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Book Review of The Chemistry of Death (David Hunter, Bk 1)

The Chemistry of Death (David Hunter, Bk 1)
katkrazee avatar reviewed on


This was not exactly boring but it was very formulaic. It's a British murder mystery but not hard at all to get through the dialect.

The main character is a trained forensic pathologist the likes of Reichs and Cornwell but there were very few actual facts presented, forensically speaking, to be able to clearly state that this was a book about forensics. The forensic aspect was a very minor sub-plot. It felt as though a few rudimentary story lines were added without a lot of thought, just to fit the particular niche the author desired.

The writing was good, the plot was just middle-of-the-road and the characters were just moderately fleshed out. I wasn't drawn to care about any single character one way or the other.

The ending was no surprise to me, but maybe it will be to some others. I knew who the killer was just shortly after the introduction of the character, although I doubt that was what the author intended. It was the formulaic aspect of the plot that made the killer so obvious.

I am going to read the next book in the trilogy just because I have it. But I don't think I would seek it out if I didn't. I didn't hate it, but I can't say I found much to love either.

I bought this book due to the pretty good reviews but I doubt very much that it isn't a book you've read many, many times, albeit with characters that have different names.