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Dead Fall
Tod durch einen Sturz aus großer Hö Als erfahrene Pathologie-Assistentin weiß Cassie Raven, was sie erwartet, als sie den Leichensack öffnet. Trotzdem ist sie fassungslos, sobald sie die Tote sieht. Denn diese ist niemand anderes als Bronte, eine talentierte, extrem beliebte Sängerin, die kurz vor dem ganz großen Durchbruch stand – und eine ehemalige Klassenkameradin von Cassie. Es gibt eine Abschieds-SMS, die nahelegt, dass Bronte mit dem Erfolgsdruck nicht umgehen konnte. Also ein klarer Fall von Selbstmord? Ein paar kleine Ungereimtheiten bei der Sektion lassen Cassie nicht los. Als dann auch noch DS Phyllida Flyte in den Fall verwickelt wird, die ebenfalls Zweifel hat, braucht Cassie gute Nerven und ihre besondere Gabe …
400 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2025
1 person is currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
A.K. Turner
15 books79 followersAK Turner is The New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning Vagabonding with Kids series, as well as This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store, Mommy Had a Little Flask, and Hair of the Corn Dog. Her works have received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, IPPY Awards in Humor and Travel, Foreword Indies Awards, Independent Press Distinguished Favorite, and inclusion in BookLife’s Top 5 Indie Books of 2014. She is a contributor to the anthologies Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana (Traveler’s Tales), Little White Dress (Mill Park Publishing), I Just Want to Be Alone and I Just Want to Be Perfect (Throat_Punch Books) and a coauthor of Drinking with Dead Women Writers and Drinking with Dead Drunks. Her work has been featured online at Scary Mommy, In the Powder Room, The Huffington Post, Nickmom, Felicity Huffman’s What the Flicka?, The Quivering Pen, Multicultural Kid Blogs, and Artocratic, among others, and in the print publications Cloudbank, Idaho Magazine, The Idaho Statesman, Treasure Valley Family Magazine, Boise City Revue, and Folio Literary. She lives in Idaho with her husband and two children, but travels frequently as a part-time digital nomad. Learn more at VagabondingWithKids.com.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 7, 2024
Book 4 in this series and honestly they just keep on giving 5 stars! They are just truly wonderfully gripping books with really well realised characters and a great original point of view!
November 25, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
January 21, 2026
I really enjoyed this book and having not read any of the previous in this series I can say that they great as standalones.
Will definitely read the others though.
Will definitely read the others though.
September 12, 2024
All jobs come with hazards.
For mortuary technician Cassie Raven, there’s the disturbing possibility that a corpse on her table may turn out to belong to someone she knew, added to the even more disturbing possibility that the dead body might still have something to say…
-- What’s it about? --
This is a mystery with four women at its centre: Bronte, a talented singer on the brink of stardom, born Sophia Angopoulis to a mother, Chrysanthi, who hates her ex-husband with a passion; Cassie, who doesn’t believe Bronte jumped to her death; and Phyllida Flyte, who is asked to investigate after the initial, cursory police investigation is believed to be flawed.
Cassie is a very modern protagonist: inked and pierced, she frequents gay bars and treats all her mortuary ‘guests’ with a care and respect that borders on reverence. Chrysanthi is devoutly religious, brimming over with anger and despair, insisting that Bronte would never have killed herself. Meanwhile, despite currently working for the Office for Police Conduct, former DC Flyte is learning that, sometimes, there may be grey areas among the black and white…
-- What’s it like? --
Highly engaging. Consistently entertaining. Well conceived and constructed.
Although the blurb suggests Cassie and Flyte ‘join forces’, the truth is that they circle each other warily, judging how far they can trust their acquaintance and how much they need to know. The reader benefits from following both sets of investigations and this gives the plot a good, brisk pace as events evolve rapidly.
I enjoyed the developing relationship between Flyte and DI ‘Streaky’ Bacon, as he turned out to be a little bit different than she anticipated. I wished Cassie would take more precautions to keep herself safe and was pleased with the way various storylines developed. There’s a good range of possibilities explored and discarded, making the final events both hard to predict and delightfully fitting.
--Final thoughts --
I was initially wary about the mild supernatural edge to what is otherwise an intriguing plot (how can you tell if someone jumped or was pushed?) but this isn’t a major element of the storytelling and adds humour rather than creepiness, as when Bronte scolds Cassie for skipping a post mortem and when Cassie recollects an elderly lady whose death had come as a surprise and whose final thought appeared to be simply, ‘bugger’.
Although this is the fourth book in this series, I found it easy to read as a standalone and enjoyed it so much that I’m sure I’ll be checking out the earlier three.
Recommended for crime fiction fans.
For mortuary technician Cassie Raven, there’s the disturbing possibility that a corpse on her table may turn out to belong to someone she knew, added to the even more disturbing possibility that the dead body might still have something to say…
-- What’s it about? --
This is a mystery with four women at its centre: Bronte, a talented singer on the brink of stardom, born Sophia Angopoulis to a mother, Chrysanthi, who hates her ex-husband with a passion; Cassie, who doesn’t believe Bronte jumped to her death; and Phyllida Flyte, who is asked to investigate after the initial, cursory police investigation is believed to be flawed.
Cassie is a very modern protagonist: inked and pierced, she frequents gay bars and treats all her mortuary ‘guests’ with a care and respect that borders on reverence. Chrysanthi is devoutly religious, brimming over with anger and despair, insisting that Bronte would never have killed herself. Meanwhile, despite currently working for the Office for Police Conduct, former DC Flyte is learning that, sometimes, there may be grey areas among the black and white…
-- What’s it like? --
Highly engaging. Consistently entertaining. Well conceived and constructed.
Although the blurb suggests Cassie and Flyte ‘join forces’, the truth is that they circle each other warily, judging how far they can trust their acquaintance and how much they need to know. The reader benefits from following both sets of investigations and this gives the plot a good, brisk pace as events evolve rapidly.
I enjoyed the developing relationship between Flyte and DI ‘Streaky’ Bacon, as he turned out to be a little bit different than she anticipated. I wished Cassie would take more precautions to keep herself safe and was pleased with the way various storylines developed. There’s a good range of possibilities explored and discarded, making the final events both hard to predict and delightfully fitting.
--Final thoughts --
I was initially wary about the mild supernatural edge to what is otherwise an intriguing plot (how can you tell if someone jumped or was pushed?) but this isn’t a major element of the storytelling and adds humour rather than creepiness, as when Bronte scolds Cassie for skipping a post mortem and when Cassie recollects an elderly lady whose death had come as a surprise and whose final thought appeared to be simply, ‘bugger’.
Although this is the fourth book in this series, I found it easy to read as a standalone and enjoyed it so much that I’m sure I’ll be checking out the earlier three.
Recommended for crime fiction fans.
July 25, 2024
‘Dead Fall’ is a crime book with a difference! The main protagonist is a lowly mortuary technician who cares deeply for her ‘guests’ and there is a touch of the supernatural to it. I remember seeing the author at a panel at Bloody Scotland and when it clicked that this was the series she was talking about I was even more keen to pick this one up. This is the first in the series I have obviously read but I found it worked easily as a stand-alone and all the pertinent information was provided by the author. I thoroughly enjoyed Cassie’s world and I will be going back and reading the rest of the series!
Cassie Raven was a brilliant protagonist - a goth mortuary tech, lives on a barge in Camden Lock and is very respectful to everyone who turns up at the mortuary, both dead and alive. But she also has a nose for uncovering things others miss and in this case it revolves round a younger singer Brontë that is being classed as a suicide but Cassie thinks there is more to this death. Cassie also has a personal story to the victim as she went to school with her which throws up uncomfortable memories. Yes, Cassie does believe that her ‘guests’ speak to her beyond the grave but it could just be her heightened sense of observation…or is it?! It certainly makes for an interesting premise.
Cassie POV is intersected with chapters that focus on IOPC investigator Flyte, an ex Met detective who is asked to make sure that Bronte’s death has been investigated properly. It’s clear that Cassie and Flyte have teamed up before and their relationship was varied and interesting. Flyte has a sad background and maybe the first three books will delve more into this.
I flew through this book and it was a real page-turner. It was an original premise and we got to see how an investigation works from a perspective I haven't seen before. I have taken Cassie into my heart and I can't wait for the next book in the series.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
Cassie Raven was a brilliant protagonist - a goth mortuary tech, lives on a barge in Camden Lock and is very respectful to everyone who turns up at the mortuary, both dead and alive. But she also has a nose for uncovering things others miss and in this case it revolves round a younger singer Brontë that is being classed as a suicide but Cassie thinks there is more to this death. Cassie also has a personal story to the victim as she went to school with her which throws up uncomfortable memories. Yes, Cassie does believe that her ‘guests’ speak to her beyond the grave but it could just be her heightened sense of observation…or is it?! It certainly makes for an interesting premise.
Cassie POV is intersected with chapters that focus on IOPC investigator Flyte, an ex Met detective who is asked to make sure that Bronte’s death has been investigated properly. It’s clear that Cassie and Flyte have teamed up before and their relationship was varied and interesting. Flyte has a sad background and maybe the first three books will delve more into this.
