Body Language by A. K. Turner – Review.

About The Book

Mortuary technician Cassie Raven believes the dead can talk. We just need to listen . . .

Cassie Raven is used to people thinking her job is strange – why would anyone want to cut up dead bodies for a living? But they don’t know what she knows: that the dead want to tell us what happened to them.

She’s eviscerated thousands of bodies, but never someone she knew, someone who meant a lot to her – until now.

The pathologist says her death was an accident. Her body is telling Cassie differently.

My Review

Body Language is the first in a series that features Cassie Raven. Whilst being a crime novel it is a little different, instead of being in the police Cassie is a mortuary assistant and she often communicates with the people who have died, especially in suspicious circumstances. This could have been a little creepy but I thought it was more like compassion. She seemed to sense that they had something to say. One of the people who ‘spoke’ to her was a woman who had been a huge help to Cassie, helped her change her life and now she wants to return the favour and find out why she has died.

I adored Cassie as soon as I met her. I loved her honesty regarding her past mistakes, her relationship with her grandmother and her determination to get justice for the dead. She felt remorse for mistakes made in the past and relationships that she had damaged with her inability to share but she was also loyal to friends. 

The detective she has an initial tetchy relationship with, Phylidda, is one I did struggle with at first  but I did soften a bit when I realised what her issues were. I did however have a lot of respect for her stubbornness in not giving up on something she wasn’t happy with. 

The author showed how fascinating and rewarding working in a mortuary could be. She didn’t baffle the reader with the science, instead she showed the detail of the job but with compassion and respect. Something which has been lacking in crime novels I have read previously.