Deadly Animals follows Ava Bonney, a young teenager who happens upon the body of one of the local boys that had gone missing. Ava knows that this wasn't the kill site for Mickey. After calling in a tip using a fake name and voice Ava is giving leads to the police. With the help from Ava, Detective Seth Delahaye finds where Mickey had been held and killed and really no clues on who might be the killer. Now with another boy missing Ava believes that these cases are connected. Dectective Delahaye feels like he is running out of time and suspects. The one suspect that they are interested in has served time as a sex offender with boys and now is missing. Ava and her friend John have stumbled onto another body that happens to be the second missing child. John and Ava have made a murder borard trying to link the boys dissapearance and what they know from each crime scene to solve the crime. This book was unbelievably good and will keep you on your toes til the very end. I loved how strong and smart Ava was and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind even to the police. I would like to think both NetGalley and Mcmillan Audio for giving me an advanced copy of this audio book.

I love this type of book. It's gritty and the murder victims are young witch makes it horrible but the main character is a 14 year old teen who has a very sharp mind and finds the first body by accident, from there she decides to investigate in secret voluntary some help to the police without their knowledge. The audiobook has a great narrator for this one. I couldn't put it down. Felt like I was watching a movie. The police investigating starts to realize how smart Ava is, and he rethinks what girls are supposed to behave or look like.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this debut novel by Marie Tierney, with the audiobook perfectly narrated by Olivia Dowd. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

Ava is not a normal teenager. She has an obsessive interest in dead animals and how they compose. She collects roadkill in the middle of the night and pulls them into her den, recording her findings in notebooks. But one night, she comes across the body of her classmate, Mickey. Worried that she might be in trouble for her nighttime activities, she makes an anonymous phone call to the police. Detective Delahaye begins investigating, and Ava does her best to help, because more teenagers are going missing.

This is a wonderful debut and I would love to see it become a series, because the combination of Ava and the detective were wonderful! Ava's character is amazing - having a tough home life, she is strong, intelligent, interested in everything, helpful, very respective. While the subject matter is definitely dark, it's not overly graphic or gratuitous, though still sad and disturbing. This story takes place in the 1980s; there was an interview between narrator and author at the end of the audiobook which explained that the author wanted the mystery to not be easily solved with modern advances in DNA. So it's nostalgic, with a small town feel, and the alternating POV between Ava and the detective in short chapters were perfect to engage the reader with this story. Anxious to read more from this author!

I'm happy that so many early readers are loving this book. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me at all.

I liked Ava's character. She's precocious and smart and fearless. No one else stood out for me. The other kids, parents, and even the investigating detectives were dull.

I figured out the killer early on.

Pacing dragged. I didn't find the investigation interesting at all.

I alternated between a print copy and the audiobook. I thought Olivia Dowd did a great job with Ava's narrating parts, but I needed a second narrator for the detective's parts. Dowd's voice didn't change much at all, in tone or otherwise, with the different characters, so it all just blended together and I drifted away.

Just beyond the halfway point, I found I didn't even care. I skipped to the final chapters to see if I was right. I was.

*Thanks to Henry Holt for the free ARC, and to Macmillan Audio for the free audiobook download.*

4.5 rounded up for this new series wherein a bright, nearly 14-year-old girl in Northern England in the 1980s aids the police in solving a series of grisly murders. It’s dark and rife with neglectful parents and the bones of animals. The audiobook is well narrated and evocative. i can’t wait to listen to the next one in the series!
My thanks to the author, publisher, producer, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook for review purposes. Publication date: Nov 12, 2024.

I feel like Ava and Wednesday Addams would be best friends. This book is a great quick listen. It's got an excellent plot, and the narration is fantastic! It is great for anyone who loved the Nancy Drew books or the Hardy Boys; I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery!

Ava was such a curiosity of a young girl. She was so authentically odd in such an endearing way. She proves that just because something or someone is uncommon or unusual does not make them bad, in fact in her case it makes her so deeply good. I loved the suspense, the oddity, the absolute strangeness of this crime novel. While getting deeply invested in the characters and the mystery of it all, I was also super impressed with the writing and the phenomenal narration. Thank you Marie Tierney, NetGalley and MacMillan Audio!

I am definitely in the minority, but I had a hard time getting into this book. I listened via audiobook and part of me wonders if it was the narrator I struggled with. Other readers have given fantastic reviews, so I think it’s certainly worth trying out.

This book was a little too slow for my particular taste, but I think others will enjoy it. The premise and story were great!

Ava is not your typical 14-year-old girl. She is obsessed with the decomposition of dead animals. Suddenly she finds herself at the center of the investigation of a series of murders when she finds more than one of the dead bodies.

I will say that enjoyed the narrator, but did not feel like it was a good fit for this story. Obviously, I know that children are often narrated by adults, but I think the narrator's accent just made Ava sound much older than she was. Since the same narrator was used for the chapters from the male detective's POV, it was hard to keep them separated.

Overall, the story was interesting, but it wasn't necessarily my favorite.

4.5 stars. Birmingham, England 1981: 13 year-old Ava Bonney is unlike other teenagers. First of all, she keeps a level head in almost any situation. But secondly, she studies the dead to learn what she can from decomposition. As she is engaging in her hobby, she finds the body of a local bully and calls it in to the police. This is only the start of a number of strange murders that take place in Ava's vicinity and she does what she can to help the police. Detective Seth Delahaye is on the case but mostly, Ava is the star investigator.
This novel was fantastic and I'm very happy to report that it's the start of a new series starring Ava. Love that it takes place in the 80s so it was more difficult to investigate the murders and other strange happenings.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio e-arc.*

3 stars

The premise of this sounded so intriguing to me, and the narrator of the audiobook is exceptional. Overall, this is a worthwhile debut.

Ava, the m.c., is just the kind of quirky character that makes for a compelling focal point, especially in horror featuring younger characters. She is a truly unique individual, and that assessment is not limited to her peculiar interests, which are highlighted from the jump.

While I enjoyed many aspects of this, particularly the way they were delivered by this outstanding narrator, I found myself frustrated with the pacing more than once (transparently to the point of nearly lost focus). There are enough positives to have me interested in reading more from this author, but prospective readers may be well served by more realistic expectations about the pacing.

I look forward to reading more from this writer.

Wow. I have a million things to day but I don't want to do any spoilers. I just love any references to feral children and little girls doing not "girly" things. I love our protagonist!
I love the narration.

Some of the characterization was really well done, but ultimately the theory of criminality left me disappointed.



Review copy provided by publisher.

Thanks NetGalley for the listen. Narrator was great. The book was good, too slow a pace for me. Characters where there but felt most of it was details not enough mystery. Did have some creepy vibes, just not for me.

I've read so many murder mysteries lately that I have grown a little tired of them, but I can honestly say that this book was absolutely riveting. For some reason, I kept getting "All the Colors of the Dark" vibes from some of the characters. Any of you who have followed my reviews for the last few months will know that that book is one of my top reads this year, so the comparison is a good thing!

The book is set in a sleepy town in South Birmingham, Ireland, in the 1980s and primarily focuses on 14-year-old Ava Bonney. Ava is not your average teenager in that she has a morbid fascination with decomposition - primarily the decomposition of dead animals. Ava likes to sneak out of her apartment at night and walk the road looking for roadkill. She will then take the dead animal to a secret area where she places it and then take notes on the rate of decay over several days. What Ava doesn't know is that there's also someone else lurking in the woods - someone with more sinister intent. When she discovers the body of her classmate, Mickey Grant, lying near her animal graveyard, she is faced with a dilemma - to reveal her secret obsession or stay silent and risk being implicated in a murder investigation.

The other main character is Detective Seth Delahaye, who takes on the murder investigation. Ava refuses to sit back and let others solve the mystery and uses the knowledge she has gained to do her own investigation. It's not long before Delahaye and Ava team up to bring down who is killing teenagers in this small, sleepy town.

While the plot is pretty familiar to avid readers of serial killer thrillers, the characters are what really make this one shine. I absolutely loved both Ava and Detective Delahaye. Ava was whip-smart and very tough for a fourteen-year-old. She comes from a broken home and deals with an abusive mother, and I loved seeing her find a purpose. I also loved the relationship that developed between her and the detective, as he became a source of stability for her. She had a lot of adults in her life who had failed her, and she needed his trust and kindness.

The pacing of the novel is perfect, and I loved how it all unraveled. I am usually pretty good at figuring out who the killer is early on, but that wasn't the case this time around. I was actually surprised by it. I also liked how the author used a mental health diagnosis that I had never heard of before. It made the story that much creepier. I was surprised to learn that this is a debut novel. I am definitely looking forward to reading more by this author in the future.

I had the pleasure of both reading and listening to this one, and I must say I absolutely loved the narrator. Olivia Dowd perfectly portrays all of the characters. She also does a great job hitting all the important beats and keeps the story moving.

I was really surprised by how much I loved this one. The story was captivating, the pacing was perfect, and I absolutely loved these characters. This is an impressive debut, and I look forward to reading more from this author. Fans of serial killer thrillers should definitely bump this one up on their TBR.

I'd describe this as a darker Nancy Drew.

Ava, 14, is a precocious young lady who is interested in anatomy and how bodies break down after death. She studies animals that have died in her neighborhood to learn about this process.

While checking in on a decomposing fox, she spots a teen from her neighborhood who's been missing for weeks. And her knowledge tells her he experienced horrific things prior to his death.

Thus prompts a major investigation as more and more boys go missing from the area. Along the way Ava helps the detective through phone calls where she pretends to be an older woman, knowing they wouldn't take the word of a 14 year old girl.

Who doesn't love a really good murder mystery where the main character is a hyper -analytical teenager similar to Sherlock Holmes? I know I do, and I was hooked on this story fairly quickly.

Ava is not a stranger to death as she is fascinated by roadkill she finds along the roadway. Her analytical mind loves facts and cases related to death and murders. However, it hits close to home when she discovers the body of a classmate along the same path she takes to her scientific "experiments".

She makes an anonymous call to the police to point them in the right direction and the quiet of her small town is broken as an unknown murder is now the focus of the community and Ava may be one of the few people with the knowledge to help crack the case.

This book was really well done. Even thought it feels YA at times, it is dark and gritty, which does not pander to the younger ages. i would recommend an adult review some of the trigger warnings, such as child death, and animal death, before letting anyone too young read this book as it may have some disturbing content.

Great mystery and really good suspense. I can't wait to see what else may come out of this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Ava is a very smart 13 year old who likes to conduct experiments on the decay and anatomy of roadkill animals for her own edification. She's very smart, lovable, and a bid odd which is ok. When young boys start to go missing in her town, she starts investigating along with the police to figure out who the killer is.

There is a lot of good in this dark and macabre novel: there are close friendships and general kindness offsetting the darkness. I did enjoy the friendship between Ava and Detective Delahaye. Heed the trigger warnings but I did not find this overly gruesome. Recommend!

Deadly Animals (audio): with bonus author interview at the end
3⭐️

Overall I liked the story and would recommend to others who enjoy thriller with a splash of horror (tw: animal and children deaths). This was a rare instance where I think I would have liked the ebook version over audiobook. Nothing against the narrator! She did a fabulous job. But I found it difficult to focus for this one. I struggled to keep some of the secondary/minor characters straight due to my lack of focus, but if I were reading it I could back track and double check things easier. I think I would have really liked this as a short story.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio ARC. This review will be shared on NetGalley, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Audio Pub Date Nov 12 2024

While the premise of a teen with a morbid hobby who finds a dead body was interesting, I just couldn’t get absorbed into the story and wasn’t motivated enough to finish the story. The author does a good job with the Birmingham setting in the 80s but other than that I wasn’t engaged.