The Naturalist

Andrew Mayne's latest novel kept me on the edge of my seat all the way thru to the blood-soaked conclusion.

Dr. Theo Cray is a suspect in the death of a former student until local law enforcement decides that a bear is responsible. Theo doesn't agree and uses his computational biology expertise to uncover a terrifying pattern suggesting that a brutal serial killer is at work in the Montana backcountry. With each new lead that his computer model predicts, Theo gets closer to the truth, while the killer studies his pursuer.

I got a kick out of Theo's tenacious efforts to track a killer while explaining the science to readers and getting the crap beat out of him several times. Where this novel falls short is in the underdeveloped secondary characters. This story is the “Theo show” and there isn't much room for anyone else. Is that what a typical scientist's life is really like? I'm not sure, but I'd be interested in reading more of Theo's exploits, particularly if he also gets a life with some fleshed out companions.

My first book of 2021. It started great. Interesting subject, fun to follow protagonist.. About halfway through the book, I thought I'll give it five stars. Maybe 60%. Then it started to stumble. It lost its believability as the protagonist pushed his luck more and more. In the end it was a 3.5⭐ for me which I rounded to 3⭐

Alas, another one bites the dust.

I strongly dislike DNFing this at the low percentage I did (6%, 23 pages in) but the hook just wasn't there. The opening was fantastic (placed us right in the middle of a murder) but everything afterward was exposition - I don't quite care about the unique area of study the main character is working with, except for how it directly relates to the story. After I turned a new chapter and found we were being placed with more exposition (something about the natural order of nature, or how the systems work, I don't quite recall) I closed the book and moved on.