Flowers for the Dead ~ Brenda Copperthwaite

It’s been about a week since I finished reading this book and I’ve really struggled to find the right words to write.

Adam Bourne is a serial killer who believes he is the fairy tale prince, from his grandmother’s stories, saving the girls he kills. Laura Weir has just begun to get her life back on track after losing her family in a car crash that she was the sole survivor of. Mike is a detective grieving for his wife and trying to be a good father to his young daughter.

There are four stories in this book, past and present Adam, Laura and Mike. Adam is given the most time by Copperthwaite and she has written him as a complex character. We are introduced to present day Adam first as he murders a girl and cuts her lips off. We also get a glimpse into what Adam’s thinking, how he believes this girl has practically begged him to kill her, to set her free, to rescue her from the torment of her life and giving her soul a place inside himself to love freely. It makes you feel a little uncomfortable reading. Then Copperthwaite introduces us to his methodology and the levels in which he goes to whilst stalking his next victim. It’s creepy and I hated Adam.

I was fully hated Adam by the time Copperthwaite decided to introduce the story of past Adam. Past Adam is a child who loves his grandmother and the fairy stories she reads to him. This Adam struggles to talk to others and then learns the meanings of Victorian flower language and converses with his grandmother through the means of pressed flowers. This Adam is abused by his mother when his army-police-father is away. I couldn’t help but slightly love this Adam.

I wanted to hate Adam for his creepy mind, his stalkerish ways and his view of his victims, but I couldn’t help but sympathise with him as well. I hated myself for it. I have big admiration for Brenda Copperthwaite for writing this character so well.

Laura Weir, I expected to be like the female victims in most crime novels, scared and stupid. She wasn’t. To start with I thought the novel was heading that way and I wouldn’t feel anything but disappointment when she somehow escaped Adam. Laura does think she’s crazy to start with when flowers start appearing in her flat and te dishes suddenly get washed up and put away. Copperthwaite introduced just the right amount of backstory to make Laura’s dismissals seem realistic and not just oblivious or wilfully blind. Laura then became the character I want even stalked female to be in crime/detective novels.

Mike wasn’t given as much time as Adam and Laura, but the few chapters he had were an insight into the police looking into the crime without making the book a detective/crime novel.

Overall I really liked the book, despite it taking me a little while to get into (I didn’t read the blurb before starting and was really confused). This was one of Millie’s choices for this year and my one overwhelming thought whilst reading this book was definitely ‘it’s definitely Millie’s pick’. I give Flowers for the Dead by Brenda Copperthwaite four out of five stars.

C🌙