A dead woman, an empty grave, six journals, and £10,000 deposited into the bank account of a disgraced detective. All Arlo Abbas has to do is find Sophie Banik. The catch? Sophie was murdered five months ago. This cigarette smoking former Metropolitan Police detective turned struggling private investigator is clever, tough, and never short on a trick or two. His weary, sardonic inner dialogue gives the story its gritty noir foundation, and following his instincts is half the fun. Then the investigation takes a sharp turn into underground communities, secretive organizations, experimental sleep research, and reality bending science fiction. A journalist goes undercover, researchers pursue answers about people who seemingly cannot sleep, and the six journals reveal that this case is far stranger than anyone could have imagined.
Nicholas Binge builds an atmospheric, genre bending puzzle that refuses to stay in one lane. The journals, transcripts, and shifting perspectives offer different pieces of the mystery, inviting readers to connect the dots alongside Arlo. The underground world is unsettling, the ideas are wildly ambitious, and the story keeps expanding in directions a traditional detective thriller would never dare to go. Just when one thread seems to make sense, another raises a fresh set of questions. This is not a book that hands over all its answers neatly or immediately, and that is part of the appeal.
Fair warning: there is a substantial stretch where the plot may leave readers wondering whether they missed something important or need to start taking notes. Then the bigger picture begins to emerge, and those details that seemed impossible to wrangle start falling into place. Suddenly, putting the book down is out of the question. The short chapters make this an easy read to fly through, even when the ideas are anything but simple. Exhumation is wildly inventive, deliciously disorienting, and exactly the kind of book that can drag a reader straight out of a slump. If unpredictable, cerebral, and gloriously strange thrillers are your thing, put this one on your list.
Follow Teresa on Twitter or Instagram or contact her via the site.
Purchase Exhumation
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)
Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen
