Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes (Audiobook)

Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes is a psychological thriller that will certainly give you much to think about and fear. Because I had enjoyed Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes a great deal I was excited to get to this one too. I listened to the audiobook because it was narrated by the same person, Karen Cass, who I really like listening to. She has a great voice for these types of novels because she can add just the right amount of suspense to her voice that just makes the story all the better to listen to!

Annabel is a police analyst. She likes her job but for the most part she is a loner spending her time at home with her cat or caring for her mother. One day upon returning home she notices a foul stench that seems to be coming from her neighbors home. Instead of calling for anyone she decides to investigate herself and what she finds horrifies her. Her neighbor is already in a decomposed state and what bothers Annabel even more was that she didn’t even notice that she hadn’t seen her neighbor in ages. The police are called in and after some analyzing on Annabel’s part she finds that there are many, many cases of people dying alone in their homes every year and this statistic really bothers her.  The more Annabel looks into the case the more the information seems to point to the fact that someone seems involved in these deaths. When the psychopath responsible for the deaths comes a little too close to Annabel she resolves to make sure he doesn’t do it to anybody else again.

I liked Annabel as a character. Colin, our other main character is a different story. Then again we aren’t supposed to like the psychopath are we? The novel is narrated from both Annabel and Colin and his parts are infinitely more disturbing to listen to. You see Colin is quite the genius really in the plans he makes. He helps people die of natural causes as they are easy targets for him yet his fascination lies in the decomposition of the body itself. These parts of the novel are quite descriptive so it may bother some people. My love of all things horror made this like a movie but I was listening instead of watching.

Really though this novel makes us sit back and question the fact that quite often we don’t notice what is happening around us. Would you notice if your neighbors were not around as normal. I know I would but we’ve lived in our neighborhood for thirty years. I have to question if I would notice if I was in an apartment or something like that. Maybe I wouldn’t. Either way it’s sad to think that people who have already given up on life could so easily disappear. I think the really terrifying thing about this novel is I could see something like this actually happening and that is where I see the true strength of the novel. If you can see something actually happening it is likely to scare the pants off you. Human Remains is another novel of Elizabeth Haynes that I would recommend especially if you like books that lean towards the disturbing.

Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes is on tour with TLC Book Tours so be sure to check in on the other tour stops to see what others think about the book. You can connect with Elizabeth on her website, Facebook page, and Twitter. Your own copy of Human Remains can be purchased at Amazon, Amazon Canada and B&N. The audiobook version can be purchased at Audible.com.

Source:  Review copy was provided by the publisher however audiobook copy is my own personal copy.  No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are my own.

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