Sixteen Horses

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Sixteen Horses, Greg Buchanan’s debut novel is affecting, challenging, haunting and compelling and I can tell you now that he is an author to watch out for. Set in a fictional town named Ilmarsh on the English coast, Sixteen Horses is a novel about harrowing events, decay and trauma and it got firmly under my skin.

Unlike anything else you’ll read this year, Sixteen Horses is a deeply disconcerting ride. Irresistible Alex Michaelides, author of The Silent Patient Original, beautifully written, terrifying and haunting. I won't forget this novel As a huge fan of Sixteen Horses I was eager to read Greg Buchanan's second novel, I was immersed immediately and throughout. Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan is one of the most original crime novels I’ve read. If you’re a fan of literary crime fiction, then you need to read this book. Greg Buchanan is an exciting new voice. As the police start their investigations into the sixteen horses heads that were buried in a field, darl secrets start to emerge around the local community. The story is not easy to follow. The timeline and narratives jump around. The characters are well developed and believable. The pace is steady but the storyline is hard to read due to the frequent references to animal abuse. But there's something intriguing that keeps you reading. There's plenty of twists to keep you guessing. The story covers: animal abuse, revenge, guilt, punishment and trauma.Val McDermid Dark, visceral and disturbing, this highly suspenseful and beautifully written thriller is totally gripping from start to finish. A hugely impressive debut Since the modifications to the course in 2013 when the cores of the fences were softened, the pattern of the race has changed and the average number of fallers has dropped from 11.6 to five. The first fence, with no drop on it now, is no longer the bogey fence it once was. The investigating officers and other personnel fall ill. Anthrax bacillus spores had been placed around the horses’ heads. One of those infected is Alex, who crashes his car in a delirium. His son Simon is with him but when the ambulance arrives, Simon is gone. Then why all the unnecessary details about “1 eye facing the winter sun” huh? You know how many times the author mentioned that detail. Why try to put in creepy edgy details when they’ll have 0 significance to anything in the end?

They were arrested on suspicion of a number of offences including conspiracy to cause public nuisance, obstructing highways and possession of controlled drugs,” officers added. After sixteen horse heads are discovered buried on a remote farm, forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen is drawn into a frightening mystery… Roly Owers, chief executive of World Horse Welfare, an equine charity which supports the responsible use of horses in sport and advises the BHA, said this year’s meeting, at which three horses were killed, was “difficult to watch” and called on racing to bring forward its work on the Jump Race Risk Model to make the National and other races safer. Alec is not a particularly good detective, so I was more and more fascinated to see his side of the story play out. Cooper is the big-hearted vet with an eye for crime so she was much more switched on. That being said, there never seemed to be a huge amount of progress made in the case. A lot of the secrets just came out all at once at the end. This is one I’d like to read again for the pure joy of it. Hard to put a tag on it. Noir? Gothic? Thriller? Police procedural? Social commentary?Upon reaching the end I felt that the author had been trying to incorporate a message but it was either one that was ambiguous and unclear, or one that I just didn't care enough to decipher. In the village of Ilmarsh, 16-year-old Rachel Cole discovers a gruesome sight while walking her dog in one of her family’s meadows. Dark, visceral and disturbing, this highly suspenseful and beautifully written thriller is totally gripping from start to finish. A hugely impressive debut.” —Alex Michaelides, author of The Silent Patient and The Maidens

