. Is there a killer loose, and will she be able to find them?

This book was a very mixed bag for me. As I've stated in my bio and other reviews I make my ratings based on how much fun I had reading a book. With this book there is a lot to like. The descriptions of areas and objects are very well written and I don't think anyone will have a hard time picturing these things in their mind. The mystery is easily solvable so if you like mysteries where the author doesn't use secret information as a "twist" at the end explaining everything so you had no chance of figuring things out, this is a good one. But at the same time it's not a mystery you are going to read twenty pages and have figured out. Even as an uncorrected version the book flows pretty well jumping between Ava and DS Seth Delahaye.

Now what I didn't like. In a word, Ava. Ava is a 13-14 year old who knows everything. She has no sense of fear, she is never really surprised and she also just knows things. She has the knowledge and poise of someone many times her age and for some reason everyone just looks at her as this infallible being who you just listen to no matter what. She is in charge.

Now if this was a character Miss Marple's age, or even Cleopatra Fox's age, I'd find the character much more believable and enjoyable having had the years to actually accumulate her knowledge. With the only explanation for her knowing things I'm sure most adults in the law enforcement industry don't being "I read a lot", I just kept being taking out of the fun of the story to roll my eyes and put the book down while I went and did something else for awhile. This character, for me, ventured dangerously towards Mary Sue territory.

My only other complaint isn't a big one, I just wish there was a bit more of a reason given for certain details or characters in the book. There were questions I still had at the end but in the long run they didn't matter a whole lot to the main story line.

I have been really struggling with how many stars to give this book. Much like Ava "read a LOT" I didn't like her character "a LOT", however the book is very well written, it isn't a final version and though I would have found it more of a fun read with her "know-it-all-ness" toned down I do think that a lot of people will really enjoy Ava and the rest of the book. Some things get under my skin that other people don't even notice and I am not going to torpedo the book because there was one thing I wasn't happy with. Mrs. Tierney is a very talented writer and I think this is a good debut novel that will be well received.

3 out of 5 Stars

One final note regarding the U.K. version and the American version, at the end of my copy Mrs. Tierney thanks people for their advice on the American Copy, and I don't know if that is the one I received or not. I would guess not though, I had to look quite a few terms up, but being a fan of British books and other media I didn't mind that at all.

Thirteen-year-old Ava's fascination lies in the intricate process of animal decomposition, studying roadkill found in the streets around her home.

But, one night, Ava's secret nocturnal routine takes a chilling turn when she stumbles upon the lifeless body of fellow schoolmate, Mickey Grant.

As Detective Seth Delahaye takes charge of the case, Ava can’t wait. Determined and resourceful, she embarks on a quest to figure out the truth behind the string of chilling deaths in her community.

Armed with skills and local knowledge, Ava becomes an unlikely force in the race to apprehend the elusive killer before more lives are claimed.

I would recommend this book to others. I enjoyed the characters and the story leading up to the conclusion. It kept me I triged on what was going to happen next.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange of my honest review.

This was such a good read and it would be a good read during the spooky season. I found Ava to be an interesting character and with how smart she is, it can be very easy to forget that she’s just a young teenage girl. The plot is pretty intense and I recommend others to check the trigger warnings.

5 stars but I'd give this book more stars if I could. Not only is the actual writing of the book fantastic, but everything else is too. Like, EVERYTHING; the fact that this was a debut novel has blown my mind.

This book keeps one foot in the light and one foot in the dark of the human experience. You find yourself fascinated with, and like Ava, in finding out the why of things, shutting your feelings off to get to the truth and the point of things, and then knowing when to allow yourself to get back to what that matters, the things that are right. It's brilliant writing. You may have to suspend disbelief because Ava is what? 13 or 14 aka: a child, until you realize that her life experiences have made an already gifted child, an adult basically. A truth that while difficult to swallow for a lot of us, is definitely a reality for some.

This book was unputdownable, even the parts where you would usually skim, you find yourself reading because it is that interesting. You’re there, in Birmingham, wanting to catch this guy. It's a mix of Mindhunter, Bones, Silence of the Lambs and Sherlock Holmes... It's the perfect creepy serial killer thriller story honestly, and you find yourself actually caring about the characters. Even the ones that you get to know just briefly, break your heart when something bad happens to them. And when I mean break your heart, I mean I definitely shed a tear or two reading this book. I haven't read something this great is an extremely long time. I hope Marie Tierney keeps writing because this was amazing.

I'm extremely grateful to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co for the ARC, and the chance to get to know Ava, John and DCI Delahaye.

I thought I would be slightly freaked out but it was so descriptive I felt like I was learning new knowledge without really paying attention to it being strange with her 'hobby she with dead animals, because that's how interesting it was😂. An mix that with crime? I KNEW this was going to be my book-perhaps a strange book but definitely a book for me

I absolutely loved this book and wish she had more then just that book. But if she does make a series out of it I'm definitely down to be another beta reader for her. My favorite part was at the end how nobody saw who the killer was coming even though thought the book there was these little hints she would give that the main characters wouldn't pick up on until half way through the book and I thought the chapters were very well spaced between the five parts of the book but I like how in the end of the last two parts she started to put the date and the time frame of everything at the beginning of each chapter so the reader would be able to tell how long it took them to figure out who the killer actually was

3.5/5
TW: child abuse/murder; animal abuse/murder; graphic description of death/decomposition

A suspenseful murder mystery with Ava, our young teen (13yrs, albeit insanely smart beyond her years) discovering the body of a missing peer. I was drawn into the story as she finds the murdered boy while completing her routine of sneaking away and documenting in-depth stages of decomposition of the dead animals she finds. Ava becomes engrossed with disappearances/deaths of young boys in her community and offers her insight and assistance to the detectives in clever ways. It was very intriguing to have such an astute young girl accurately assess a crime and watch her compulsion to decipher the clues most individuals, including the investigators in the story, fail to connect or even notice. I don't read many stories where our main character is so young but, since she approached each situation with such precise scientific knowledge, because of her unusual interest in the macabre, and thanks to the chapters being short and engaging, it was really easy to become absorbed in the story.

There were a variety of other characters that are important to the story, but each were easy to follow and remember. I appreciated the paternal investigator Delahaye, who noticed Ava's intelligence and never disrespected her simply because of her age (or her gender, considering it's the 80s). One thing I did find jarring though, was the setting and that's simply because I'm not familiar with the British culture from the 80s/90s. There were many descriptions of characters or places for which I had to pause and look up their significance (ex: Hartley Hare). So, there were a lot of iykyk descriptors but also little things, like if you haven't read any UK works before, you might not know that hiccough = hiccup....(did I just learn this? perhaps).

I did guess our killer before the reveal, but the reader is meant to find out the identity of the killer prior to the end. This is because we dive into the WHY of their actions. TBH, the factors that lead to the killings were quite morose, but I appreciated being able to continue to witness Ava's pragmatic approach to the aftermath.

This was a solid debut novel and if you enjoy a steady murder mystery with morbid weirdness at the forefront, I think you should give this book a try! I look forward to reading from this author again.

The central character, Ava, is a young girl with a peculiar hobby of tending to a roadkill, which sets a macabre tone from the outset. Ava's life takes a dark turn when she discovers the body of Mickey Grant, setting off a chain of events that pulls Detective Sergeant Seth Delanaye into a complex investigation.The premise is promising, with the peculiar backdrop of Ava's nocturnal activities and the introduction of various characters like Coleman the dog breeder, Nathaniel the local protector, and John, Ava's best friend. This book had the potential for a gripping thriller,but I struggled to stay fully engaged. This book has immense potential and I’m sure a lot with love it, but ultimately falls short for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

I loved the character of Ava, the extremely clever teenager with an interest in body decomposition and crime solving.

Marie Tierney is an addictively talented author and Deadly Animals is a captivating book (read it when you have time to finish it, you won't want to put it down), I read it on one long sitting).

Tierney breathes life into her characters, the way only top-notch authors have the ability to do. The characters throughout the book become individuals that we are drawn to. I certainly hope that this is just the first of Ava's crime solving adventures.

This book rates an enthusiastic 5 stars from this grateful reader.

Thank you for the ARC of Deadly Animals. I wish I could have gotten more into this book but it wasn't my speed, fairly slow paced and a little too long. I appreciate the concept and writing but it just wasn't for me which lead me to not being able finish the book unfortunately.

Engaging and entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

Set in the 1980’s in Birmingham, we follow Ava who is 13 and has an odd hobby. Because of this, she’s the one that finds the dead body of her schoolmate. The rest of the book takes place over the next year or so as more children are murdered, the cops struggle to make sense of the weird and ritualistic violence that happens, and to find who or what is doing these gruesome acts.
This was a crazy plot, and checked the boxes for a great horror/crime novel! I loved Ava and her feistiness, and seeing the way her brain works throughout the novel. The viewpoints switch around a few times as we see what the cops are doing, as well as other people within the town.
It dragged somewhat during the middle, but the beginning and end had me absolutely enthralled and I couldn’t put it down during the last half!

Focuses on human violence, but does also have cruelty to cats and somewhat dogs, as a warning!

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of Deadly Animals, all opinions are my own!

A very interesting book. I love Ava, the main character. I like that she is a strong, independent teenage girl interested in more than boys and clothing. I like that the policeman took her seriously. The plot kept me engaged throughout.

Holy crap! This is a monster of a novel, add to that the snail's pace and it isn't worth the time. This needs to be practically cut by half in order to be readable.

DNF at 30% of the way through. The pacing was annoyingly slow and I was just flat out bored. I was really looking forward to the concept of the novel, but unfortunately it wasn’t thrilling or fast-paced enough for me. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

My opinion is torn on this book. While overall it was a good story that was written well, it was far too long. Heavy editing could have made this a shorter and more enjoyable read.

I loved the character of Ava - Lady A a lot. I could picture her studying these dead creatures in order to learn more about the science and anatomy of the animals. I wish the author had gone into a bit more detail on why she was passionate about this - not just a link to her father, but what she hoped to do with the knowledge.

There were also way too many characters, some of which were dogs. Some were added for the benefit of adding more murders to the story, but some just seemed farfetched and unnecessary. I disliked the old man in the nursing home and felt that he didn't really add to the story at all.

The plot started to lose me as we grew closer to learning who the killer was. It felt too easy to stick the guilt on the character who turned out to be the murderer, and the sub-plot about lycanthropy made me just want to finish the book as quickly as I could to find out who the killer was.

Great start to the story, but unravelled for me toward the end.

No, Ava is not your normal teenager. Nor is this a normal story with a normal ending. Had me on the edge of my seat from the beginning as Ava is left to solve the mystery of her murdered classmates!

Meet Ava Bonney, a most exceptional 13 year old, who has a unique fascination for dead creatures. She has created a body farm near her home where she brings the dead bodies of animals she finds to study various decomposing effect. After which she gently gives them a proper burial.

Early one morning while her family sleeps she slips out to check on her creatures and discovers hidden in the bushes her classmate, Micky Grant. His body badly mutilated.

Realizing she must report Mickey’s death, she surreptitiously call the police. Masking her voice to sound older for fear of losing her ability to continue her nightly activities, she reaches Detective Seth Delehaye. It is the beginning of a friendship which puts Delahaye on the right track and in turn fosters her unique predilection.

An unusual story but engrossing. I can’t say it was enjoyable but it was fascination and well worth the time. If you enjoy stories that keep you guessing, this is a book for you.