Or the film Se7en. Remember that? The atmosphere of that film. Every outdoor shot it was raining, every indoor shot lowly lit, that is this book. That same feeling. Utterly brilliant. Poetry and cinema at once. If this isn’t one of the biggest titles of 2021 I’ll eat my hat.” - C.J. Cooke In the dying English seaside town of Ilmarsh, the heads of sixteen horses are found buried in circles, with only their eyes exposed to the light of the low winter sun. The local police call upon forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen to assist with this uniquely disturbing case. Now, if you don't anticipate animal cruelty from that blurb, you're a little naïve. We're starting with decapitated horses right off the bat and we want to know what happened to them. So if you're a bit squeamish, maybe give this one a miss. I WILL say that I am not a huge fan of animal cruelty myself but I found it bearable here. It mostly made sense within the story and it wasn't ever dwelled on in a particularly gruesome manner, so to me it made a point of difference in a world of same/same crime.

Utterly brilliant. Poetry and cinema at once. If this isn’t one of the biggest titles of 2021 I’ll eat my hat.” Hill Sixteen, an experienced 10-year-old having his 20th start in a chase, had a terrific CV for the race; he had never fallen before and had previously jumped twice round the course in the Becher Chase “without the semblance of a mistake”.As a huge fan of Sixteen Horses I was eager to read Greg Buchanan's second novel, I was immersed immediately and throughout. On a lonely farmstead, an old woman falls down outside and, unable to move, is consumed overnight by two of her pigs. why doesn’t Alec act like a police officer at all? Him demanding to get answers out of the little mute girl? That whole scene was just so weird. Him leaving his case files all over the place for anyone to come and see their info. WTF

I started off with a 2 star rating, but I'm dropping that even lower. The more I think about it, the less I like this book. Dark, visceral and disturbing, this highly suspenseful and beautifully written thriller is totally gripping from start to finish. A hugely impressive debut.” The protesters' actions could have potentially endangered horses and people, while purportedly being carried out in the name of safety. Nevertheless, my colleagues and I will continue to dedicate our lives to looking after these wonderful animals, who are bred for this sport which brings such a wonderful quality of life to so many horses.”It starts out with the discovery of sixteen killed horses, just their heads - oh, and their tails - in a muddy field. The local police detective and an animal forensic scientist set out to learn what killed them and who and how and why. All very standard for a thriller/horror/mystery read. (I am so not sure which genre this book really is.) But the more you read, the deeper into the mud of the story and the characters' lives you get. (And it is super muddy.) The locale: A fading seaside town, which we are reminded of at least a dozen times. Closed-up shops. Abandoned buildings. The ruined facades of amusement arcades, and so on. As the police start their investigations into the sixteen horses heads that were buried in a field, darl secrets start to emerge around the local community. The story is not easy to follow. The timeline and narratives jump around. The characters are well developed and believable. The pace is steady but the storyline is hard to read due to the frequent references to animal abuse. But there's something intriguing that keeps you reading. There's plenty of twists to keep you guessing. The story covers: animal abuse, revenge, guilt, punishment and trauma. Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan is one of the most original crime novels I’ve read. If you’re a fan of literary crime fiction, then you need to read this book. Greg Buchanan is an exciting new voice. In my mind there’s no doubt about it,” said Thomson after Saturday's race. “It was the cause of the problems we had.”

At the start there was,” said De Boinville, “a feeling of real electricity. Everyone was fired up, once you’re called in for the first time, you’re revving the engine.” Authors, if you are a member of the Goodreads Author Program, you can edit information about your own books. Find out how in this guide. The killer had secured the horses in the ground by digging holes, dropping the heads within these holes, caking soil around the flesh, then spreading loose dirt to help the skin blend in with the surrounding earth. The purpose was to delay them being found, but not indefinitely. To make the realisation itself a moment of power.”

Unlike anything else you’ll read this year, SIXTEEN HORSES is a deeply disconcerting ride. Irresistible.” - Val McDermid Alec Nichols is een zwaar depressieve rechercheur. Hij gaat gebukt onder zo veel verdriet dat hij vaak totaal niet functioneert. Hij woont al een aantal jaar in het dorp, maar kent nog steeds maar weinig mensen. Cooper Allen is al een aantal jaar forensisch dierenarts. Ze probeert door haar integere onderzoek en resultaten de zaak tot een goed einde te brengen. Waar zij de verbinding met haar omgeving probeert te maken, jaagt Alec mensen tegen zich in het harnas. Deze twee tegenpolen ontwikkelen een vreemd soort relatie waarbij ze de zaak op verschillende manieren benaderen. Cooper verifies that the heads are of sixteen horses. The animals belong to various residents of Ilmarsh, and most were stabled at Elton’s Riding Academy and Livery. Several others were independents, like Michael Stafford’s Annie, who pulled a carriage at the local seaside arcade. All the animals had been sedated at the request of their owners because of the Guy Fawkes celebration and fireworks.

The instigation of the action in Sixteen Horses is the grizzly discovery of sixteen horses heads found half buried, each with one eye staring at the sky, together with a knot of tails on a farm outside of the coastal British town of Ilmarsh. The act had taken place on Guy Fawkes Night when the horses from various places around town had been sedated so as not to be spooked by the fireworks and everyone in town was at the pyre. Local detective Alex Nicholls, a man with deep secrets who himself is barely holding things together, is out of his depth and a forensic vet, Cooper Allen, is called in to help with the investigation. But just as it seems they are getting somewhere the story and the narrative takes a wild swerve, the town put in quarantine following the long term consequences of the World War 2 testing of anthrax spores and Alec’s eighteen year old son goes missing. Cooper is asked to stay on to investigate. Het verhaal las voor mij heel verwarrend. De tijdsprongen en de wisselende perspectieven maken het er niet duidelijker op. De schrijver maakt geen woorden vuil aan mooie volzinnen en ingewikkeld taalgebruik. Ik ga ervan uit dat hij zijn lezers wil schokken.ILMARSH is a long-forgotten pleasure town, a place left to its own decay, devoid of anything new or exciting, a ghost town where every single thing is just waiting to fade into oblivion. But evil lurks in even the remotest corners of the earth as the heads of sixteen horses are discovered in WELL FARM by a farmer and his daughter. Thus starts the deciphering of the myriad strange things that are happening in the town by the lead detective sergeant Alec Nichols and forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen.