In A Bitten Plant by Liz Fyne, Camille is a farm girl. She has spent her life working with the soil and making crops flourish. When she gets the chance to use her expertise in a totally foreign environment, trying to cultivate plants in a soilless urban setting on a monumental scale, she is challenged, excited, and scared, but she decides it is a direction she wants to go. Not long after she arrives in the city, she is pulled into an alley by a man and violently assaulted. As the only victim of this criminal to have actually seen his face, her work with a police sketch artist will be critical to the successful apprehension of the perpetrator. The sketch artist Asher and his best friend, a medical examiner, Max, slowly but surely rebuild Camille’s confidence in herself and her ability to decide that she truly does want to live again and that living in permanent fear is not what she wants out of life.

A Bitten Plant is a salient lesson of the long-term and devastating effect that a violent crime can have on its victims, especially when there is nothing that the victim has done to encourage the perpetrator except to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Author Liz Fyne has created an interesting character in Camille. Although she is a country girl who came to the city, she is by no means an innocent young woman. She has had her share of relationships in the past, but the codependency she experiences with Asher and especially Max is a lifeline that allows her to survive the traumatic effects of the attack. I particularly appreciated the absolute terror that Camille experienced at the police lineup, knowing that as the only person to have seen the attacker’s face, it would be obvious to him who had identified him. The scene with the children in the library, where Camille takes part in a lecture explaining the nature and operation of the heart, was bittersweet in many ways, as it summed up Camille’s almost childish obsession with bodies and their constituent parts after the attack. This was a thought-provoking story from a victim’s perspective, and that made it such a powerful read. I highly recommend this book.

Liz Fyne’s novel, A Bitten Plant, follows a plant scientist named Camille Baker as she leaves her familiar life in Montana behind for a job at an aeroponic facility in a new city. Her new beginning turns into a nightmare when an unidentified man attacks her in an alleyway only a few days after her arrival, leaving two dollar bills behind at the crime scene. Trying to survive the aftermath, she forms a close bond with Asher Hall, a police sketch artist who guides her through memory retrieval sessions to map out the face of her attacker. Through Asher, she meets a medical examiner named Max, becoming very fascinated with human anatomy to regain control of her sense of safety and personal autonomy. Meanwhile, an eccentric building superintendent slowly develops a weird obsession with Asher’s cat, Harold, which eventually pushes the situation to a breaking point. In the end, will Camille manage to reclaim her life before the city swallows her whole?

Liz Fyne’s A Bitten Plant is a literary noir that grabbed my attention immediately. The author uses a descriptive writing style that fills the pages with specific, striking images of the city and the high-tech farm. The world-building is very detailed, matching the agricultural backdrop with the clinical offices of the police station. Fyne develops the main conflict with care, letting the threat of the serial attacker loom in the background while prioritizing the everyday interactions of the main trio. The pacing has a gentle but persistent pull, moving nicely throughout the investigation without ever losing the reader’s attention. Camille is a fascinating lead, and her interactions with the medical examiner provide a truly unique psychological journey. The danger sneaks up on you as the eccentric building superintendent becomes more and more unhinged. This is the ideal novel for anyone who wants an original, clever mystery with memorable personalities.