Dnf! I can tell the author is talented, good writing. However I couldn’t get sucked into the story. I have only seen good reviews so this is probably just a me problem.

So first things first: if you are sensitive to the deaths of animals (see title) or the deaths of children (see plot description), you may wish to stay clear. There’s also a certain gruesomeness about much of it.

That being said, it’s a fabulous book!

Ava is wonderful. Somehow the author manages to create a girl who has such dark interests and make her positive and charming! I also liked so many of our other characters.

Now, I will admit that I realized our *who* way too early in the book. The problem was that I adored them and kept hoping against hope that I was wrong. But while there was a soupçon of disappointment in that, it didn’t ruin the read for me. Instead, I was still rapt – just a mixture of rapt and incredibly saddened.

Dark as the book is, it’s full of engaging characters, fabulous friendships (some unexpected), and a plot that becomes a real adventure.

There’s room for a sequel here and I truly hope the author brings us back to this world!

• ARC via Publisher

A great read. The pacing was a little slow at times, but I loved the main character Ava, and her relationships with the detectives on the case.

An incredible debut. 'Deadly Animals' shines with its fresh approach to crime. Set in 1981 Birmingham, a precocious 13-year-old girl becomes an unlikely expert to a police investigation into the murder of her classmates.

Marie Tierney creates as fantastic heroine in Ava, a self-assured autodidactic with an uncanny knowledge of biology, animal decomposition (thanks to her animal body farm), mimicry and illustration. She has a sharp vocabulary, but you can still see how she is still a child. I adored the friendship with her best friend Josh and all the teenage complications that comes with it. DS Seth Delahaye is a persistant but laid back and, refreshingly, takes Ava's insight seriously and comes to rely upon it as if she were a valued colleague.

The writing is tight with short sharp chapters, with characters that are absorbing. The pace is perfect with a slow-burn tension. I worked out pretty early who the killer was and I could feel the slow pit of dread as Ava and Seth seperately come to the shocking realisation.

This is definitely a top crime book for 2024. I would love to see more Ava, or perhaps a grown up Ava. But I know I'm being greedy.

Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the ARC.