The Naturalist

The Naturalist The Naturalist 1 by Andrew Mayne is a book I really enjoyed It fed my eager science side of my brain, the mystery, and the side that likes a good scare Brilliantly written with so many little things that had to be thought throughwonderful Going in my favorites for sure Lots of suspense, action, mystery, and the science part of it was fun too I love these kind of mysteries.

You can read this and all of my reviews at Lit Wit Wine Dine.Note I originally posted that I was giving this book 3.5 stars Upon further consideration, I ve given it 3.75.There are so many things I loved about The Naturalist First, there s our main man, Professor Theo Cray He s a computational biologist So basically he s a little nerdy, very smart, and, because he s now been drawn in to a murder investigation, a bit of a rogue Magnum, P.I I m not one for bookish crushes but if I were, he d be a [...]

Definitely the most addictive read of my year so far, borne out by the fact that I started this last night then finished it this morning no messing I literally only put it down to sleep.For a start how wonderful to find something a bit different I can t say I ve read a book before where the main protagonist is a Computational Biologist the author makes this sound entirely fascinating and if you have a love of finding out small random facts like I am you ll love the little titbits you find throug [...]

4.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum bibliosanctum 2017 10 23 I spent a day last week stumbling around in a sleep deprived stupor because I had been up late the night before, and it was all this book s fault since I d refused to put it down until I was finished Totally worth it, though Talk about a page turner The Naturalist was exactly what I wanted out of a mystery thriller fascinating, addictive, and dramatic in all the best ways It also captivated the science geek in me by featuring a protago [...]

Stereotypical protagonist, stereotypical antagonist, plot holes galore, interesting, if questionable, science, and first person narrative in the present tense rather than past tense An interesting read except for disappointing final chapter or two.Personal rant I hate plot summaries that end with a question Will he be able to do this before that happens Makes me lose interest in the book Stop Just stop.

I loved this book, and though there were some flaws they had soft edges to them In short though Pros Michael Crichton esque A lot of authority here and you ll be smarter after reading it I alternated between this and Yuval Noah Harari s Homo Deus A Brief History of Tomorrow, and didn t feel bad about jumping away from Harari s non fiction A page turner beyond a page turner Great use of data and data trends as a way of tracking the bad guys Likeable character he has flaws, but they make you like [...]

Enjoyable readThe geekiness of the main character appealed to me Normally I do not like books written in the first person but this time I think it actually works for the story The many short chapters sort of chopped up my reading flow though I do think I will seek out some of this author s other books because overall I was pretty impressed with the handling of the characters and storyline.

I was pleased to choose this for my September Kindle First but in the end, I must admit to being quite happy I hadn t paid for it It had stereotypical cliched cookie cutter people with inane flat conversations and a story full of plot holes and dangling threads IT WAS ALL TOO EASY What makes this doubly disappointing is that it actually started out quite well, but it began going downhill at about halfway and by the end had degenerated into madness If it had been a hard copy vs a digital copy, I [...]

3.5 5 starsIf you enjoy the tv channel Investigation Discovery or shows like Forensic Files, then Andrew Mayne s The Naturalist is the perfect read for you It is a quick, dark read that doesn t sugar coat the plot, while not explicitly getting too grotesque The story starts off with Dr Theo Cray being questioned about the disappearance of one of his past students, Juniper, who police claim has a direct link to Dr Cray After routine questioning, police confirm Juniper s death as an accidental bea [...]

Really Awful The author was a magician and probably good at that job A believable story teller, he is not Too many quips, too much attitude, too much pseudo scientific facts mar this story On the very first murder he forgot to tell you what happened to the boyfriend of the murdered girl who was camping with her Too much blood to be believable Please go back to being a magician.

Remarkably original thriller about Dr Theo Cray, a mild mannered science professor on a personal mission to prove the existence of a human serial killer who he believes, frames bears for his kills As ridiculous as that sounds, it makes for a truly mesmerizing thriller that I was unable to put down This is the first book I ve read by this gifted author and certainly will not be my last.

Wow I haven t had that much fun reading a book in a long, long time Don t get me wrong this serial killer thrillerrills It has it s seriously creepy, tense and edge of your seat moments but it was also extremely fun to read yeah, I m a little wacked , perfectly paced and balanced This book follows Theo, the quintessential, socially awkward, and common sense lacking scientist, as he gets caught up in the hunt for the serial killer responsible for the death of his former student And when I say cau [...]

Deciding to read this one was a total shot in the dark as I was without a book waiting for the library to re open after the holiday break with books I had on hold My September First Read email from came and I immediately selected this based on the primer sentence alone Past selections of the First Read benefit have not gone well, but this one started out as a surprising exception The main character in this book is the total opposite of a traditional protagonist he s a socially awkward wuss brain [...]

As a lifelong biology writer and amateur naturalist, the protagonist in this novel rings extremely hollow The author claims to love science and I ve no doubt he does but he should have spent time in the research and editing phase making sure his protagonist sounded like an actual scientist and not just a weird Big Bang Theory esque parody of one.The core conceit isn t a bad one, but it comes across as hackneyed in execution.

This one starts of with a bangep in the woods late at night and boy is it eerie The novel then jumps to our protagonist and Mayne wastes not one word getting right into the meat of the plot with this unique and interesting read While it is at first, a slower read and generous with the pacing, Mayne does a great job of explaining the biology and scientific aspects of this readeven for someone like me who passed Biology by the skin of their teeth While the pacing is questionable in the beginning o [...]

SurpriseThis is what storytelling is all about I was entertained, puzzled, educated, surprised, and satisfied Reading is a pleasure when you are sure it is time well spent Do yourself a favor and spend some time here I am getting another one of Andrew Mayne s works immediately.

Really fun exciting read Theo Cray is a research professor on a field trip in Montana, a bear attack to an old students leads to an exciting story.

The beginning of the book started off a little slow and I found myself poking holes in this plot left and right But the mystery drew me in once dead bodies were found This book is a fast paced thriller with an interesting main character I was wanting to ditch work all week so I could finish reading it.

To see all of my book related content, check out my blog bit 2zzVt0RThis book is addictive and fast paced and a little bit creepy, with its success certainly lying in its intriguing and compelling mystery Theo Cray, a university lecturer, goes to a litany of crazy lengths to solve the mystery at the book s centre and find out what or who killed his former student Along the way, he discovers and victims to the thing lurking in the forrest and no matter how loudly he tries to tell the police, he [...]

The Naturalist read as a companion to those wacky procedural investigative shows you often see on CBS Take your pick the Mentalist, Numbers, and others where one person or group of persons have some innate ability to see something others don t Lie to Me is another example If you buy the premise that, one, the character has those abilities and two, he would not be summarily arrested for interfering with an ongoing investigation, you could enjoy this book The problem is there is no real surprise I [...]

First Sentence Red and blue police lights splash off the chipped chrome letters spelling ICE MACHINE Professor Theo Cray uses computational science and applies it to biology, including the study of DNA On a field trip, staying in a small town in northern Montana, he is taken in for police questioning related to recent deaths of women One set of photos stands out A young woman, one of Theo s former students, had been involved Theo ends up with a vial of her blood that also contains a strand of ha [...]

Warning, I am going to post spoilers If you don t mind or want a good laugh, keep reading, if you don t, just save yourself time and don t read this book Wow, where to begin This book was so bad I literally laughed out loud several times while reading it It started off with an interesting premise, and the science parts were interesting, I ll give it that But the implausibility was ridiculous Extremely educated, socially inept scientist who is an invincible superman by the end of the book A giant [...]

This book is a rollercoaster ride from beginning to end I didn t want to put it down Theo Cray is a bumbling, brilliant main character with human flaws I can t wait to read the next one

There s a twilight border of science fiction, sometimes known as lab lit It features science scientists, but the science is current than speculative and one aspect of The Naturalist falls into this category Its protagonist, Professor Theo Cray, is a computational biologist, who gets sucked into a murder enquiry and uses the tools of his trade to crack the case.You could argue that Dan Brown s Robert Langdon books fit in the same category, but unfortunately Brown gets so much of the science so h [...]

Review THE NATURALIST by Andrew Mayne THE NATURALIST Book 1 Professor Theo Cray is champion I loved this book, and I can t wait for the next Professor of bioinformatics at the University of Texas Austin Ph.D MIT , Theo is a genius in systems and in computer programming, and the usual feckless absent minded scientist, lacking consummate social skills In Montana studying ecosystems, he is distraught to learn a former student has been killed in a forest, seemingly in a bear attack Then Theo is accu [...]

4.579Oh wow I really enjoyed this Review to come

I enjoyed how this book evolved It was changing direction constantly in a good way Glad to see it is 1 as I truly wanted to find out I hold a BS degree and understood much of the science in this book It made me want to have Theo be successful in having someone take him seriously and actually try to understand his logic and science in his observations I hope there is a sequel

Great thrillerReally enjoyed this Full of interesting facts told in ways that do not bore Not so much a mystery you sort of understand what s happening from the beginning but it s still a roller coaster ride to read Likable lead character I m looking forward to reading again about to see if there is a book two out yet

Eh, I wasn t too enthusiastic about it There s a lot of unnecessary blood shed and the protagonist came off as a little too all knowing The ending was good the killer hiding in plain sight was believable I might try another book by the author.

This book got me breathing like i am being followed in the woods That s how much involved I got and how much I was enjoying this book I love the books that gives you mystery and tid bits of science unchecked science, on my part