Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
30th out of 39 books
—
8 voters
Blacklands
Eighteen years ago, Billy Peters disappeared. Everyone in town believes Billy was murdered--after all, serial killer Arnold Avery later admitted killing six other children and burying them on the same desolate moor that surrounds their small English village. Only Billy's mother is convinced he is alive. She still stands lonely guard at the front window of her home, waiting...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
January 5th 2010
by Simon & Schuster
(first published December 26th 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,886)
'Blacklands' is a debut crime novel that is very well written and immensely compelling. However, I can't say I enjoyed it as 'Blacklands' is a very bleak novel in its outlook and subject matter.
Steven is a twelve year old boy living in a unloving household with his brother, Davey. Many years ago, before he was born, Steven's mother, Lettie, lost her brother Billy to a serial killer and pedophile. Lettie and her mother (Steven's nan - Mrs Peters) never got to know where Billy's body was buried an...more
Steven is a twelve year old boy living in a unloving household with his brother, Davey. Many years ago, before he was born, Steven's mother, Lettie, lost her brother Billy to a serial killer and pedophile. Lettie and her mother (Steven's nan - Mrs Peters) never got to know where Billy's body was buried an...more
I loved the pace of this book, the subtleties, the insight. I was doubtful of this novel at first, because I've never enjoyed psychological thrillers, but Blacklands was so much more than that. Blacklands is a creatively written look into nature vs nurture, into the effects of tragedy on a family, and into the mind and drive of a killer. I couldn't put the book down.
This book's narration alternates between the POV of a pedophile and a boy in a really heart-breaking situation. So I was in turns disgusted and sniffling while reading this but even so, I just couldn't put it down and stayed awake until the early morning to finish it.
I'm looking forward to reading more books from this author.
I'm looking forward to reading more books from this author.
Blacklands is the début novel by Belinda Bauer, and as first books go you cant do better then having it become an International Bestseller, and winning the The Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger award for Best Crime Novel of the Year.
But what about the story itself?The story is from the point of twelve year old Steven, who lives with his younger brother, downtrodden mother, and obsessed grandmother in an old mouldy, damp house. He’s bulled in school, and only has one friend (Who really isn’t...more
But what about the story itself?The story is from the point of twelve year old Steven, who lives with his younger brother, downtrodden mother, and obsessed grandmother in an old mouldy, damp house. He’s bulled in school, and only has one friend (Who really isn’t...more
Okay so had to take a break of of reading for the holidays and the arrival of my truly precious first neice..so as I was riding the high of a new baby in my life I decide to check out a story about a child murderer and rapist and the sad little boy who starts a deadly correspondence with him--WTH..So that basically is the premise here, wish it was a happier book but it had heart and you feel for poor little Steven, the twelve year old narrator who is bullied and unloved born into a family still...more
WHAT is this book about?
A 12-year-old boy named Steven Lamb lives a sad life in a family that was broken long before he was born. Years ago, his Uncle Billy (age 11) was abducted and murdered by a serial killer. At least that is what everyone thinks happened. Billy’s body has never been found, and the killer never admitted that Billy was one of his victims. Broken by the loss of her beloved son, Steven’s Nan is the only one who never believed that Billy was murdered. She still waits for him ever...more
A 12-year-old boy named Steven Lamb lives a sad life in a family that was broken long before he was born. Years ago, his Uncle Billy (age 11) was abducted and murdered by a serial killer. At least that is what everyone thinks happened. Billy’s body has never been found, and the killer never admitted that Billy was one of his victims. Broken by the loss of her beloved son, Steven’s Nan is the only one who never believed that Billy was murdered. She still waits for him ever...more
Jul 26, 2011
Matti Karjalainen
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Matti by:
Pirkko Ella
Minä leikin hänen kanssaan. Leikin aina heidän kanssaan ensin. Ennen kuin tapoin heidät. Aion leikkiä sinunkin kanssasi...
