Blacklands

Cally has chosen a brave and ambitious novel inspired by the Moors murders. In her debut, Belinda Bauer handles dark subject matter with the expertise of a much more experienced writer.


 
C.L. Taylor: “There’s a cloud hanging over 12-year-old Steven Lamb’s life. Many years before he was born, his 11-year-old uncle Billy went missing – believed killed by serial killer Arnold Avery – but his body was never found. Steven thinks that if he can find his uncle’s body he’ll unite his family and writes to Avery in jail to ask for help. In a tense, dark tale, Steven’s optimistic innocence contrasts beautifully with Avery’s black, twisted soul. Bauer is skilled at adding detail that brings her characters, settings and time frames to life, and a dry humour adds flashes of light that lift the darkness.”
 
Lisa Jewell: “This was an unexpected gem. The sophisticated game of cat and mouse ends in a terrifying denouement that left me breathless. But it is the character of Steven that gives this book its heart and soul; when a teacher observes that, ‘It’s that boy who smells of mildew,’ you immediately know him, you know his life, you know his pain and you understand just how much finding his dead uncle’s remains would change the course of his life. Beautiful and heart-rending.”

Tammy Cohen: “I’m not sure another writer could have pulled this book off. Getting inside the head of a serial killer in prison for the murder and sexual abuse of children means walking a very precarious tightrope. You need the lightest of touches to counterbalance the dark, weighty subject matter, but you can’t risk trivialising the horror of it all. Bauer’s deft, almost playful, style means she somehow manages to make the parts of the book seen from the viewpoint of Avery bearable, without ever making him sympathetic.”