The Embalmer by Alison Belsham

 The Embalmer by Alison Belsham is an action-packed murder mystery novel with about 4 to 5 murders, 2 murderers, some Grevious Bodily Harm and many more minor offences making it perfect for anyone who loves a murder mystery or loves a criminological style book. The one part of this story is about this Embalmer who goes around killing various people for no apparent reason, an individual clearly with some psychological disorders. The other part of this story could be argued to be about domestic crime where one of the character's husbands is killed and she is accused only to later find that it was the victim's brother who killed him. This story definitely takes you on an adventure with Police detective Francis who is trying to tackle all these murders. It is like reading a made-up version of 24 hours in police custody, following the police around in their investigations. 

I loved how action-packed this book was and in some places, it was even scary, not like horror but you were scared for the characters in the book. I also enjoyed the psychological and criminological elements of this book as you would expect from a social scientist such as myself. There was never anything boring about this book and particularly towards the end I struggled to put the book down. It was a shame it did take me so long to read due to external factors.

There is nothing I can say I dislike about this book really apart from the stupidity of some of the characters at some points. However, if this stupidity was not involved would the book be as good as it is? Probably not and so as annoying as it may be when these characters make such stupid decisions it definitely adds to the enjoyment and excitement of the book as a whole. 

Altogether, I rate this book 4 stars making it a very good book perfect for anyone who loves a murder mystery. What's more, it is not just one murder, it is multiple so you get about 5 times the enjoyment of what you would get from a standard murder mystery with just one murder. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy of this fabulous book which I thoroughly enjoyed.