Spoiler Discussion Sep 2020) Group Read - Mind of a Killer, by Simon Beaufort

[Pat]

I found Hulda much more appealing than Alec's other female "distraction." I was pleased to read in the after-word that this character was based on a real female journalist of the period. All the brain dissections took me back to my days in science lab, but the author managed to avoid too much gross detail while keeping tension and pacing racing over the cobblestones. Quite an enjoyable read, if a bit unbelievable at times. Four stars for this read!

[Shell]

I hadn't read this author before and thought that it was quite interesting. I liked that the story surrounded reporters rather than police and it was a new angle to see how the newspapers reported their cases. My favourite character was also Hulda. I didn't realise till the end that any of it was based on real characters and it was nice to find that out. The stolen brain was quite a shock when it was first discovered and a good twist to the story. The whole storyline of keeping all those brains in jars though was a bit far-fetched. Interesting to see the first fingerprinting coming in and all the different attitudes to Darwin's theory. I have to say though, that I found the ending a bit weak and predictible and, for me, it sort of fizzled out a bit. I don't feel compelled to rush out and get the next one, but if I had nothing else to read and it was lying around I would pick it up and read it. So that being the case, I give the book a 3 out of 5.