Be careful what you wish for.

In a prestigious Edinburgh apartment building, gym receptionist Evie whiles away long hours doodling the deaths of residents who’ve annoyed her.

On her birthday of all days, a man slumps off the exercise bike — dead. She tries to get help, but someone has locked the doors and the phones are out of reach.

#KillerBodies @hkist #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #BlogTour

When another resident collapses inexplicably, Evie realises the deaths resemble those she drew … and her sketchbook is missing.

Was she framed…

… or is she next?

My Review

Sharp and witty, with cutting observations, this is a book that says it like it is. Most of the characters are truly horrid – selfish, full of themselves, and liars to boot. Or rather to designer trainers.

Evie is the receptionist at the gym belonging to a prestigious Edinburgh apartment building. The only resident she likes is the very elderly Mrs M who lives on the top floor. Mrs M accepts Evie completely, with her Manga-inspired, creepy tattoos and a penchant for drawing the other residents in the throes of death by horrific means. It’s only for fun after all. Evie’s boyfriend Kaif supplies Mrs M with marihuana, and their friend Martina works in IT.

Residents Charles and Fiona have a small fluffy dog called Pebbles, who regularly gets dumped on Evie while they ‘work-out’ and Stephen just gets sweaty in the gym. Beatrice is a right old cow. Dave is ex-forces, and runs a security company, while Suki has only just moved in. She’s always going on about ‘leverage’. The building manager is called Alan and he’s a real charmer.

Saturday is Evie’s birthday, but instead of celebrating all day with Kaif and Martina, she’s inexplicably called in to work. A number of the residents have received messages to say that the gym will be closed at 10.30. This means they turn up early. And that’s when it all goes horribly wrong.

The doors are locked, their phones are in the lockers they can’t access. and the internet is down. The windows are made of unbreakable glass and anyway, they are on the twelfth floor. Then one of the residents slumps off the exercise bike and so the fun begins. There are some truly bizarre moments, a rising body count and plenty of dark humour, like who accompanies who to the toilet and who is safe to be left alone. Then Evie realises her sketch book is missing, the one with all the dead residents in it.

Dark, often hilarious and at times just plain weird, I highly recommend this locked room mystery book.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

PS ‘Hate is a big word. I’m not a big fan of this dog, or most dogs.’ She carried Pebbles to Evie. ‘That doesn’t make me a bad person.’ Oh yes it does!

About the Author

Heleen Kist is a Dutch, formerly globetrotting career woman who fell in love with a Scotsman and his country, and now writes about its (sometimes scary) people from her garden office in Glasgow. Killer Bodies is her fourth novel, inspired by her hatred of exercise. She was chosen as an up-and-coming new author at Bloody Scotland 2018. Her novels have been finalists in a variety of awards, both in the UK and USA, and she years to someday ‘be the bride’.

Heleen hopes you enjoy her writing, and would love to hear from you on twitter @hkist Faceboook @heleenkistauthor or Goodreads. You can also sign up to her newsletter on www.heleenkist.com

Photo Credit Scott Cadenhead