After reading Sixteen Horses, the first book in the Dr Cooper Allen series and finding it both different and highly enjoyable I was definitely looking forward to reading book 2. Well known photographer Sophia Bertilak appears to have died in tragic circumstances however there is no body as she died in her pig pen and the pigs did what comes naturally. Cooper Allen is called to assist as she is in the area meeting up with her estranged family and if she is honest she would rather be doing a postmortem on some dead pigs than spending time with her mother and sister. Once the postmortem is completed Cooper is no longer required but this does not stop her from doing some digging of her own to find out what happened to Sophia and to find out the truth behind the photograph that helped make her famous.
Consumed is very different from sixteen horses and it certainly seemed to have a much slower pace. The story goes between the past and the present focusing on several of the characters along the way. What is evident is that not everything is straightforward, and Cooper is dealing with an unknown person who determined to keep her digging into the past and it is the past that I think I was far more invested in. Like Cooper and Sophia before her I wanted to know what happened to the 2 missing children that Sophia inadvertently photographed on her 17th birthday over 50 years ago.
Cooper Allen is quite a complex character who over time you get to understand a little bit more about and the reasons why she is not interested in connecting with her family. She does also seem to have the same disconnect with others that try to get close to her and even therapy has not really been able to help her. That being said, I quite like her and her focus. I loved getting to know Sophia over the second half of the book and the lengths she had gone to over her career.
Consumed is definitely a long book at over 500 pages but I think every one of those pages were warranted as the backstory was just as important as the present day and added to the atmosphere of the story. Greg Buchanan’s descriptions of locations and situations put you right in the heart of the story, sending you down several dead ends in your quest to find out the truth right to the very end and I was definitely not expecting where it eventually led. Although this is part of a series you could quite easily read this on its own and not feel that you were missing details that were needed to enjoy it fully

A really good read and follow up to sixteen-horses. Very well written I thought and I do love a book with a multiple POV and this did it well! I also found the inclusion of letters and emails etc. I thought it was a very engaging and entertaining story with a very good ending!

This was a good follow on from Sixteen Horses, following Cooper through another dark case and clever twists and connections between characters, stories and places. The first few chapters had me hooked, more so than the previous book, although took me a beat to get back into this writers style. Love that this is based on a forensic vet - not something I've come across before in this genre but a different take on the style and pace of typical crime/mystery. Would recommend to someone wanting to try a dark and new take on crime novels.

I couldn’t finish the book it was too whimsical for me - Too many descriptions for the characters rather than writing about what the characters are doing

“After a while, Sophie came across a piece of pipe, stuck down in the half-ashen soil. It was a grey plastic cylinder. It did not appear to have been here for very long, …. She held her camera over the pipe. The silver metal of her device shone in the final hour of sunlight. She took a photograph of the pipe from above, a bird’s eye view just as a cloud drifted overhead….”

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Consumed’ by Greg Buchanan.

While Buchanan’s second novel works fine as a standalone, it does feature forensic veterinarian, Cooper Allen, who had appeared in his 2021 debut novel, ‘Sixteen Horses’.

In ‘Consumed’ Cooper is in the rural town of Lethwick on a break ahead of a family reunion. She is asked by the local police to perform a necropsy on two pet pigs after their 70-year-old owner had fallen and overnight had met the end that the title indicates.

At first it is assumed to be a tragic accident, except for the fact that Sophia Bertilak had been a well-known photographer and it appears that someone has removed all of her photos from their frames.

Cooper Allen slowly becomes obsessed with the victim, her family, and the crimes that she had brought to light decades ago. Central to these were two photographs that seventeen-year-old Sophia had taken with her first camera during a foray into the woods. These photos gained her wide recognition and effectively launched her career. No further details to avoid spoilers.

There was a chilling undercurrent to the narrative that borders on folk horror. The quotes that headed the novel’s parts set the mood. There were also allusions to Robert W. Chambers classic tale, ‘The King in Yellow’, and the cursed city of Carcosa. These literary references gave me a delicious shiver of recognition that within these pages we were embarking into eldritch territory.

Buchanan moved smoothly between the present and past, slowly building up the story of Cooper’s and Sophia’s lives. The narrative does demand a close reading and I expect that I will reread it in the future in order to appreciate its symbolism and multiple layers.

Overall, I was very impressed with ‘Consumed’. Greg Buchanan’s writing is rich and descriptive and I quickly found myself completely immersed. I felt that it was an intelligent Gothic literary thriller.

Highly recommended.

This is a really haunting read. The writing is very dark, and poetic. The way the author uses language to create such a haunting atmosphere is perfect. Short, sharp sentences mixed with more long rambling ones helps create an uneasy read as you feel the main character, Cooper’s, anxieties. The storyline swaps between narratives and timelines, which at times can be confusing but works cleverly to create that sense of unease and noir. Like a work of art it works perfectly when you’ve finished reading it as you can step back and admire it as a whole as all the pieces fall into place.

Sixteen Horses was one of my top books in 2021. I loved the dark atmosphere, the flawed characters and the mix of horror, thriller and literary fiction. It was a wild ride that brought me to creepy and horrific places, kept me turning pages and love what I was reading.
Consumed is a sort of follow up. We catch up with Cooper Allen and follow her in an investigation that requires a forensic veterinarian for a gritty and unusual way killing.
Sophie, a world known photographer, has fallen and was attacked by her pigs. It could be an accident, but many things point to an attack and a killing
It’s the start of another dark, creepy, and intriguing travel into the darkness of the humans who knew Sophie and Cooper.
I wouldn’t define this book “an easy read” or “light mystery”. It’s slow burning, full of food for thought and disturbing moments. There’s a lot of darkness and there’re some moments when I was tempted to stop reading but the excellent storytelling and the style of writing kept me hooked and I read it as fast as I could.
I had high expectations and was hoping for a book up to Sixteen Horses level: all my expectations were met and this novel is strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Compulsive Readers and Orion for this digital copy, all opinions are mine.

Well... this got the juices flowing right from the off - an old lady falls down and gets eaten by her pigs. On face value, it appears to have just been an accident, albeit a nasty shocking one. But really nothing to get all het up about. Until, on further inspection, her house appears to have been stripped of all her photos from their frames. Photos she herself, as a world-famous, well respected photographer. So they call in forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen to assist. But she starts to overstep as she gets more and more embroiled in the life of the deceased. One Sophia Bertilak, whose first ever batch of photos contained one of a missing girl, with another that was even more shocking...
Well... I have to say that no one does overstepping like Cooper. Boy does she go when she gets her teeth into things. Getting the police to join in with her ways of thinking is indeed another thing entirely!
This is my first book starring a forensic vet and some of the things she describes that she has done were quite fascinating and I am definitely going to delve into that field a little more. It was also a refreshing change as it added a whole different spin on the case in question, coming from that side of things.
I did find that the story did lose its way a tad in the middle third but once it got going again it was cracking all the way to the shocking end. That said, pacing did follow the narrative and I guess quite a lot has to be delivered as a slow burn to follow the nature of the investigation.
Characters were well described and developed and all played their parts well. Some were more easy to connect to than others but I connected to Cooper well from the start so that helped.
All in all, a good solid read that I definitely enjoyed. I have Sixteen Horses on both my watch and read list (there's a TV adaptation) This also features Cooper Allen so I guess I best get reading it! My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

It is only a few weeks since I read Sixteen Horses, the prequel to this novel and I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to have read a series in order. If I hadn’t have already ‘met’ Cooper I wouldn’t have appreciated this novel in quite the same way.

She becomes involved in the case involving pigs eating their owner whilst she is meeting up with her family in the area. That meeting, which she isn’t that enthusiastic about anyway, is delayed whilst she does the examination of the remains. But as before, when her official involvement is over she finds it difficult to pull away and gets involved with the family of the deceased, an extremely strange police officer and a woman who is very much like herself . None of these people are good people for her to know and she would have been better just keeping her distance.

Cooper is definitely one on her own and I’m still undecided whether I liked her or not. I certainly didn’t understand her. To describe her as an enigma is an understatement.

The storyline itself is a creepy one, and not just because of the pigs.The account of how the dead woman became famous as a photographer, her career and her relationship with her children’s father became more sinister as I made my way through the novel. Her life story appears at intervals so the reader only finds out what happened to her, her children and the people she met throughout her life slowly. And it worked perfectly despite the confusion I felt.

This is a remarkable follow up, it left me with many unanswered questions but it is also one of those that I’m still analysing days after finishing. I’m looking forward very much to see what others make of this book

“But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens, I tell you, it had gone mad”. - Joseph Conrad

The title of the book CONSUMED fits the story to the ‘T’, that is the first thought that crossed my mind, and after that, a mind numbing sense of Sturm und Drang. Consumed is an all consuming and absorbing read that is gonna leave you in awe with the sheer mastery of the author’s writing, I am honestly at a loss to describe the effect this story had on me. I had previously read Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan and was impressed with his style of writing. Never in my life have I encountered an author who writes a scene as if it was being enacted by the characters in a movie. Not one ounce of my imagination would help me in creating the snapshot that the author's writing creates for the reader and it is, without doubt, a phenomenal talent.

Consider this sentence,
“ Cooper went down into the tunnel, walking along two sets of stairs until she reached the pit.
It was cold down there.
It was full of eyes.”
And the chapter ends…

Surely, no point in guessing my heart rate at this juncture with the imagination running wildly and all that is left to do would be to hold my breath and jump into the pit.

Like in his debut work, the author uses the muddling timeline technique brilliantly, going back and forth in times and thru different POVS. The main thread of the story is simple, Cooper Allen, a forensic veterinarian is on vacation but she is called into consulting in the death of renowned war photographer Sophia Bertilak, whose first stint to fame was the accidental photograph of a kidnapped victim and that of a missing girl Stephanie Ealrsham. So is there a crime committed and what happened to Stephanie all those years ago?

"I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me." -Sylvia Plath

Cooper is not an easy character to warm to, her thoughts are sometimes so jumbled and make one feel that a breakdown is imminent. The broken relationship with her mother, the estranged relationship with her sister who is gonna marry her ex, and then her attempts at alleviating loneliness by creating an online alter persona and befriending Sophie's children all hints at a troubled mind traumatizing the reader further. The cause is her need to know more about Sophie and the missing girl Stephanie but the effect is her spiraling out of control taking extreme steps that she otherwise wouldn’t.

"Uprooted and lonely, still I endure,
inner strength, woven into my core. "– Angie Weiland Crosby

As the labyrinth becomes progressively darker and the maze seems bewildering, Cooper dives headlong to untangle the truth and unmask the puppeteer of this show.

Consumed is not a crime thriller that would interest all and sundry. Lethwick, Oppidum vetus Leneque, a town ancient and gentle, is itself a central character, giving a creepy aura and subtle gothicky vibe. The climax is not all roses tied with a beautiful bow, there are a couple of questions left for the reader to ponder. In the end, Consumed is about lonely souls, seeking some modicum of hope thru friendship, companionship, thru their family, love, thru anything that would become a reason to continue living.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Orion Publishing Group, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

This review is published on my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India, Book Bub, Medium.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

Consumed by Greg Buchanan
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Publication Date: 20/7/23

4.5 ⭐️ /5

No Spoilers

I loved the authors debut “Sixteen Horses”, it was one of my favourite books of 2021. This second book featuring Cooper Allen, the forensic vet we were introduced to in Sixteen Horses, is as original, gripping and thrilling as the first. I did find the timelines harder to follow, which may be resolved in the formatting of the final copy, but it is still a fantastic read.
Be warned it’s very dark and quite disturbing in places but the premise and its conclusion make it a must read.
Thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for providing me with this advance digital proof in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Consumed, by Greg Buchanan
Rating: 3/5
Published: 20th July
Another dark and chilling read from the talented author of Sixteen Horses. On a lonely farmstead, an elderly woman falls and is consumed by her pigs. They obliterate her – piece by piece – and forensic veterinarian, Cooper Allen, is called in to try and salvage the woman from their stomachs for investigation. She becomes obsessed with the victim, an eminent photographer who was responsible for capturing one of the last known sightings of a kidnap victim when she was a child. It becomes clear that Cooper is linked to the missing girl, and she makes it her mission to discover how. This book is artfully told, with lots of twists and turns. Like Sixteen Horses, the descriptions get right under your skin. It is quite haunting, and recommended for all fans of Buchanan’s debut novel.

Never has a book been more aptly named.

As a huge fan of Sixteen Horses I was eager to read Greg Buchanan's second novel, I was immersed immediately and throughout.

There's an eerie edge to the writing that creates an off kilter feeling as you absorb the story, commit to it in some ways as the complex layers unravel in non linear fashion until a semblance of truth emerges.

The characters, including Cooper making a return appearance, are shadows taking form as events unfold, they are complicated human beings moving in and out of each others orbits. The relationships ebb and flow and always in the background a missing girl and an unfathomable mystery.

I loved it. Uniquely intense and utterly compelling

I absolutely rated Greg's first book Sixteen horses. One of the best thrillers with a slight tinge of horror to it that I had read in years. It was dark, brooding, creepy and downright freaky at times so I was excited to read this authors next offering.

As with Sixteen Horses Greg has the ability to create a sense of unease and disquiet with his writing. This book has a creeping edge to it that inspires a sense of something being wrong or off but you can't quite work out what it is. Who is bad? Who is good? Is there are some unseen, unknown force at play? You just know something is off about pretty much everything right from the get go, but what?

However unlike Sixteen Horses I found this is book hard to follow at times. Sometimes the jumps in timelines created confusion rather than clarity and I struggled to really work out the characters motivations.

The ending does wrap up the major part of the plot but for me it also left SO many questions unanswered which can probably mostly be summed up as, Why? We know who the missing girl ends up being but the why of her disappearance or what happened to her after the picture was taken was never resolved or if it was, it was in such a way that I totally missed it.

I totally rate Greg's writing. I think he writes creeping uncomfortable plots so well that almost have a slight horror tinge to them. Sixteen Horses is a 5 star read in my opinion but sadly this one didn't quite manage to do it for me in the way his debut novel did.

I would preface this review by pointing out that I hadn't realised this was the second in a series - or, at least, centres around a character from the author's first novel 'Sixteen Horses' which I have not read. Whether reading that would have affected the way I read or understood this book, I can't say.
I'd also point out that there was, for me, some issues in the readability of this book due to the formatting on the Kindle version I received. The story incorporates transcripts, email threads, online discussions as well as standard prose - it could be that in the finished, published version these, and the chapter breaks, quotes and 'Parts' will be more clearly laid out - that would be a good thing, as it was at times difficult to read.
In terms of the story: I thought it started intriguingly - an image caught accidently by a young girl with her new birthday camera that has ramifications reaching forward decades. It drew me in immediately and I was intrigued to see what came next.
Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen ( a character apparently featured in the author's debut novel) is brought in to provide a post-mortem following an animal related death as she happens to be visiting in the small community where the tragic event has occurred
The author's previous work has been described as: 'Utterly gripping, exquisitely written' by the Guardian, . and Totally gripping from start to finish' by Alex Michhaelides and best selling author Chris Whitaker says Consumed will 'shock, shake, haunt and thrill you'.
So...it is probably just my personal taste/ preference that meant I didn't really get on with this book. I did find this was a book I had to make the effort to return to and it took me a number of sessions to read it - unusual for me. It is, again on me, perhaps for this reason that I struggled to get drawn in by the characters or the story.
It is very back and forth in its approach to time and characters - had I been able to spend more time in a sitting reading this may have felt less disjointed, but as it was I didn't remain intrigued by the plot the way I was with the opening.
The writing style is unusual - described variously by the media and authors as 'exquisitely' and 'beautifully' written' and there is definitely a poetic element in its repetition of words and phrases and: often staccato sentences. There's also a (clearly deliberate) non typical approach to the characters in the novel: whether considering the protagonist or the (considerable) cast of supporting characters.
Looking at the reader reviews of the author's first book after I finished this one, it is interesting to see that ratings are more equally spread across the range from 5 star to 1 star (24/20/23/16/17%) than any other book I can think of in recent times.
I'm guessing this one will be similar and some readers will love it, while others may find it's a bit too different from their usual crime/ mystery reading in terms of prose and plot to really get into.
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read.

A dark and chilling story which fans of Sixteen Horses will love.

Sometime after the events of "Sixteen Horses", Cooper Allen is about to go on a short holiday with her estranged mother and sister, an event she is not looking forward to. Luckily, fate intervenes when she is asked to use her forensic veterinary skills to investigate some pigs which are suspected of eating their owner. What seems like a tragic accident, soon turns into a murder investigation.

And without further ado, the reader is drawn into another dark, disturbing and chilling story of family, power, deception and revenge. "Consumed* is a standalone novel, but fans of "Sixteen Horses" will be pleased with the way the author has picked up threads from that book developed them into a story as much about Cooper as the murdered woman, Sophie. We learn more about Cooper, her family and background, and gain an inkling into why she is, the way she is. The way in which past events link her, Sophie, and Sophie's own history do eventually tie up nicely, but it's a windy and torturous path the reader is led up.

As ever nowadays, the book moves between several time periods, as we slowly learn of the events which have led to the murder. As with the previous book, the author's writing style takes a bit of getting used to, but it certainly has no problems painting a dark and haunting picture of human failings. Cooper, her family, and the people she meets are all deeply flawed people, and there's plenty to love, hate and despair of, in all of them.

I was pleased to receive a Netgalley ARC for review, and I enjoyed the book enough I'll probably return to "Sixteen Horses" before getting my hands on a copy of "Consumed".

Heartily recommended.

A famous photographer is dead, eaten by her two pigs. All the photos in her house have been removed. A forensic vet is called in and she becomes obsessed with the case.

The book moves between characters, time and form (emails and voicemails). Initially I found it hard work keeping up but once I decided to just go with the flow it was good. A slow burn that built up the suspense.

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC

Sophia Bertilak, a famous photographer especially famed for a specific photo, falls outside her house and as she is stuck she is consumed by her two pigs. Forensic Veterinarian Cooper Allen ends up assisting with this case. Is it a tragic accident or could something more sinister be at play?

This book was nothing at all like I was expecting! I am still unsure what to make of it or how to rate it. I found the role of Forensic Veterinarian fascinating and it is definitely a unique premise from all the usual books focused on police officers. The storyline itself, especially the famous photograph taken by Sophia, has a very creepy premise and is quite haunting. The author does a great job in slowly building a dark, disturbing atmosphere.

The writing style is very different to anything I have come across and took me a while to get used to. I can only describe it as having a poetic quality but slightly jumpy in parts. The story is well written, although I did have to concentrate a lot to make sense of what was happening. Although the characters are also well written I did not fully connect with them, this may be partly due to the writing style.

Overall, this started off well but I found my concentration wavering as the book went on. This is probably personal preference as I usually enjoy books that are bit more fast paced with a bit less filler. Although I found some parts slow, I can say this is a disconcerting, interesting story with a lot of positive elements and would be greatly enjoyed by those who love atmospheric, slow burn crime fiction. I will definitely be interested in seeing what the author creates next! Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this early copy in return for an honest review.

If you like your reads with a distinctly gothic vibe, you’ll be right at home with Consumed. Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen becomes entangled with the disappearance of a child. Also involved is lauded photographer Sophia Bertilak. Cooper is a hard individual to be get the measure of. Given to self analysis and flights of fancy, Cooper appears rudderless but has a feel for those things that hover just outside of our surroundings. The story focuses on Cooper and Sophia and how they are connected to the missing child but the narrative doesn’t follow traditional detective or missing person crime novels. The whole is more of a walk through ancient woods, never quite knowing where your next step will take you and questioning whether it is night or day. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter add a delicious sense of the ethereal to proceedings and with the supporting characters often having opaque agendas, you feel assured of some unhappy outcomes.

A foreboding and wicked read, ideally enjoyed in a haunted house with a rocking chair creaking somewhere.