I'd read and enjoyed 'The Tattoo Thief' by Alison Belsham so I came to this book with high expectations. I didn't realise that this book was a sequel or that I'd actually missed the second book in the series- but all was fine. It helped that I had a vague sense of the relationships between the main characters, but I don't think it was essential.

This book focuses on a killer called 'The Embalmer' who manages to add a newly-made mummy to the Brighton Museum of Natural History. The police, led by Detective Francis Sullivan, are baffled as to how to identify the body inside the mummy. However, before they can progress the investigation, canopic jars begin turning up - containing body parts taken freshly from a series of new murder victims. Francis Sullivan is keen to unmask the serial killer - but issues in his own private life prove to be a distraction.

I absolutely loved the Egyptian-inspired strand of the story - a modern day mummy-maker, canopic jars and ancient Egyptian beliefs are an intriguing basis for a modern murder mystery. It is quite gruesome, but after 'The Tattoo Thief' (with people being skinned for their tattoos), I felt prepared! As the hunt for the killer brought peril closer to Francis Sullivan, I couldn't stop reading!

The second strand of the story was about Francis Sullivan's kind of on-off relationship with the chaotic Marnie Mullins (who I remembered from 'The Tattoo Thief') - a relationship that takes a bit of a dramatic turn early on in the novel. While I did find this narrative quite interesting, I much preferred the Egyptian-themed plot. I was struggling to remember why Francis was so invested in Marnie in the first place as I didn't feel as much engagement with her as I think I did in the first book.

Overall, this is a well-plotted and tense police procedural. I'd recommend it to lovers of crime fiction who are in possession of a strong stomach and nerves of steel - there's a lot going on in Brighton and most of it is pretty grim!

After reading the first book in the series I was keen to see what happened next, despite not having read the second in the series. Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I couldn't connect with the characters and felt we were constantly going over what had happened previously.

Unfortunately this wasn't for me so i have had to DNF. I couldn't connect with the characters & found the repeated references to previous books overkill & frustrating.

I found the premise of this book to be quite exciting and I did enjoy it, along with a fast paced plot. However, I feel left with no connection to any of characters, which is important to me once I finish a book. I also think some of the procedural background lacking and surface level. A good read with promise from the author, but unfortunately would not hunt down the next one desperately wanting more from the characters.

This book had me hooked from the first page. I loved the step by step guide, just in case I felt the need to mummify anyone. Our story starts with an interesting discovery, an extra mummy has been added to a museum collection overnight. The bandaging looks decidedly pristine, too new to be an ancient relic.

When I started reading The Embalmer, I had no idea it was the final book in a trilogy. Through the story, I was very aware that the characters all had a complex, interwoven history. This backstory was explained naturally throughout the book, so the book worked well as a standalone in its own right.

The story was fast paced, and certainly high on the gore score for readers, like me, who like a gritty and grisly plot. The tension between the characters added to the story, never quite knowing who was on who’s side, which way would allegiances settle.
I really enjoyed the book, and will to read others by the author, Alison Belsham. The details of the Ancient Egyptian religion and Gods, was very interesting and informative too. This gets 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

A mystery set in Brighton and the third in a crime series. The story though fast paced was not for me and I could not finish.

The Embalmer by Alison Belsham is an action-packed murder mystery novel with about 4 to 5 murders, 2 murderers, some Grevious Bodily Harm and many more minor offences making it perfect for anyone who loves a murder mystery or loves a criminological style book. The one part of this story is about this Embalmer who goes around killing various people for no apparent reason, an individual clearly with some psychological disorders. The other part of this story could be argued to be about domestic crime where one of the character's husbands is killed and she is accused only to later find that it was the victim's brother who killed him. This story definitely takes you on an adventure with Police detective Francis who is trying to tackle all these murders. It is like reading a made-up version of 24 hours in police custody, following the police around in their investigations.

I loved how action-packed this book was and in some places, it was even scary, not like horror but you were scared for the characters in the book. I also enjoyed the psychological and criminological elements of this book as you would expect from a social scientist such as myself. There was never anything boring about this book and particularly towards the end I struggled to put the book down. It was a shame it did take me so long to read due to external factors.

There is nothing I can say I dislike about this book really apart from the stupidity of some of the characters at some points. However, if this stupidity was not involved would the book be as good as it is? Probably not and so as annoying as it may be when these characters make such stupid decisions it definitely adds to the enjoyment and excitement of the book as a whole.

Altogether, I rate this book 4 stars making it a very good book perfect for anyone who loves a murder mystery. What's more, it is not just one murder, it is multiple so you get about 5 times the enjoyment of what you would get from a standard murder mystery with just one murder. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy of this fabulous book which I thoroughly enjoyed.

It wasn't for me!
I didn't connect with any of the characters & the author mentions her previous plots far too much, yes the reader needs a bit of context but 13 times in 25% is just OTT.

I read the first book in this series as part of a book club and didn’t love it, so it’s kind of on me for requesting on netgalley without realising this was type third in the series (and I haven’t read number two).

The book wasn’t awful but it wasn’t great. I struggled with the characters, as I did in the first book and it felt like a lot of filler. I went impressed with who the embalmer was and the constant references to her other two books just left me annoyed.

If you liked the first two books then you’ll like this one, if you weren’t keen, I’d steer clear

I previously read the tattoo thief by Alison which I absolutely loved so I was really looking forward to reading this one and I was not disappointed AT ALL. I loved it. It was very well written, had all the crime and thrill aspects that I love, was very different to other standard crime books that are out there at the minute and I loved the historical aspect that was tied into it all. Very very good, recommend highly!

I'm giving this a middle of the road rating as do not think it would be fair to give anything lower.

I didn't enjoy this book at all. There are several factors for this....but the main one being its a sequel and its not the kind of sequel you can read without reading the previous books.

I have often read sequels accidentally and normally you can pick up what is going on without ruining the books too much if you wanted to go back and read them but have enough knowledge to read the current book.

This was definitely not the case here. We had so much information about the previous books but nothing that made me understand what had actually happened but lots of spoilers so I definitely wouldn't go back and read them. I had no grasp of these characters at all and that made this a really hard read.

I was interested in the embalming investigation but the other storyline of Marni and Francis...literally made zero sense. It was obviously an existing storyline but the way we met Marni in this book made it even more shocking that a police officer would be associated with her. Every behaviour Marni and Francis displayed throughout was completely alien...and maybe if I had known their connection I may have understood but as a new reader it was completely and utterly baffling. Especially given how we met Marni at the beginning of this story.

This made me struggle with the entire book and therefore wasn't something I enjoyed at all.

The revelation of the killer was also very disappointing. I enjoyed the mystery of that storyline but felt the ending was very lacklustre...far too much of the book was about Francis and Marni and that whole storyline and not enough focus on the actual killer. The reveal of the killer wasn't shocking enough or interesting enough for me.

It needs to say on the front cover in big letters Book x of x or part of x series.

This cannot be read as a stand alone book.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely not your usual mystery/police procedural. I absolutely loved it, all if it. The characters were really good. I'm new to this series (this is the third in the series) and wound up buying the other two. Highly recommend.

Oh, and I now know how to embalm and mummify. I'm sure that will come in handy.

So this started of slow, for me, but about a quarter in I really started engaging with the story and it was a real page turner as I wanted to see what happened next.

I will definitely be looking out for more from this author - and by the way the cover just grabbed me and that really made me want to read the book.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

„The Embalmer“ is the final book of the „Sullivan & Mullins“-trilogy, a gripping and at times pretty gory series of crime novels set in Brighton.

When a mummified body appears out of nowhere at a Brighton museum, naturally, a lot of questions arise. Even more so, when it turns out that it isn’t some ancient body but a recently embalmbed one. Soon after, Egyptian burial jars with body parts start turning up and Detective Sullivan and his team realize they have a serial killer on the loose. And the clock is ticking, because they have set their eyes on one of their own…

I picked up this book because the synopsis, especially the Egyptian cult angle, sounded very intriguing to me. What I, for some reason, did not realize, though, was that „The Embalmer“ is the third book in a series. That’s probably the reason why it took me quite a while to really find into and enjoy the story.
Still, I ended up liking the main storyline a lot, which is very unique and exciting, and also quite enjoyed the secondary one focusing on Marni Mullin and her family.
I’d love to talk more about the characters in this book, but I since their backstories and relationships are established in the previous installments and I therefore didn’t get the full picture, I unfortunately didn’t really get a good feel for them. To be fair, the most important connections and occurrences are briefly recapped, but I still feel like I was missing quite a bit of what is going on.

I recommend „The Embalmer“ to fans of crime novels who enjoy reading about unique cases and don’t shy away from graphically described crime scenes and post mortems. I would also strongly suggest you read this series in order to avoid feeling as lost as I felt at times.

