DEADLY ANIMALS by Marie Tierney

DEADLY ANIMALS

Marie Tierney

Zaffre (bonnierbooks.co.uk)

£16.99

Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop

Thirteen-year-old Ava Bonney is different from other kids her age. Exceptionally bright, Ava has a keen interest in what happens when things die. She has her own “body farm” situated around the local area, where she can observe the rate of decay of small creatures after they’re dead. Often sneaking out late at night, she records her observations with her always-sharpened blue pencil in her Red Book. One night, as she crawls into a hollow in a hedge to check on a fresh fox cadaver she discovers something else, something much more gruesome: the body of Mickey Grant, a boy her own age, who goes to her school. A gifted mimic, Ava calls the police and informs them of the dead boy using her Mrs Poshy-Snob voice, avoiding any questions of why a thirteen-year-old girl is out and about at 2 o’clock in the morning. Detective Sergeant Seth Delahaye is assigned the case, and quickly identifies Ava as the type of person he can use to his advantage. As they both work the case in their own way, it quickly becomes clear that the children in the area are not safe: someone – or something – is hunting them.

Set in the summer of 1981 in the outskirts of Birmingham, Marie Tierney’s debut novel introduces us to two very different characters who will become unlikely allies – and even friends – as they work to discover the identity of the person who killed Mickey Grant, and the other children who followed. Ava is thirteen years old, a child comfortable in her own company, who likes to ask questions and find the answers. Despite this, she’s well liked by the children with whom she goes to school, and by the older kids who hang around the area. At the opposite end of the scale, Lancaster-born Seth Delahaye has served his time in London’s Met Police and has moved to Birmingham for a quieter life.

Murder was as constant as the flow of the Thames in London, but in Birmingham murder was a staccato event. And somehow more savage when it occurred.

Delahaye is patient and, in some ways, plodding, but he has a sharp mind and a methodical way of thinking. And, to the delight of his partner, Detective Constable Steve Lines, he’s smitten with the medical examiner, a redheaded beauty for whom the feeling seems to be mutual. Ava and the policemen form an unlikely alliance, and Delahaye finds himself relying on the young girl for information on more than one occasion. She unwittingly leads him to the scene of poor Mickey Grant’s murder, where the remains of many small animals, and not a few large dogs, have been laid out to form a kind of altar, lending the boy’s death the appearance of being some kind of sacrifice.

Deadly Animals is firmly rooted in the early 80s, and Tierney goes to great lengths to make us feel like we’ve travelled back in time. Those of us who lived through the period will remember many of the things she introduces to remind of us that much less technological age, while those of a younger generation will probably see the whole thing as some kind of dark ages mystery. There are no mobile phones here, no widespread use of computers; it’s all done the old-fashioned way, and it presents the author with lots of opportunities to create tension that might be impossible – or at the very least much more difficult – in today’s connected world. There is a sense of isolation, despite the large population of the area; and Ava and her sisters and friends enjoy much more freedom than children of today, allowed to roam much farther afield. In many ways this makes Delahaye’s job much more difficult, because the children play within a wide radius from the estate on which they live, often spending hours in the middle of woodland, or empty fields, or ruined buildings.

Tierney imbues her writing with a real sense of menace, and there are several scenes where, for no seemingly good reason, we find ourselves in a cold sweat, in the grip of outright fear; times when Ava or her friend John find themselves in situations that should be normal but which, for no reason that we can quite put our finger on, we find ourselves fearing for their lives. It’s a neat trick, and a sign of the depth of talent of this debut author. When we reach the end, and discover the truth behind the killings, we find ourselves replaying those scenes in our minds, and viewing them in a completely different way. It’s a layered and complex novel and would take much more than this review to examine all of its intricacies. Suffice to say that Tierney knows how to push our buttons, and she does so with seemingly mad abandon.

Deadly Animals is quite an achievement: an incredibly rich and layered debut novel with a pair of captivating characters at its core. It’s a gripping read – the first body appears on the scene within a handful of pages, and it never lets up from there. It’s a beautifully-constructed puzzle that comes together piece by piece until the full picture is revealed. You may have inklings about the identity of the murderer as you follow Ava and Delahaye through their parallel investigations, but it’s only when Tierney is ready for you to know, that you will understand the why. Deadly Animals isn’t quite like anything else out there: you need to read it to believe it and I’m here to tell you that it’s well worth a read. Expect big things from Tierney; she will quickly become one of those authors whose new book you buy sight unseen, because you know you’ll be in for the ride of your life.