The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne

★★★☆☆ 

Theo Cray, a socially awkward computational biologist, is a suspect in the murder of a former student found dead in the Montana woods.

Cray is released once local authorities find evidence that she was mauled by a bear, but he keeps inserting himself into the case and starts making connections to other disappearances.

“Nature controls us more than we want to admit.”

Andrew Mayne, The Naturalist

This was an excellent book until two-thirds of the way through, when it started to drag and then suddenly morphed into an action novel for the last few chapters.

Even though the book veered off course for me toward the end, I loved the nerdy Cray as a leading character. I liked his analytical approach to the evidence combined with the absurd decisions he would sometimes make in situations involving people.

I also liked the comparisons, like “This isn’t hell, but the entrance can’t be far,” and the observations about human nature that were woven into the book.

Even though I rated this book 3 stars, I will most definitely read other books in the Naturalist series. I’m invested in Cray as a main character. And, as someone familiar with the inner workings of higher ed, I can’t wait to see the lengths he goes to avoid faculty meetings in the rest of the series.

Andrew Mayne’s books can be found on Amazon in a variety of formats. Several of his works are available electronically for free to Prime members through Prime Reading.

For more about the author, who started his publishing career as an independent author, visit his website, www.andrewmayne.com.