August Lost by R.G. Vaughan

 

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You can buy "August Lost".....Here

You can see my interview with RG Vaughan....Here

You can follow RG Vaughan.....Here

The Blurb....

Secrets, omissions, disingenuous greetings. What do people hide?
Even the most trustworthy have secrets. The neighbour who smiles when walking their dog, the delivery man who thanks you for a signature, even the police officer who takes your statement could all be hiding something dreadful.

DI Matt Bruce processes evidence with absolute clarity but with PTSD restricting his ability to empathise, he lives as a prisoner to a tragic history. Thankfully, DS Val Marsh is brought in to unseal his bottled feelings and help release him from himself. But when a simple murder case evolves into something more, the pair stumble upon haunting crimes of vengeance and hate, and a myth from the art underworld becomes a terrifying reality.

My Review...

DI Matt Bruce struggles with his people skills, he can be emotionless and suffers from a lack of empathy. DS Val Marsh is brought in to act as his assistant and also to help develop these more human skills. 

Together they stumble across a killer only spoken about in whispers. The Painter is the Kaiser SoSay (spelling?) of the art world. If you can find him you can offer him a contract to kill someone, the bonus being you receive a an art masterpiece. The painter however uses the human body to create his paint brushes and canvas, and uses human body fluid as paint. So basically you'll have a dead person (trophy?) hanging on your wall 😱.

This is a very good debut novel. The author does a good job of creating his DI Matt Bruce. He is keen but emotionally flawed investigator, still tortured by PTSD from an incident in his youth. As Bruce chases the Painter, Val is also working on random killings from around the country. Is there a pattern to these other deaths? Is there another killer at large?

Every Holmes needs a Moriarty and the author does a terrific job of creating a twisted villain, right up there with Hannibal Lector for cunning and evil. The Painter is cold and emotionless, except when it comes to his art. This is where the floodgates open and emotion overpowers him. As with Holmes and Moriarty, Doctor Who and the Master et al, the protagonist and antagonist have a lot of traits in common. It wouldn't take a lot for them to become mirror images of each other, would it?

As Bruce begins to track down the Painter, the serial killer in turn investigates Bruce and believes that Bruce has his own dark secret.

All in all cracking debut serial killer novel. Already looking forward to the sequel.

Selected Quotes....

"The house of three undomesticated men sat on his taste buds, and with every breath, a new flavour trickled down the back of his throat."

"And pressure was always added when he had to deal with people whose houses were named and not numbered."

"And although most things were still an enigma to him, he was able to measure the difference when he acted like he cared."

"A negative emotion would bleed through to the final piece, and like a lamb seeing the knife before slaughter, would ruin the flavour."

About the Author...

Beginning his writing career at 37, this Welsh author uses writing as a healthy way to handle stress. When the weight of the world is on his shoulders, he copes by putting pen to paper.

"Some people go jogging, some people read books. I like to make a world for people to lose themselves - a place to escape."

When he's not working or writing, he spends his time with his wife, son and family Dalmatian.