The Naturalist

Theo Cray is a scientist. His field of expertise is bioinformatics, a cross between computational science and biology. He even developed a software program designed to sift through thousands of pieces of information and find patterns. Theo becomes involved in a case of the death of a former student of his. Because of the nature of the attack, the police eventually dismiss it as a bear attack. Theo begins to dig deeper and finds there are a lot of similar attacks over the last thirty years. This is a lot more sinister than a rogue grizzly. Theo will have to use all of his scientific knowledge and his program to discover the patterns to find out how many people have actually been killed and hopefully find and stop the killer before he kills someone else he’s close to. And so The Naturalist takes you on a thrill ride from beginning to end.

I’m not allowed enough words to accurately describe how much I loved this book. It is astounding to me that it’s written by a magician. This guy definitely knows his science. It was like a crime thriller wrapped up in a science fiction novel, minus the fiction part. Andrew Mayne writes novels very much like Michael Crichton, which I hope he takes as a compliment and, judging by his reference to Jurassic Park, he will. Theo Cray is meant to be socially awkward, and maybe that’s why I liked him, but he was a fantastic and fascinating character. The whole plot was incredible. You have to read this book. I don’t care what your preferences are, this is an amazing book and you should read it. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of Andrew Mayne before (sorry, sir!). He writes fantastic stories. I am definitely going to seek out more of his books. Did I mention you should read this? There is no reason not to. I am out of words, which probably isn’t a bad thing since I can’t stop writing fantastic and amazing. I’m starting to sound like a thesaurus. Seriously, read it.