Äitinsä, pikkuveljensä ja mumminsa kanssa asuva kaksitoistavuotias Steven Lamb kulkee Exmoorin nummilla lapio kädessään ja kaivaa kaivamistaan. Hänen tarkoituksenaan on löytää enonsa Billyn hauta. Eno on vuosia sitten joutunut lapsiin erikoistuneen, nyttemmin Dartmoorin vankilassa istuvan sarjamurhaaja Arnold Averyn uhriksi, ja murhenäytelmä painaa edelleen Lambin perhettä. S...more
Äitinsä, pikkuveljensä ja mumminsa kanssa asuva kaksitoistavuotias Steven Lamb kulkee Exmoorin nummilla lapio kädessään ja kaivaa kaivamistaan. Hänen tarkoituksenaan on löytää enonsa Billyn hauta. Eno on vuosia sitten joutunut lapsiin erikoistuneen, nyttemmin Dartmoorin vankilassa istuvan sarjamurhaaja Arnold Averyn uhriksi, ja murhenäytelmä painaa edelleen Lambin perhettä. S...more
The Lamb family is not an ordinary family. The members are two boys, a mother, a grandmother and an uncle (uncle Jude lives there from time to time). The eldest of the two boys is Steven. He's 12 years old and he feels sorry for his grandmother. She has been very sad in many years. 'Cause she once had a son named Billy who disappeared when he was 11 years - old. Even though the police and everyone else thinks he has been murdered and claimed to catch the guy who has killed other children at that...more
First Sentence: Exmoor dripped with dirty bracken, rough, colorless grass, prickly gorse, and last year’s heather, so black it looked as if wet fire had swept across the landscape, taking the trees with it and leaving the moor cold and exposed to face the winter unprotected.
Sociopath Arnold Avery raped and murdered children; he admitted to six whose bodies were found. One who was not found was Billy Peters. The impact severely affected his family. Eighteen years later, his nephew, 12-year-old S...more
Sociopath Arnold Avery raped and murdered children; he admitted to six whose bodies were found. One who was not found was Billy Peters. The impact severely affected his family. Eighteen years later, his nephew, 12-year-old S...more
On the barren, bracken moors of Exmoor, outside of the rural town of Shipcott, serial killer and pedophile Arnold Avery has disposed of children's bodies. He has been serving a life sentence for his heinous crimes, but the discovery of his victims' remains are not complete. One child, eleven year-old Billy Peters, has been missing for nineteen years; the location of his grave remains a mystery. Billy's mother still peers stonily out of the window of her house, as if waiting for him to return. Bi...more
I first came across Blacklands by Belinda Bauer when I read a review of the novel on my friend Nikki-Ann's blog. She raved about it, so I felt I had to read it. Blacklands is also one of the crime novels on the list of the Great Transworld Crime Caper.
Blacklands tells the story of Steven Lamb, a twelve-year-old boy whose uncle Billy Peters was murdered by a pervert when he was only eleven. The murder has had a strong impact on the family, which has become somewhat dysfunctional since the event....more
Blacklands tells the story of Steven Lamb, a twelve-year-old boy whose uncle Billy Peters was murdered by a pervert when he was only eleven. The murder has had a strong impact on the family, which has become somewhat dysfunctional since the event....more
Steven Lamb is an twelve-year old boy with an unusual hobby. On the moors near his house in Exmoor in England he digs for bodies. Actually, just one body: that of his uncle Bill, who was killed by a serial killer when he was about eleven years old. The killer is in prison but the body was never found.
Steven hopes that when he finds the body, his grandmother and his mother, with whom he lives, will finally notice him, embrace him as a hero and show their love for him.
He has been digging in his fr...more
Steven hopes that when he finds the body, his grandmother and his mother, with whom he lives, will finally notice him, embrace him as a hero and show their love for him.
He has been digging in his fr...more
I first came across Blacklands as one of last year’s TV Book Club choices. I didn’t read it at the time, but I should have, because I missed a gem. Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb is preoccupied with finding the body of his uncle Billy, assumed to have been murdered as a child. Steven keeps digging on Exmoor, but without success; in desperation, he writes a letter to convicted child-killer Arnold Avery (one of whose victims is thought to be Billy)) asking where his uncle’s body is – and a game of ca...more
If you looking for an English mystey that seeps in the psychological lives of both the pursued and the pursuer (and sometimes they seem interchangeable), "Blacklands" will be an excellent choice.
Steven Lamb is twelve years old and is haunted by the murder of his Uncle Billy and is tormented by his Nan who keeps watch at their window for Uncle Billy's return.
Two years after Uncle Billy's death Arnold Avery confesses and is imprisoned for the killing of several children that he has buried in the m...more
Steven Lamb is twelve years old and is haunted by the murder of his Uncle Billy and is tormented by his Nan who keeps watch at their window for Uncle Billy's return.
Two years after Uncle Billy's death Arnold Avery confesses and is imprisoned for the killing of several children that he has buried in the m...more
Jan 20, 2011
Daphne
added it
I don't usually read mysteries/thrillers but picked this up in the airport because I saw that the author was British--meaning that if nothing else her prose would be good. I wasn't disappointed; indeed Bauer writes beautifully, and her descriptions of the moors and the down-and-out characters who live there, and even of schoolboy life, were wonderful. She has a realistic sense of humor about human nature, even when writing about bleak lives and horrific crimes--in this case a pedophile/serial ki...more
I was actually quite disappointed with Blacklands. I thought that it was a good story, but was very short, and this could have been the reason that it didn’t involve me as much as I felt that it should have – there was just way too much missing.
In the blurb, Belinda Bauer says that she wrote the book as she was moved by the story of a mother whose child had been murdered many years before, and she was curious about how that kind of event would affect a family long-term…however, that is exactly w...more
In the blurb, Belinda Bauer says that she wrote the book as she was moved by the story of a mother whose child had been murdered many years before, and she was curious about how that kind of event would affect a family long-term…however, that is exactly w...more
This is one of the books on the TV Book Club on Channel Four. As they only discuss one book, I thought I ought to read it to know what they are on about.
I can only assume that someone got a big backhander for it to get this coverage. Although entertaining, it is very light weight and there must be far more worthy books for consideration. I am hoping for more.
The story - as the authors note at the end - shoud have been a family drama but ends up as a weak crime novel.
It tells the story of a 12 ye...more
I can only assume that someone got a big backhander for it to get this coverage. Although entertaining, it is very light weight and there must be far more worthy books for consideration. I am hoping for more.
The story - as the authors note at the end - shoud have been a family drama but ends up as a weak crime novel.
It tells the story of a 12 ye...more
Bauer, Belinda. BLACKLANDS. (2010). ****. This is a first novel from a young woman who grew up in England and Africa, and now lives in Wales. Her previous experience in writing has been in journalism and in short-story writing. It turns out to be a rather exciting crime novel, but starts out as a heavy look at a particular family which was the victim of a serial killer. Our protagonist is Steven. Steven is fifteen-years old, and lives with his mother, his younger brother, and his Nan. Many years...more
Life is anything but normal for twelve year old Steven Lamb. Steven has an odd hobby, digging along England's Exmoor. Not only is Steven trying to stay out of the path of some bullies, but he also hopes that his digging will turn up the remains of his Uncle Billy, and thereby help his grandmother and his mother move on with their lives.
Some eighteen years earlier eleven year old Billy Peters disappeared. Everyone, except Billy's mother (Steven's "nan") believes he was a victim of pedophile and s...more
Some eighteen years earlier eleven year old Billy Peters disappeared. Everyone, except Billy's mother (Steven's "nan") believes he was a victim of pedophile and s...more
Quasi due mesi fa (porca zozza come passa il tempo) avevo parlato dell'iniziativa di Marsilio legata a blogger e libri in uscita: dopo aver ricevuto l'e-book dovevo, ovviamente, leggerlo, così ne ho approfittato durante la prima parte del viaggio a New York.
Che dire?
Si tratta di un romanzo piuttosto atipico, molto psicologico, in diversi istanti quasi irreale o surreale.
La trama è molto semplice: un ragazzo è nato e cresciuto in una famiglia dilaniata da un trauma avvenuto prima della sua nascit...more
Che dire?
Si tratta di un romanzo piuttosto atipico, molto psicologico, in diversi istanti quasi irreale o surreale.
La trama è molto semplice: un ragazzo è nato e cresciuto in una famiglia dilaniata da un trauma avvenuto prima della sua nascit...more
This book reminds me a lot of John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let Me In, which I read last year. It's got the kids who have complicated lives the grown-ups don't know about, it's got the creepy pedophile, and the clueless adults. There's even an element of horror, because you know going into it that when Steven Lamb (what do you mean, it's not symbolic?) starts writing letters to Arnold Avery, it can't go well, but the tone is surprisingly breezy. It's not lighthearted, but it Bauer invokes Steven's hea...more
Everyday after school 12 year old Steven digs holes in Exmoor in the hopes of finding his Uncle, who was murdered aged 11. In finding his Uncle, Steven hopes to heal the rift that the murder has left down the generations of his family.
After three years of digging, Steven decided to write to the killer in Jail.
Steven wants the truth but the killer wants to play.
This book holds a lot of elements; from crime fiction to a story about a boy and his family.
Belinda Bauer's descriptions of the moors are...more
After three years of digging, Steven decided to write to the killer in Jail.
Steven wants the truth but the killer wants to play.
This book holds a lot of elements; from crime fiction to a story about a boy and his family.
Belinda Bauer's descriptions of the moors are...more
A chilling tale about an Irish boy that desperately wants to repair the rift that has torn apart his family and become a hero. The task at hand is chilling: at a young age his uncle was abducted, tortured, killed and buried on the moors. It is not hard to imagine the lengths that Steven would go through to make his family whole again. We are shown the brutal scars and aftermath that an event like an abduction does to not only its immediate victims, but also to future generations. Love is held ba...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Oct 19, 2011
Blair
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-thriller-etc,
read-on-kindle
The 'hero' of Blacklands is Steven Lamb, a young boy whose uncle, Billy, was murdered as a child nineteen years ago. Steven is profoundly aware of the effect Billy's death, and in particular the fact that his body was never recovered, has had on his family. He is convinced that if he can discover where Billy is buried, he will bring his family closer together and make his grandmother, who has never recovered from the loss, happy again. At first Steven spends his spare time digging his way across...more
I will admit, I brought this book entirely because the blurb instantly grabbed me: "he was only twelve, he reasoned: he couldn't be expected to get stuff like writing to serial killers right the first time", pushed me to buy it as it immediately struck me as interesting.
Blacklands isn't the greatest psychological thriller that I've ever read. The premise itself is quite interesting: 12 year old Steven starts writing to a serial killer, Avery, about the location of his uncle's body, as he thinks...more
Blacklands isn't the greatest psychological thriller that I've ever read. The premise itself is quite interesting: 12 year old Steven starts writing to a serial killer, Avery, about the location of his uncle's body, as he thinks...more
Mar 17, 2010
H.I. Al-Muhairi
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Shelves:
realistic-fiction,
ya,
crime-mystery,
2010,
aww,
psycological,
horror,
original,
teen-trouble,
weird-and-bizzare
Nineteen years ago, 12-year-old Steven Lamb's Uncle Billy disappeared when Billy was only 11 and Steven's Mom and Billy's sister, Lettie, was 14 on his way back from school. And even after 19 years, his Grandma still stands by the window and waits for her long-lost son to come back.
His Mom thought it was the serial killer Arnold Avery (that was caught for six child crimes) that has kidnapped and killed Uncle Billy, but nobody was able to prove it and she had dismissed it.
But Steven, seeing his...more
His Mom thought it was the serial killer Arnold Avery (that was caught for six child crimes) that has kidnapped and killed Uncle Billy, but nobody was able to prove it and she had dismissed it.
But Steven, seeing his...more
Both a Booklist Starred Review, and an Amazon book of the Month, Blacklands is Belinda Bauer's melancholy first novel. Only around 240 pages, the novel tells the story of Steven Lamb whose family had been fractured by the tragic disappearance of his uncle nineteen years ago. Steven is certain the key to repairing his difficult family life is to find his uncle's body. So he sets out on weekends across the moor digging for graves. Until he has a stroke of genius, why not just ask the serial child...more
I picked this book up in an airport. Anyone who loves literature can appreciate how difficult this can be to do in a Hudson News. Is there something here you knew you wanted to read but haven't had the chance? Or is it time to finally give in and read Phillipa Gregory? So I picked something dark and emotionally true instead. And I was not disappointed. The scene where Steve is caught with his Mom assuming the letter is from a girlfriend, those moments are almost perfect. Arnold's inability to em...more
Caveat lector [sic] **Okay I decided that to start including caveats in my positive reviews in addition to my negative reviews, mostly because I keep getting responses that are along the lines of "you should hate the book for the book not because of how you feel about the world". Well for everyone out there who manages to stop being a human being while they read a book that is a fucking fantastic idea, but when I read books tap into particular introjects and responding to the books by talking ab...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter, and her script THE LOCKER ROOM earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters, an award that was presented to her by Sidney Poitier. She was a runner-up in the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition for "Mysterious Ways," about a girl stranded on a desert island with 30,000 Bib...more
More about Belinda Bauer...
Share This Book
1 trivia question
More quizzes & trivia...
“He stared at Avery's socks and felt an odd sense of wonder. Socks were so normal. So mundane. How could someone who pulled on socks in the morning be a serial killer? Socks were not hard or dangerous. Socks were funny; foot mittens, that's what socks were. They made a knobbly hinge of your toes and became comical sock-puppets. Surely anyone who wore socks could not truly be a threat to him or anyone else?”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
Oct 18, 2011 06:30am