Distemper (Alex Bernier Mysteries)

In this second Alex Bernier mystery, Alex meets her significant other after happening upon the second corpse to be found near the Benson (Cornell) campus. Brian Cody (Cody) is the Gabriel (Ithaca) policeman to whom she tells her story after the macabre encounter with the second victim. There is an instant attraction between the two that develops along with the cleverly designed search for the serial killer. This series gets better with each entry.

In this second Alex Bernier mystery, Alex meets her new significant other after she runs into the second corpse to be found near the Gabriel (Cornell) campus. Brian Cody is the Gabriel policeman to whom she tells her story after the macabre encounter with the second victim. There is an instant attraction between the two that develops along with the search for the serial killer. This series gets better with each entry- read them all!

The only problem with this book is that I lost sleep because of it. I skipped right over the chapter breaks, rather than put it down and turn off my light. Seriously, the term "page turner" has never been more appropriate. Plus it was actually scary in a serious roller-coaster sort of way...and I don't even own a dog (huh? Don't worry, just read it). Alex Bernier- the heroine- is fun and human, even better than in the other Beth Saulnier book I read (and that one was really good, too, Reliable Sources). We're not talking War and Peace here, but for a cold night under the covers, a warm day on the beach, or 30 minutes during lunch, the Bernier mysteries can't be beat!

RELIABLE SOURCES, Saulnier's first book, was a good read which I read over the course of a week, but DISTEMPER grabbed me right from the beginning. I couldn't put it down and read the book in just two days. The writing is much sharper and the character development more adept. Alex Bernier and the denizens of the local newspaper are back on the trail of another killer. Like in the first book, Alex becomes entangled in another series of murders and lets her curiosity get the better of her as she pursues the killer. A thoroughly enjoyable book that I recommend to everyone. To maximize the experience, I suggest reading RELIABLE SOURCES first because there are references to it in DISTEMPER, but the book stands on its own. A friend read DISTEMPER first and still enjoyed it immensely.

Beth Saulnier's second novel is at least as good as her first, "Reliable Sources." This time she tries her hand at a police procedural (which, unlike a "drawing room" mystery, doesn't start with the premise that the killer is one of a small group of characters you already know about)... and she nails it right out of the box.One of the great pleasures of this book is getting to know narrator/protagonist Alex Bernier even better; her witty, informed, but vulnerable personality is three-dimensional and fairly leaps off the page. Like all good protagonists, she's good at getting herself into danger. But sometimes how she gets out of it is so surprising that I have to wonder if Saulnier has ever read any formulaic mysteries before, because she sure isn't shy about breaking the mold when she writes mysteries of her own.Publishers Weekly said in their review of "Distemper" - "If ever a mystery novel about serial mutilation could be called delightful, this one could." And they've got it right - it's gripping, harrowing, and occasionally downright disturbing, but above all it's thoroughly enjoyable.