Review by Booklist Review
In rural Black Hawk, Iowa, the hunt for a serial killer highlights the simmering tension between big agriculture and local farms. Housewife Chloe Miller's body is found deep in a cornfield, bearing ragged wounds. Police sergeant Riley Fisher grasps for connections between Chloe and the cornfield where she was found, operated by the Zephyr Cooperative, until a second victim is discovered, and the identification of human bites on both victims sends her team on the hunt for a cannibalistic killer. Complicating matters, Riley's black-sheep brother is arrested, her teenage niece flirts with dangerous rebellion, and her grandfather utters dementia-clouded regrets about their family's entanglements in the governor's corruption. As the investigation veers out of her control, Riley follows her intuition that the murders are linked to Zephyr, eventually uprooting a conspiracy binding political corruption to the dark side of GMO science. There is a lot going on here as Riley confronts family issues, and the serial murder investigation leads to a political conspiracy, but well-crafted procedural details and vivid portraits of Black Hawk's denizens provide a compelling draw.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In debut author Young's promising if overstuffed series launch, the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office receives a call regarding a days-old bite-covered corpse in a Cedar Falls, Iowa, cornfield. Sgt. Riley Fisher recognizes the victim as former childhood friend Chloe Clark, with whom she hasn't spoken in years. Chloe's husband claims he didn't report her missing because he thought she had left him for another man, but Riley has doubts. Shortly thereafter, a security guard discovers Nicole King's decomposing body at an abandoned meatpacking plant, a human tooth lodged in her thigh. Homeless vet George Anderson's belongings are scattered nearby, but he's nowhere to be found. The investigation's focus shifts to Anderson as a possible serial killer, but Riley fears her team is overlooking something. Departmental infighting, family troubles, state politics, and friction between "Big Ag" and local farmers add to the tale's turmoil. Despite a labored setup and a convoluted denouement, Young delivers a disturbing, twist-riddled thriller stocked with well-drawn characters. Fans of Midwestern crime fiction will be pleased. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
A woman lies dead in an Iowa cornfield (one of the few spreads around that's still family-owned), and for Sgt. Riley Fisher of the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office, it's personal: the victim is a childhood friend, which reminds Riley of a past she had hoped to escape. Soon, more bodies are discovered, and the case isn't local anymore. From the author of numerous UK historical best sellers, arriving in the United States with a first thriller granted a 150,000-copy first printing.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An Iowa police officer investigates a gruesome series of murders in this scathing indictment of big agriculture. Consider yourself warned: British author Young's debut crime novel, the first in a planned series, is grisly and dark, and readers who dislike gory scenes should be wary. Set in a version of America's heartland that rejects salt-of-the-earth stereotypes, the book opens with a desperate, bleeding young woman fleeing an unseen menace through an Iowa cornfield. When her body is found by a local farmer the next morning, newly promoted Riley Fisher, Black Hawk County Police's first female sergeant, realizes the dead woman is a childhood friend. The discovery brings back painful memories of trauma even as Riley struggles with family issues in the present. As more women disappear and disturbing signs of cannibalism are revealed, Riley begins to think the gruesome murders may not be the work of a single serial killer but part of a larger conspiracy that could reach far beyond the Midwest. An unsettling, foreboding atmosphere permeates the novel, mimicking the depression Riley fights to keep at bay and the region's collective despair over economic loss at the hands of big agriculture. Young is at her best when she's writing from Riley's point of view: Riley's battles with personal demons and casual sexism in the police department make her a solid foundation for a recurring series. But the complexity of the plot requires too many points of view--even the killer weighs in in overwrought asides--and Young is forced into too much explanation and exposition. She's determined to shine a light on a real problem--the destruction of family farms to feed corporate greed--but the book's overly complicated narrative gets in the way of her ability to simply tell a good story. A complicated plot overshadows solid character development in this gory debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
