This captivated me from the start with a prologue that really sets the tone for this crime novel.
Rating: 3.5/5
Deep in the forests of the Black Hills, human remains are being discovered – one bit at a time. Rumors of a rogue man-eating mountain lion are spreading through the county and panic is starting to swell. Sgt. Hank LeGris of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office is feeling the pressure; he needs to find out who the dead are, and how they got that way. Hank suspects that the bodies are the result of a more sinister predator. But in order to solve the mystery, he will have reach back into his own dysfunctional family history and pull in the only person who can get to the bottom of these strange cases – his estranged and disordered brother, the brilliant forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey.
When Sebastien arrives in the Black Hills, he takes his brother, and detective Tiffany Reese, on a whirlwind tour of forensic thinking and deductive reasoning, not only solving the mystery of the human remains, but the murder of a local thug as well. In the process, Sebastien himself is forever transformed by his own success and by the charm and kindness of the lovely Detective Reese: “One day I hope you give yourself permission to be different, Sebastien. You’ll be happier.”
I received a free copy of The Comfort of Distance through Book Publicity Services who help promote indie books and authors. I was given this to read in return for an honest review. Thank you so much!
This was an interesting read, to say the least. A generally quick read, being only about 267 pages.
The Comfort of Distance has a focus towards the brilliant forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey, who’s a little socially awkward. Sebastien gets a call from his estranged brother asking for help in a small town where human remains are being discovered left and right. Sebastien agrees and shortly after arriving finds himself becoming more confident as he helps out on the cases around the remains found.
We see several moving parts, jumping around a lot over different perspectives and points of the story, and for me, that took away from our main character Sebastien. I really enjoyed following Sebastien, our socially awkward forensics guy. I enjoyed seeing him get in the zone around the cases - though this occasionally became a drag as we got some overly descriptive scenes. But I didn’t mind this that much. I did enjoy hearing his thought process and the details he saw for the most part. I also liked seeing him become a much more confident person from where he was at the beginning of the book.
I really enjoyed following Sebastien, our socially awkward forensics guy. I enjoyed seeing him get in the zone around the cases...
This captivated me from the start with a prologue that really sets the tone for this crime novel. I wanted to know what had led up to the prologue and what happened after those events we see. And I will say, when we finally got there, I was a bit disappointed. It felt a little anti-climatic when the details around the prologue finally came out. It was sort of a yeah this happened, and we’re moving on now. I just expected a little more.
But despite that, I did thoroughly enjoy reading this. I found the premise fascinating. It was an easy read. And I loved our main character Sebastien, I definitely want to see what happens next for him!
If you like crime novels on the shorter side that really get into the details of forensics, definitely consider picking this one up!