Belinda Bauer is a phenomenal voice in British crime fiction, whose work has won the CWA’s Gold Dagger Award for Crime Novel of the Year and garnered rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Winner of the 2014 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Rubbernecker is a gripping thriller about a medical student who begins to suspect that something strange is going on in this … this cadaver lab.
The dead can’t speak to us,” Professor Madoc had said. But that was a lie. The body Patrick Fort is examining in anatomy class is trying to tell him all kinds of things. But no one hears what he does, and no one understand when he tries to tell them.
Life is already strange enough for Patrickbeing a medical student with Asperger’s Syndrome doesn’t come without its challenges. And that’s before he is faced with solving a possible murder, especially when no one believes a crime has even taken place. Now he must stay out of danger long enough to unravel the mystery. But as Patrick learns one truth from a dead man, he discovers there have been many other lies closer to home.
A can’t-put-it-down page-turner from one of the finest voices in UK crime, Rubbernecker puts Belinda Bauer firmly on the map of world-class crime writers.
An intelligent, disturbing read.”The Guardian (UK)
Breathtaking. I read this and wished I’d written it.”Val McDermid
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When it comes to crime fiction I always enjoy something different from the often predictable police procedural and serial killer thrillers. And this story is different from the first page to the last. It grabbed me with its distinctive style and approach.
I enjoyed the author’s distinctive style of writing and characterisation, especially Patrick Fort, the unlikely hero of this tale about an unusual murder, set in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital. He has Asperger’s Syndrome, which gives him a unique outlook and viewpoint that can be disturbing, humorous and incisive at times, but always believable.
The story also deals with the lives of some of the other characters on both sides of ICU, which helps paint a convincing picture of the department, the patients trapped there and what it’s like to nurse them. Some of the humour was deliciously dark.
The steady pace of the story picks up as the climax approaches and the truth is exposed. In the end, it all felt a little too easy to resolve, but offered a neat surprise I appreciated.
I’ve never read Belinda Bauer’s books before, but I’ll be reading more in the future.
This is the very best read! Am gobsmacked by the writing, plot and the characters.
It is a mystery, but oh so much more with the lead character Patrick telling the story.
Patrick has Auspergers and doesn’t like loud noise, being touched and has trouble relating to people and life. With the death of his father, he begins a quest to define life and what happens when one dies. He ends up at a college dissecting corpses to learn all he can. Alone and persistent, the slowly makes friends and even tries to recognize the emotions people display.
The author makes you care deeply about Patrick, his classmates, and poor number 19…..the corpse. The number of people that end up helping and listening to Patrick gives one pause…that sometimes people are good and do care. The author does the character proud and the mystery and other people in it ring true. Not a false note and the end of the book solves an even deeper mystery about family.
Read this book!!!
One of my favorite books, so good, so different and super well written.
Don’t be fooled by the first chapter or two. There are characters to like in “Rubberneckers” because Belinda Bauer, as always, delivers a fabulous story. Rather than risk spoilers, I won’t go into detail about the plot. Suffice to say that this novel more than earned the 2014 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.
Rubbernecker is quiet, confident crime novel with an unlikely hero. Patrick, described in the blurb as an anatomy student with Asperger’s Syndrome, believes he’s uncovered a murder and sets out to find the truth. It’s full of beautifully drawn characters, plenty of humour and a satisfying ending that’s believable and hopeful.
A terrific and most unusual mystery. A young man on the autism spectrum wants to find out why and how his father died. By studying death in another, he resolves his own questions, solves another mystery, and grows socially and emotionally at the same time. So very well written, reading this was a joy.
Brilliant! The author of Rubbernecker has written a main character who has Asperger’s Syndrome, on the autism spectrum, an illness with multiple challenges for the individual and family members. But she has, through his thoughts and dialogue, nailed perfectly the man’s approach to life, his work, his needs, and then showed his progress in dealing with that life and those challenges. Somehow, his thoughts perfectly portray his special needs for order, or perfection, or cleanliness, and help us understand and accept him as he is. This is a most spectacular book!
Rubbernecker is a complex, crazy, fascinating, jaw-dropping novel. It’s told from three points of view, and with three different unreliable narrators. But that’s not all that’s going on—it seems like every other chapter has a big reveal. Everything crashes together about two-thirds of the way through, then charges headlong toward the climax—I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
The main character is Patrick, an eighteen-year-old on the autism spectrum who’s fascinated by death. He takes an anatomy class at university, his first time away from his mother, who’s too broken to care for him properly. I’m not knowledgeable enough about autism to know if Patrick’s portrayal is accurate, but it sure felt real to me—and he felt like a real person, not a “character with autism.”
It’s also partially narrated by a man in a coma, and the story additionally follows a mean-spirited but beautiful nurse who works in the facility where the man lies. And revealing any more than that would spoil some crazy plot points and surprises. But it spoils nothing to say that you’re going to want to buy this book and find several hours of uncluttered time—because you’re not going to want to put it down once you start. It hooked me from the first page.
excellent.
Excellent insight into the thinking pattern of a young man with an Asperger disorder.
Didn’t really care for this one!
Very unusual premise. Excellent writing. Am eager to read more from this author.
This book was so interesting and unusual. I really enjoy a book that puts me in the characters head and this one did. One of the best books I’ve read this year.
I liked this book overall. The storyline was interesting, and I liked the character development. I was disappointed that the book seemed to forget to close out the story of what happened to the woman in the hospital and that whole situation with the nurse etc. it just dropped and left a not very exciting cliffhanger.
I enjoyed this book for more reasons than the twists and plot turns which were beautifully unpredictable. The linchpin of Aspergers syndrome was brilliant and eye-opening both as to the literalism of such a mind but also how others react to such a person. This book certainly changed my attitude of comatose patients and their care. The book is an informative thriller.
The most unusual crime drama wrapped in a veil of insight into someone born “different”. I recommend this book to anyone who seeks understanding of those who are not wired like the average guy. The mystery and crime solve process was also stellar.
I absolutely loved this book. With so many autistic characters turning up these days one can get a bit jaded especially when you have a son with autism. This character totally nails it and will have you rooting for him in spite of his faults.
I can’t describe it in detail without spoilers, so I won’t try. Just say I’ve never read a mystery like this and I’ll bet you haven’t either. My one word description would be:
Disconcerting.
I love this book. I enjoy reading about autism and people who are somewhere on the autism spectrum. I found this book inspirational and hopeful.
Seeing the world and a mystery through the eyes of someone on the Autism specter was most interesting. Also the world of dissection was well portrayed.