ReLit Long Shortlist, 2015

Savour is the follow-up to Bateman’s award-winning debut novel, Nondescript Rambunctious, and the second book in a trilogy about a dark, suspected serial killer named Oliver. Savour retains the dark threads of sociopathic depravity that ran through the debut novel, but is once again tempered with a tender ray of humanity. Lizzy is streetwise, yet fragile, and her desperate journey is both uplifting and heartbreaking.

Lizzy lives in the shadier part of London, far from her hometown in Scotland. In the three years since she fled, following the disappearance of her mother, she has escaped her prison of drugs and crime, only to live in constant fear of being found by dark figures from her past.

She is unaware, however, that the predacious Oliver watches over her from the shadows. She belongs to him now, as he battles with his need to protect her – and the burning desire to take her soul.

Praise for Savour:

“… a unique and unsettling perspective … The narrative development, driven by character rather than expected machinations of the plot, is a genuine pleasure… Savour contains enough information about the events of Nondescript Rambunctious to stand on its own, but reading the first novel will bring greater depth to the experience and well prepare the reader for the final volume of the series, which can’t come soon enough.” (Quill & Quire)

“Both novels explore sociopathic depravity and contemporary society’s desensitization to violence.” (BC BookWorld)

Praise for Jackie’s previous novel Nondescript Rambunctious:

“Vancouver’s Jackie Bateman draws on her Scottish roots for a bewitching first novel that transforms from gentle domestic comedy into gripping suspense.” (Prairie Fire)