From its grizzly opening onwards, Greg Buchanan’s debut Sixteen Horses owes much more to the British gothic tradition than to crime fiction. There is, on the surface a crime to be solved, and two investigators. But that investigation, for the most part, is just an excuse to get under the skin of the setting and the cruel and violent secrets that it holds. Val McDermid describes it as deeply disconcerting. She is not wrong. From the start this is a traumatic tale. Disturbing in many ways. I normally read crime and horror fiction but I have never read anything like this before. Wow, it is traumatic from start to finish. halfway through I had to stop reading for 24 hours - it is rare for an author to do that to me. But I finished it, the twists and turns kept coming. Alec Nichols is een zwaar depressieve rechercheur. Hij gaat gebukt onder zo veel verdriet dat hij vaak totaal niet functioneert. Hij woont al een aantal jaar in het dorp, maar kent nog steeds maar weinig mensen. Cooper Allen is al een aantal jaar forensisch dierenarts. Ze probeert door haar integere onderzoek en resultaten de zaak tot een goed einde te brengen. Waar zij de verbinding met haar omgeving probeert te maken, jaagt Alec mensen tegen zich in het harnas. Deze twee tegenpolen ontwikkelen een vreemd soort relatie waarbij ze de zaak op verschillende manieren benaderen. Met 14 andere enthousiaste mensen start ik aan de Hebban Leesclub van Zestien Paarden van Greg Buchanan uitgegeven door HarperCollins. Op de omslag zie je een stuk grasland met in de verte een gebouw. De oranjerode kleuren geven de insinuatie van een zonsopgang of zonsondergang. In de lucht cirkelt een groot aantal vogels; aaseters? De ondertitel is "Het verleden is niet begraven. Het haalt je binnenkort in.... ("This was a crime like no other..."). Onderaan staat een aanprijzende quote van schrijver Alex Michaelides. Daar heb ik zelf niet zo veel mee. Ik bepaal zelf of ik een boek wel of niet lees. Meestal omdat ik al meer van de schrijver gelezen heb of omdat de flaptekst/preview me aanspreekt (hetgeen in dit geval zo is). Het ontwerp van de omslag is gemaakt door Pan MacMillan, een van de grootste uitgeverijen in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. De vertaling is van Erica Disco. Zij vertaalde ook boeken van Lucinda Riley, Karin Slaughter, Robyn Carr en Christina Lauren. De BBC heeft na twee jaar onderhandelen de rechten van het verhaal gekocht om er een serie van te maken. Realising they need some specialist help, they call on the help of forensic veterinarian,Cooper to take a closer look. Herself and Alec reluctantly team up to try and find out what has happened and what is going on in the town.Thrillers bevatten vaak lugubere elementen en Zestien paarden is hier geen uitzondering op. Het enige verschil is dat dit boek lijkt te zijn geschreven om de lezers te choqueren. Lugubere details en misselijkmakend dierenleed zijn orde van de dag. Het inblazen van een relatief nieuw beroep, de forensisch dierenarts, is een leuke zet, maar aan het eind van het boek blijkt Coopers rol onduidelijk. Helaas staat ze op dit front niet alleen en wordt ze gedurende het boek bijgestaan door meerdere karakters zonder duidelijk nut. En net als je denkt door te hebben hoe het in elkaar steekt, wordt er zo'n bizarre en ongeloofwaardige plottwist in gegooid, dat het spoor weer bijster is. De onduidelijkheid die het gehele boek treft zorgt voor een groot aandeel in de wirwar van het geheel. In the dark days that follow, the town slips into panic and paranoia. Everything is not as it seems. Anyone could be a suspect. And as Cooper finds herself unable to leave town, Alec is stalked by an unseen threat. The two investigators race to uncover the truth behind these frightening and insidious mysteries – no matter the cost. In my mind there’s no doubt about it,” said Thomson after Saturday's race. “It was the cause of the problems we had.” The town of Iimarsh England is well described and you feel the hopelessness in the book; how everything is dying and people moving away and places just empty. The setting is perfect for the dark story. No book should explain the motives and reasonings for a crime in an epilogue, especially not through a dialogue between the investigator and a therapist. That’s just so lazy!! and means that although you can guess who the killer is, you are never given any actual clues and reasons before the “big” reveal.

It feels like this book takes place in an alternative universe. A near post apocalyptic feel to it. The book is so incredibly dark, a little like the constant chiming of a bell at a funeral. The thing is, this was hugely enjoyable to read. he has this way of writing that leaves you so confused as to what’s going on. That climax scene was so convoluted. Who spotted who, who was fighting who, who’s Theres who’s not there? And I realize all of this is just smoke and mirrors to make you think you’re reading something so sinister and interesting when it’s really not.

One Comment

His hunger outlives him. His teeming gut, his microbiome aflame with all the bacteria and symbiotic juices, they carry on. All that life within him continues consuming and breathing until it can breathe no more. He digests himself.' Rechercheur Alec Nichols wordt naar een plaats delict in een weiland van Well Farm geroepen in Ilmarsh. Maar er is geen lijk. In plaats daarvan liggen er 16 paardenhoofden alle met 1 oog onbedekt. Ze roepen de hulp in van forensisch dierenarts Cooper Allen, omdat ze merken dat de zaak groter is dan ze denken. it was such a chore to read these povs I swear. Obviously this crime turned personal but the actual people at the heart of this story are so. Damn. Boring. All of them are sad and edgy but not in an interesting way that makes you more curious. Alec is weird. Why do u think you’re in love with cooper? He’s so boring. He’s as interesting as toilet paper. Cooper? Oh god she’s like an android. Is she even human? Simon is the most lamest “villain” I’ve ever read good god. If you're looking for a new take on the crime genre, this a great place to start. Be wary: dead animals lie in this direction. But if you can appreciate their place in the story, you should enjoy this as much as I did.