I flew through this book and it was a real page-turner. It was an original premise and we got to see how an investigation works from a perspective I haven't seen before. I have taken Cassie into my heart and I can't wait for the next book in the series.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
September 7, 2024
A K Turner’s Dead Fall is a slick, smart and propulsive crime thriller guaranteed to keep readers on the edge of their seat.
In her line of work, mortuary technician Cassie Raven is used to surprises, but even she is taken aback when she finds the body of talented singer Bronte in her fridge. On the brink of superstardom, Bronte had the world at her feet, so what had possessed her to jump out of the window of her tenth floor apartment? Cassie is convinced that foul play is involved and decides to do some investigating of her own – especially as Bronte is someone already known to the mortuary technician…
Cassie cannot shake off this feeling that Bronte was murdered – regardless of what the police say and she is determined to whatever it takes to prove that the singer didn’t take her own life. With social media erupting in a total frenzy, Cassie needs to keep her wits about her and not allow popular opinion to influence her judgement in any way. With police watchdog Phyllida Flyte assessing the case, the two join forces to find out what really happened to Bronte.
Will Cassie’s instincts lead her to Bronte’s killer? Or will more blood be shed before the curtain falls on the singer’s death?
Fans of Bones and Silent Witness will be gripped by A K Turner’s Dead Fall. Fast-paced, exciting and unpredictable, Dead Fall is a nail-biting crime thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers hooked till the end. Cassie Raven is a terrific detective who uses her wits and instincts to ensure that justice is served even when everything seems impossible.
Packed with tension, intrigue and suspense, Dead Fall continues to cement A K Turner’s standing as one of crime fiction’s fastest rising stars.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In her line of work, mortuary technician Cassie Raven is used to surprises, but even she is taken aback when she finds the body of talented singer Bronte in her fridge. On the brink of superstardom, Bronte had the world at her feet, so what had possessed her to jump out of the window of her tenth floor apartment? Cassie is convinced that foul play is involved and decides to do some investigating of her own – especially as Bronte is someone already known to the mortuary technician…
Cassie cannot shake off this feeling that Bronte was murdered – regardless of what the police say and she is determined to whatever it takes to prove that the singer didn’t take her own life. With social media erupting in a total frenzy, Cassie needs to keep her wits about her and not allow popular opinion to influence her judgement in any way. With police watchdog Phyllida Flyte assessing the case, the two join forces to find out what really happened to Bronte.
Will Cassie’s instincts lead her to Bronte’s killer? Or will more blood be shed before the curtain falls on the singer’s death?
Fans of Bones and Silent Witness will be gripped by A K Turner’s Dead Fall. Fast-paced, exciting and unpredictable, Dead Fall is a nail-biting crime thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers hooked till the end. Cassie Raven is a terrific detective who uses her wits and instincts to ensure that justice is served even when everything seems impossible.
Packed with tension, intrigue and suspense, Dead Fall continues to cement A K Turner’s standing as one of crime fiction’s fastest rising stars.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
August 10, 2024
Absolutely brilliant from the incredible start to the gripping , compelling ending . This is the first book by A.K . Turner that I have read and it most certainly won’t be the only one, in fact I’m busy looking for previous books in between writing this review. The style of writing is so easy to read whilst Alison uses her stunning descriptive ability to set the scene and bring the characters to life in your imagination. Set in Camden , which is an area I know and love well I was immediately envious of Cassie for living on a narrow boat on the canal.
Cassie Raven and Phyllida Flyte are two amazing women and you can feel the chemistry between them as they work together to solve the mystery of Bronte’s death. It makes such a refreshing change to have two strong female leads within a book (series) and Alison is to be commended for this and the characters she creates for them.
As to Dead Fall , I can’t praise it enough and I don’t/ can’t say too much without spoiling it for those who haven’t read it yet. The idea of having a goth mortuary technician and a Police watchdog working together is genius and Cassie put me in mind of Abi from NCSI, though she does have the apparent ability to communicate with the dead !!!! . All I will say is that you will be totally engrossed following the lives, and work, of both Cassie and Phyllida as well as Brontë and what happened. If you fully guess the ending before you get there then you are better than me as parts of it took me completely by surprise.
Cassie Raven and Phyllida Flyte are two amazing women and you can feel the chemistry between them as they work together to solve the mystery of Bronte’s death. It makes such a refreshing change to have two strong female leads within a book (series) and Alison is to be commended for this and the characters she creates for them.
As to Dead Fall , I can’t praise it enough and I don’t/ can’t say too much without spoiling it for those who haven’t read it yet. The idea of having a goth mortuary technician and a Police watchdog working together is genius and Cassie put me in mind of Abi from NCSI, though she does have the apparent ability to communicate with the dead !!!! . All I will say is that you will be totally engrossed following the lives, and work, of both Cassie and Phyllida as well as Brontë and what happened. If you fully guess the ending before you get there then you are better than me as parts of it took me completely by surprise.
