Karen Taylor – Fairest Creatures

Fairest Creatures is a crime novel that has certainly made me want to read more of Karen Taylors books. The cover instantly caught my attention, and the synopsis completed the job.

When a glass box is found in Prussia Cove, containing a conch and the ear of a missing beauty, a murder investigation is launched. Is the Sleeping Beauty Killer back? Or is this a copycat killing?

What’s clear is an evasive, clever killer is at large, presenting DI Brandon Hammett with his biggest challenge to date.

A serial killer’s dark obsession with the preservation of beauty sees him return to stalk the streets of Penzance in the summer of 2019. It’s 23 years since his first victims went missing, setting DI Brandon Hammett on the hunt for the Sleeping Beauty Killer.

A beautiful woman is being held captive in an unknown location. Although not physically injured, she is manacled to a chair in a darkened, sinister dining room. Her captor is polite but menacing. Her female companions, silent spectators.

This is most definitely a riveting read! Penzance in Cornwall is a gorgeous place, but the most horrific discoveries are creating a sense of terror in the community. The type of terror that comes with thinking a killer from twenty years ago is either back, or it’s a copycat of that killer. The questions on everyone’s mind are whether he will killer again and when.

Each chapter is told from each one of the three main characters, so we get to learn about them and their viewpoints. I always love this type of story as I enjoy getting to know the characters. Short chapters always help to drive the story as you always need to read ‘just one more chapter’.

We get to know DI Brandon Hammett, Julia, a beautiful and wealthy widow who has started using online dating sites in order to meet a man. The final character we get to meet is the victim, the ‘creature’, the latest woman to be held captive. This makes for a creepy read. My hair was standing up on my arms at times.

Fairest Creatures is a book that may be about a serial killer, but Karen Taylor has made this particular one as unique as he can be with the fairytale nature of the sleeping beauty killers’ actions.

The characters are so well done and bring so much to this multi-layered novel, along with the beautiful sense of place that Karen Taylor brings to the story. It manages to make this novel even more eerie against the backdrop of the cornish coastline.

The pacing of the story does seem to begin slowly, but as the story develops, it ramps up the pace to a point that you really don’t want to stop. A recommended read from me.

Thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Karen Taylor for the gifted copy of the book.