The Beauty of Murder

A serial killer with all the time in the world…From a stunning new voice in crime fiction.

Stephen Killigan has been cold since the day he arrived in Cambridge. Seven hundred years of history staining the stones of the university have given him a chill he can’t shake. Then he stumbles across the body of a missing beauty queen – a body which disappears before the police arrive…

Unwittingly, Killigan has entered the sinister world of Jackamore Grass on a trail that reaches back to seventeenth-century Cambridge. It’s a world of cadavers, philosophers and scholars of deadly beauty, a world where a person’s corpse can be found before they even go missing, of a city and a person that hold far too many secrets written in blood.

Praise for The Beauty of Murder

‘Written in sinuous, elegant prose with characters that linger in the mind’ – DAILY MAIL

‘A wonderfully realised crime novel that blended time travel seamlessly into the narrative. . .beautifully written’ – SCIFIBULLETIN

‘A speculative thriller, complete with murder-mystery, police investigation, philosophy, the aesthetics of murder, time-travel and magic. It’s inventive, haunting and compelling’ – THE LITTLE READER LIBRARY

‘A literary crime thriller that ticks all the boxes with a flourish: intriguing characters, fascinating storylines, gorgeous settings, beautiful prose and a sprinting pace’ – CRIMETHRILLERGIRL.COM

‘Imaginative and completely absorbing, this is a twisted mystical tale with terrific characters, a strange and wonderful premise and mesmerizing writing. Sublime and unconventional, do not less this one pass you by’ – LIZLOVESBOOKS

‘A perfect mix of mystery, humour and delightfully managed time-travel fantasy’ — TRIPFICTION.COM

‘A fast-paced page-turner, this is a speculative crime thriller that travels to the heart of a series of gruesome crimes by way of a city and a person that have far too many secrets written in blood’ — CORNFLOWER BOOKS

‘[A] well-written, easy to read and compelling thriller’ — BIBLIOMOUSE

‘A confident first novel that brilliantly evokes its academic setting, sets up some intriguing characters and carries off its complex plot with conviction. Moreover, it is beautifully written. . . suspend your disbelief, abandon all notions of established genre, and think of the literary lovechild you might get following some magical mixology involving Scarlett Thomas, Hilary Mantel, Umberto Eco and Iris Murdoch’ — H.O.T

‘Amazingly clever. . . leaves me somewhat in awe of A K Benedict’ – CLAIRE MCGOWAN

‘A. K. Benedict makes me excited about the thriller genre. With writers like this around, we’re in great hands as readers. Fantastic prose, characters you want to hang out with and enough originality that you’ll never quite know what’s coming next’ – LUCA VESTE

‘Amazing’ – JOHNNY MAINS