Author: Andrew Mayne
Published: October 1st 2017 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Paperback, 382 pages
Genre: Suspense
Series: The Naturalist #1
Wow, just wow.
Theo Cray isn’t exactly the absent minded professor but being an expert in computational biology, where he has had very little human interaction other than the classes that he reluctantly teaches, has lead him to a life of finding patterns where others cannot see them and a computer algorithm, that with the right perimeters, can tell him where the bodies are literally buried.
Becoming a murder suspect himself, since the body of an ex-student was discovered mauled in the Montana woods not too far from where Theo was working, he throws himself into the investigation since he believes that it was not a bear that was responsible, but a human that tried to mask his identity.
Using his background and his computer program, Theo begins to unearth more bodies that fit the same pattern and it now becomes a battle of wits between the killer, the town, the police and Theo. As the story reaches it crescendo, the truth does hit the reader out of nowhere. Maybe there was a clue earlier that I had dismissed, but when Theo finally put all the floaty pieces together it was literally an “oh” moment.
Theo Cray is a fascinating character, possibly on the spectrum, possibly too self-righteous, definitely too smart for his own good, creative when necessary and luckier than most, that will leave the reader wondering what idiotic situations that he can get into next and yet cheering him on in his need to answer all the questions to the patterns that he sees.
Theo Cray isn’t exactly the absent minded professor but being an expert in computational biology, where he has had very little human interaction other than the classes that he reluctantly teaches, has lead him to a life of finding patterns where others cannot see them and a computer algorithm, that with the right perimeters, can tell him where the bodies are literally buried.
Becoming a murder suspect himself, since the body of an ex-student was discovered mauled in the Montana woods not too far from where Theo was working, he throws himself into the investigation since he believes that it was not a bear that was responsible, but a human that tried to mask his identity.
Using his background and his computer program, Theo begins to unearth more bodies that fit the same pattern and it now becomes a battle of wits between the killer, the town, the police and Theo. As the story reaches it crescendo, the truth does hit the reader out of nowhere. Maybe there was a clue earlier that I had dismissed, but when Theo finally put all the floaty pieces together it was literally an “oh” moment.
Theo Cray is a fascinating character, possibly on the spectrum, possibly too self-righteous, definitely too smart for his own good, creative when necessary and luckier than most, that will leave the reader wondering what idiotic situations that he can get into next and yet cheering him on in his need to answer all the questions to the patterns that he sees.
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