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Murder Bugs: A Love Story
Murder Bugs: A Love Story is a fun mystery novel about an entomologist recruited to help the police catch a serial killer who uses insects as deadly weapons.
- GenresAudiobook
348 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 7, 2022
2 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Mark Coakley
9 books1 followerMurder Bugs: A Love Story is a twist-filled crime thriller about an entomologist helping the police solve a series of horrific killings by insects ... as well as a romance like no other.
My site: https://markcoakleybooks.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/markcoakleyBOOK
I am also the author of Hidden Harvest: The Rise and Fall of North America's Biggest Grow-Op and Tip & Trade: How Two Lawyers Made Millions from Insider Trading, both published by Canada's ECW Press.
My books have been positively reviewed in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Hamilton Spectator, Canadian Lawyer and Now. I have been interviewed on CTV's Canada AM, CBC Radio's The Current, Vision TV and CHCH News.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment...
I am a freelance journalist who previously worked as a lawyer, an infantry reservist, an encyclopedia editor, a tugboat sailor, a janitor at a sewage treatment plant, a Greenpeace fundraiser and a parking lot attendant. I graduated from Toronto's York University, started my legal career in Ottawa and live in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
My site: https://markcoakleybooks.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/markcoakleyBOOK
My site: https://markcoakleybooks.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/markcoakleyBOOK
I am also the author of Hidden Harvest: The Rise and Fall of North America's Biggest Grow-Op and Tip & Trade: How Two Lawyers Made Millions from Insider Trading, both published by Canada's ECW Press.
My books have been positively reviewed in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Hamilton Spectator, Canadian Lawyer and Now. I have been interviewed on CTV's Canada AM, CBC Radio's The Current, Vision TV and CHCH News.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment...
I am a freelance journalist who previously worked as a lawyer, an infantry reservist, an encyclopedia editor, a tugboat sailor, a janitor at a sewage treatment plant, a Greenpeace fundraiser and a parking lot attendant. I graduated from Toronto's York University, started my legal career in Ottawa and live in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
My site: https://markcoakleybooks.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/markcoakleyBOOK
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 25, 2024
“Before crawling inside, the fire ant releases a chemical signal from the tip of its abdomen, directed to all the nearby fire ants.”
“It means, FOLLOW ME. Then the first giant fire ant wriggles eagerly into the house towards the alluring, familiar smell of its target.”
MURDER BUGS is a bit of a tough nut to crack when it comes to deciding which genre it belongs to. The back cover marketing blurb suggests it “is a fun mystery novel about an entomologist recruited to help the police catch a serial killer who uses insects as deadly weapons.” Well, that’s certainly accurate insofar as summarizing the plot in a single line is concerned but I’d stop a long, long way short of suggesting that there was anything even remotely “fun” about it. For my money, it’s a hard core horror and far future sci-fi combo that uses a unique and quite gruesome series of murders as the underlying motivation.
In my experience, the plot details were entirely unique, entertaining, and even informative – insects, insect habits, and their chemicals and toxic venoms as a murder weapon; the state of scientific research in the field of entomology; oversized insects created by DNA manipulation; and (get this one!) use of recombinant DNA techniques to create an insect-human chimera that added notions of rational human thinking and the trace of human emotions to the more instinctive behaviour of insects such as ants, scorpions, and centipedes. I was even impressed to discover that, without interrupting the story flow for even a moment, author Coakley had managed to insert a brief info-dump style sidebar essay on the behaviour and treatment of a normal human herpes simplex virus and its tendency to jump out of hiding when the carrier is under stress (and having been a carrier for most of my life, I know ALL about how it comes and goes in a most irritating fashion!)
Last but not least, I was pleased to note that the novel’s setting was my very own hometown, Hamilton, Ontario, and I commend Coakley on getting the geographic details absolutely spot on. Getting a visual image of the story’s events through the entire length of the novel was an added bonus.
I’m happy to recommend MURDER BUGS as a worthy addition to the world of horror and sci-fi by another Canadian author who deserves a wider readership. Well done, Mr Coakley.
Paul Weiss
“It means, FOLLOW ME. Then the first giant fire ant wriggles eagerly into the house towards the alluring, familiar smell of its target.”
MURDER BUGS is a bit of a tough nut to crack when it comes to deciding which genre it belongs to. The back cover marketing blurb suggests it “is a fun mystery novel about an entomologist recruited to help the police catch a serial killer who uses insects as deadly weapons.” Well, that’s certainly accurate insofar as summarizing the plot in a single line is concerned but I’d stop a long, long way short of suggesting that there was anything even remotely “fun” about it. For my money, it’s a hard core horror and far future sci-fi combo that uses a unique and quite gruesome series of murders as the underlying motivation.
In my experience, the plot details were entirely unique, entertaining, and even informative – insects, insect habits, and their chemicals and toxic venoms as a murder weapon; the state of scientific research in the field of entomology; oversized insects created by DNA manipulation; and (get this one!) use of recombinant DNA techniques to create an insect-human chimera that added notions of rational human thinking and the trace of human emotions to the more instinctive behaviour of insects such as ants, scorpions, and centipedes. I was even impressed to discover that, without interrupting the story flow for even a moment, author Coakley had managed to insert a brief info-dump style sidebar essay on the behaviour and treatment of a normal human herpes simplex virus and its tendency to jump out of hiding when the carrier is under stress (and having been a carrier for most of my life, I know ALL about how it comes and goes in a most irritating fashion!)
Last but not least, I was pleased to note that the novel’s setting was my very own hometown, Hamilton, Ontario, and I commend Coakley on getting the geographic details absolutely spot on. Getting a visual image of the story’s events through the entire length of the novel was an added bonus.
I’m happy to recommend MURDER BUGS as a worthy addition to the world of horror and sci-fi by another Canadian author who deserves a wider readership. Well done, Mr Coakley.
Paul Weiss
October 5, 2022
This horror, mystery, thriller, love story will be loved by a lot of people out there. If you like Cronenburg movies in the way the body and its limits is a point of exploration of existence, experience, and love, then this book is for you. I won't say anything else you have to read it. I would suggest giving it a few chapters before making a decision about whether to keep going. Once you are far enough in, you will not be able to put it down. I personally will not watch Cronenburg anymore, so I found the novel very uncomfortable to read. Yet note that I did not stop reading it. I'm giving it 5 stars for the audience who hears the name "Cronenburg" and gets super excited. And, for film people looking for IP, this would make an outstanding movie that I would not go see, LOL, but everyone else would!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews