A special thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. WOMAN OF THE DEAD by
Berhnard Aichner is one edgy, wacky, evil, tense, wicked, suspenseful, and thoroughly creepy mystery crime psycho-thriller. "Female Vigilante Justice, at its finest!"
Meet Brünhilde Blum, a 24-year-old undertaker in Innsbruck. A beautiful mortician married to the love of her life, a cop, Mark. They met on boat out at sea, while her creepy adopted parents drowned. With a dark past, she never thought she could be so happy, with two beautiful girls and a loving husband. Mark’s elderly dad, a former cop, moves in with them, and completes their happy home at the Villa.
Blum’s idyllic life is destroyed when her husband is run down and murdered by a hit-and-run driver in front of their house. Being a cop, Mark is always involved in danger, and loves the thrill of his fast motorcycle. Blum is devastated, and everything she loves has been taken away. How can she go on? She vows she will find his killer, even though the cops do not have any leads---She will find the killer and the man who ran her husband down. She wants justice. She has to remain strong for her children.
After his death she comes across some conversations on his phone; a ring of sadistic evil, slavery, torture, abuse; immigrants, a woman, victims--and her husband Mark was trying to help, gathering information and got too close. There are five powerful men and she will track them down and kill them one by one. She will do it for her children, her husband, and the victims.
Fearless, Blum will use her business, (she is unafraid of the dead), her loyal employee (Reza, with a past), and all her resources as a mortician to take out this ring of evil and abuse. With a ready coffin and a hearse at her fingertips, she is a scary power house! Driven by a dark past, and a powerful need for retaliation, love, and grief –however, who can she trust? How far will she go?
A labyrinth of creepy twists and grotesque turns--assured to offer readers graphic nightmares and sleepless nights; an undertaker, a hearse, crematorium, coffins, bloody corpses, dismemberment, saws, body parts; masked men--a clown, a priest, a cook, a photographer, and an strong obsession for REVENGE. This taunt, heart-pounding fast-paced page-turner thriller, will leave you breathless—anxiously awaiting the next installment with this terrifying new trilogy.
Engrossing and explicit, --- one of those books you cannot put down, as you peak around the corner; not for the faint-hearted! In the theme of
Jennifer Hillier (The Butcher), Paul Cleave, Karin Slaughter, Mark Edwards, Lisa Gardner, Lisa Unger, Gillian Flynn, and Stephen King --sexy hot Austrian Aichner will wow you with danger and violence, with his intriguing female protagonist who will stop at nothing for retaliation.
Can’t wait to see what comes next! For those who enjoy vigilante movies such as
Gran Torino, Dexter, Death Wish, The Equalizer, Falling Down, and Death Sentence, will devour.
WOMAN OF THE DEAD is the first book of a crime trilogy by award-winning Austrian author Bernhard Aichner, as well as his first novel to be translated into English.
Welcome to the US!
"Woman of the Dead is both a thriller and a love story. Blum, like Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter, is a serial killer, a character who does terrible things, but the novel wouldn’t work if you didn’t sympathize with her and feel her pain. "
Enjoyed reading the inspiration behind the book from the author:
Yes, indeed it works. Read More