Flowers for the Dead by Barbara CopperthwaiteAuthor Website Amazon (UK) Amazon.com BLC Publications (ebook), 2015
353 Pages
ADAM WILL DO ANYTHING TO MAKE YOU HAPPY. EVEN IF IT KILLS YOU.
Adam Bourne is a serial killer who thinks he is a saviour. When he murders young women and cuts off their lips, he believes he has done it to make them happy.
How did he become warped from the sensitive four-year-old who adored his gran and the fairy tales she read to him? What turned him into a monster who stalks his victims? And what is he trying to say with the bouquets he sends?
When he meets Laura Weir, Adam weaves a fairy tale romance around them. A tale she has no idea she is part of. As he hatches his twisted plan for their fairy tale ending, can anyone stop him before he creates the ultimate sacrifice to love?
Breathing, feet, and baseline pound together as one as Julie reaches the end of the cul-de-sac and jogs onto the scrubland. The music is already loud but Lost and Not Found is her favourite Chase and Status tune so she fumbles for the volume and pushes it up further, even as she urges her legs to go faster, making her jet black ponytail bob up and down like crazy.
Flowers for the Dead is dark, twisted and brilliant. I loved it.
Adam is unlike any serial killer I've read about and I've read about hundreds of them. He's a new kind of twisted. I felt a tiny bit of sympathy for him because he is sexually abused by his mother. However, this neither explains nor excuses his disturbing behaviour. This book made me shiver but never gets to be gruesome despite its dark subject matter. I was enthralled from page one. I really liked that some chapters are from Adam's point of view. I don't think I've read a serial killer thriller from the killer's perspective. Not that I can recall anyway. This added a lot of depth to the book and made it even more unsettling. It wasn't pleasant being inside his warped head all the time so it was a relief when the viewpoint switched to Laura or Mike. I loved the sections from Laura's point of view. They were so well-written and detailed as she struggled not to fall apart when she realised someone was stalking her. I'd have hysterics if I discovered someone had been in my house, tidying up and making me dinner. These acts may seem banal on the surface but are utterly terrifying. The fact Adam thought he was courting her made my flesh crawl. I loved this book and definitely want to read more by this author.
I can't recommend Flowers for the Dead enough.