# The Embalmer # Netgalley

I am honesty sorry but I genuinely could not finish the book. It’s very rare that I actually gone up on a book even if it means I have to put it down awhile I go back and try to struggle through. However with this particular one I did that put it on one side and went back to it. But in the end I did have to actually admit defeat. Now before anyone gets the wrong idea that I gave up on the book because it wasn’t very good. Well sorry to to say that’s not why I gave up on this book at all.. what I read it was well written however this is a genre I used to read many years ago. I never thought for one minute I would not like what I call a unusual strange phenomenon of horror books. Because that’s how it started to come across as murder horror. Someone doing the very old fashioned embalming then mummyfieng the birdies. It was actually interest to a point. I have read books before oh how the ancient Eygptians way of embalming. Pulling the brain through the noise in fact it went on for many thousands of years after. The actual reason I did not finish the book. 1 being I have read one recently that was so similar that I actually wonders if it was the same book. I realised it wasn’t because had it of been I would not have read it after the first chapter. Because one thing I can not do is read the same book twice. I know people who can read them again yet no matter how much time as gone by as a example 20/30 years I still can’t read it again because as I start to read the book for the second time it comes flooding back which then it becomes unreasonable again with everything coming back it like I have only just read it so this is why I can not read a book twice. Where my problem was with this book. Was the storyline was one I thought I had already read, but it became evident I had not buy it was to similar. 2 I realised the horror and supernatural type books the weird and wonderful genre for me are definitely over. I found my mind drifting away from the storyline. So there’s my genuine reason for not having finished it. I will say if this is definitely your genre then I think your onto a winner. I do think it’s well and truly my age now day I always thought I could read a book balancing on to the horror, supernatural anymore. I alway knew deep down I was slowly drifting away from books like this.

A cleverly crafted and twisted thriller that keeps the readers on the edge of their seats. 'The Embalmer' is a serial killer obsessed with mummifying his victims and storing their internal organs in a clay jar. His first victim is left at the local museum while the second in a public place - with only the organs 'preserved' in a jar of natron. Francis Sullivan has another case - this one's close to heart as his might-be-lady-love Marni is accused of murdering her husband. Marni and Francis went on a date and he dropped her back home. Half an hour later, Marni's husband was lying in a pool of blood and Marni was found clutching a bloody knife.

The suspense is at an all-time high and keeps one guessing till the end. The main detective is torn between solving the case and helping to prove Marni's innocence. The identity of the killer is well-hidden until the end; Francis and the killer come face-to-face, and it is pretty sure that one of them will go down for good.

If you love gripping thrillers, you might want to give The Embalmer a read.

This is another new to me author that I’m having to look up their past books. I love a good police procedural, but after too many, they all run together. This one stood out. Detective Francis and his team are working on two cases at once. He has history with Marni and she’s accused of killing her husband. He’s had to take a step back from the investigation, but is still trying to help her. And the second case is a body found mummified in a museum. But it isn’t one that belongs to the museum, it’s fresh.

One of the things I really liked about the book was the history surrounding mummifying a body and the rituals of it. I was fascinated learning about canopic jars, which I’d made it pretty far in life never realizing they exist.

The only thing stopping me from declaring you should run out and get this book now, is there was a fair amount of alluding to previous books in the series. I was able to follow along and am not disappointed I read this one first, but I always had a nagging feeling I’d know more if I read the series.

If you’re looking for a new focus on a police procedural, then I suggest trying out The Embalmer and if you have the time, start from the beginning of the series.

The Embalmer is the third book in Alison Belsham’s Tattoo Thief series. It is preferable if you read the first two books to get the background story and characters background. I enjoyed this story, it was well written, had good narrative and good pacing and the characters were well developed and relatable. I read this quickly and would definitely recommend it to other readers.

A fantastic addition to the series. Dark and gruesome is my favourite type of book and The Embalmer definitely delivered. I look forward to more in the series.

When a newly wrapped mummified body appears overnight at the Museum of Natural History, DI Francis Sullivan and team are brought into investigate. At the same time, the Museum Director disappears, but the mummy cannot be her, then a string of gruesome murder victims appear over the city. Sullivan must unmask The Emblamer before another body is discovered and the target now seems personal.
Another great read from Alison Belsham. With underlying story with Marni & her son, Alex Mullins carrying on through the book. This can be a stand alone book, but is part of a trilogy and as ways good to read the previous books first.