July 21, 2024
This is the first book I have read in the Cassie Raven series and I have definitely been missing out! I enjoyed it as a standalone but I will now go back and read the first three.
Cassie Raven is a really interesting character, she is a goth working as a mortuary technician. She can hear the dead which gave it a slightly supernatural twist which I wasn’t expecting but this wasn’t highlighted in excess so it didn’t stray too much from crime fiction.
One of Cassie’s ‘guests’ at the mortuary is Sophia or Brontë, a deeply troubled singer who Cassie went to school with. Her death has been ruled a suicide but when Cassie hears her say ‘I don’t want to die’ she knows there is more to her it. The case is reopened and Flyte an ex detective now with the IOPC and who has previous dealings with Cassie is involved.
Cassie runs her own unofficial investigation alongside the police one to try and get to the truth.
Really enjoyed the premise and loved the POV of Cassie as it was different than just a straight forward Police procedural.
Thanks to netgalley and Zaffre for the advanced copy.
Cassie Raven is a really interesting character, she is a goth working as a mortuary technician. She can hear the dead which gave it a slightly supernatural twist which I wasn’t expecting but this wasn’t highlighted in excess so it didn’t stray too much from crime fiction.
One of Cassie’s ‘guests’ at the mortuary is Sophia or Brontë, a deeply troubled singer who Cassie went to school with. Her death has been ruled a suicide but when Cassie hears her say ‘I don’t want to die’ she knows there is more to her it. The case is reopened and Flyte an ex detective now with the IOPC and who has previous dealings with Cassie is involved.
Cassie runs her own unofficial investigation alongside the police one to try and get to the truth.
Really enjoyed the premise and loved the POV of Cassie as it was different than just a straight forward Police procedural.
Thanks to netgalley and Zaffre for the advanced copy.
July 26, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Zaffre for my copy of Dead Fall by A K Turner.
I hadn’t heard of this series before ( this is the fourth book) but it did not matter. I loved it and now have 3 books to catch up on.
Cassie is a mortuary technician, who believes she has a unique gift, the dead speak to her.
With a contact in the police, detective Phyllida Flyte, Cassie fights for the dead and the truth.
A great read with an unusual slant.
I hadn’t heard of this series before ( this is the fourth book) but it did not matter. I loved it and now have 3 books to catch up on.
Cassie is a mortuary technician, who believes she has a unique gift, the dead speak to her.
With a contact in the police, detective Phyllida Flyte, Cassie fights for the dead and the truth.
A great read with an unusual slant.
January 6, 2025
Really enjoyed this novel, only took me 6 days to finish it! Considering this was while I was cleaning the house after Christmas and taking down 4 trees, I’m pretty proud.
Picked this up cheap in a 3 for £6 deal. Didn’t realise it was one of a series. I think this was book 3 or 4. The past stories were mentioned, but I caught on ok I think.
Really loved the main character Cassie. Will defo be looking up the rest of the series!
Picked this up cheap in a 3 for £6 deal. Didn’t realise it was one of a series. I think this was book 3 or 4. The past stories were mentioned, but I caught on ok I think.
Really loved the main character Cassie. Will defo be looking up the rest of the series!
September 9, 2025
The series continues, and gains momentum. Cassie’s ‘guests” at work continue to surprise and challenge her. Her instincts lead her to investigate a case which appears to be a simple one, but you just know that isn’t going to be how it pans out. A complicated family, several deaths, her own relationships and her life on the canal all weave into this story in a realistic fashion.
September 27, 2024
Loved catching up with Cassie Raven again! Brilliant story, not your usual crime story as such and do please check TW’s with this. Very cleverly done, I was not expecting the outcome, the final reveals. Hopefully, there will be book 5 to come?!
September 9, 2024
Another great book in the series, hits on some difficult themes. I love the author’s style and the story was as gripping as the previous instalments. I hope there will be more!
October 25, 2024
Cassie and Flyte... 😍😍😍
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2024
Amazing!
Thought I knew where it was heading but did not expect the twist at the end!
Thought I knew where it was heading but did not expect the twist at the end!
January 14, 2025
Always entertaining and complex with great character development . I’ve loved all four books . Can’t wait for the next.
January 20, 2025
Great characters and twisty storyline
March 29, 2025
Love this series of books. Another great read.
June 9, 2025
I really enjoyed reading this book finding out what was next in store for Cassie raven and I really enjoyed reading this one all about her life and work
September 12, 2025
I really enjoy the books, but I do feel sad for the author and her "stereotypical" view of men, in particular older men.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews