A literary crime thriller from a mysterious new voice in Atlantic fiction
She knew her process. Knew the itch in her nerves. The cold hardness creeping in. She was pulling on the killer's skin too fast. Something wild flickered across her heart. When she fully donned it, there wouldn't be room for anyone else but the killer and her.

When a small east coast town falls prey to a series of shocking murders, city homicide detective Kes Morris is called in to lead the case with the aid of the local precinct. As usual, she's the only woman in the room, and must draw on the lessons passed down by her detective father, a furtive and dangerous practice of going deep inside a killer's mind to put on their skin.
What Kes uncovers is a web of gruesome crimes reaching back decades, and a town that may have been complicit. With a reputation of being hard, relentless and unbending to authority, she finds herself on the hunt for a killer seeking brutal retribution, someone who takes sadistic pleasure in the death and wants their work seen. The farther she follows the trail, the more the line blurs between guilt and innocence, predator and prey.
An atmospheric thriller with complex characters, Beneath Her Skin signals the emergence of a bold new voice in crime fiction and a dark and thrilling new series.

This is C. S. Porter’s debut novel. A solitary writer who lives near the Atlantic Ocean, it is rumoured he or she was once involved in crime investigation; that Porter suffered an immense personal loss; that they came from the US or UK, or grew up in these parts. Age unknown. The author has never been interviewed. 

C.S. Porter's profile page

"A truly compelling mystery about a series of grisly murders in a lovely east coast town. The writing is superb, the novel tightly plotted. The reader is swept along by the expert pacing and mounting suspense as the bodies pile up and suspects emerge from the shadows. Detective Kes Morris becomes conflicted as she closes in on the killers, and we understand why, when she finds evidence of unspeakable events in the town's past. Porter has created an authentic, fully-realized character in Detective Morris, and we'll want to hear from her again."
— Anne Emery, Arthur Ellis Award–winning author of Though the Heavens Fall

Porter paints visual pictures with their words, letting the imagery soak into your brain like an expanding blood stain, letting you explore and understand it in your own ways, even as the story rockets along.
— Themindreels.com

An atmospheric thriller from debut author C.S. Porter.
— Crimefictionlover.com

"Fast-paced and thought-provoking.....While Beneath Her Skin is billed as a debut novel by a writer even more mysterious than the whodunit they wrote, it reads more like an offering from an author at their peak...."

"What is absolutely certain, as one is swept into this delicious, moving, completely satisfying gem of a noir detective novel, is they are not a rookie writer. Skillfully carrying the reader along as fast as a riptide, this novel is superbly paced, polished to perfection, and leaves the reader breathless for the next in this series." — The Miramichi Reader
https://miramichireader.ca/2022/03/beneath-her-skin-by-c-s-porter/

An atmospheric thriller with complex characters, Beneath Her Skin signals the emergence of a bold new voice in crime fiction and a dark and thrilling new series.
— Truecrimesfiles.com

With Kes, Porter has created a fallible yet fascinating enigmatic character - why does she need opioids to dull her psychic pain, where is her ex and their daughter, and why doesn't she have custody? - who deserves a series, or at least a second novel. — Zoomer magazine

"A twisty, taut murder mystery."

"I was struck by its economical prose, breakneck pace and intricate plot. With Kes, Porter has created a fallible yet fascinating enigmatic character who deserves a series, or at least a second novel."
https://www.everythingzoomer.com/zed-book-club/2022/03/18/beneath-her-skin/
— Zoomer, Zed Book Club pick

"Porter paints visual pictures with their words, letting the imagery soak into your brain like an expanding blood stain, letting you explore and understand it in your own ways, even as the story rockets along."
—
The Mind Reels

"My goodness, this is an extraordinary work....A stunning debut novel.....Utterly brilliant. Whoever you are, C. S., and whatever inside your head takes you to such dark places, go there again, and again. You're good."
— Winnipeg Free Press

"In a season of 500-plus page behemoths, this slight book may get overlooked. That's a pity because it's a tough, carefully constructed mystery with a great setting and a great female detective. In short, for a debut, it's a sure winner and deserving of attention.
The story takes place in rural Nova Scotia in an idyllic setting where a particularly cruel murder has happened. Big town homicide detective Kes Morris is summoned to lead the case. Kes is a woman of many parts, few of them quiet. In addition to smarts and pluck, she's got major anger issues. Just what drives her to succeed is part of the plotline and, since it's clear the author intends a series, not all the questions get answered.
Before Kes can get her team together, there's another grisly murder and it's clear that the killer has no intention of stopping. Kes begins to analyze the method and mind of the murderer and to dig into the town's secrets. Soon it's clear that these deaths are recent manifestations of gruesome crimes going back decades. Just what happened and to whom? That question will keep readers glued to the page right until the end.
With a solid story, I don't think we need the added "mystery" of who C. S. Porter is. Male? Female? Who cares? Let's just hope he, she, they have another Kes Morris book in the works."
— The Globe & Mail (Page-turning thrillers to keep the chills in your books, January 21/22)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-page-turning-thrillers-to-keep-the-chills-in-your-books/

"C. S. Porter is a pseudonym for an exceptionally imaginative Canadian crime writer who sets their story in an unnamed rural area of the Maritimes. The principal cop of the piece, a woman, is a Homicide Detective named Kes Morris despatched from the nearest big city (unnamed of course) to solve a particularly diabolical killing. Under Kes's firm investigative hand, the first murder is revealed as the opening shot, so to speak, in the work of a serial killer. Strictly speaking, the book is a police procedural, but it's Kes who calls the sleuthing shots for the rest of the team, all of them men. She's a marvellous character, in theory open to friendship, but deliberately solitary, not allowing anyone to “crack through the tough façade that lets her do her job.' And a heck of an inspired job it is."
— Toronto Star
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/reviews/2021/10/19/four-new-crime-fiction-novels-entertain-with-atmosphere-coincidence-diabolical-murder-and-climaxes-of-shakespearean-proportions.html

"The writing is first-rate, the novel tightly plotted. The reader is swept along by the expert pacing and the mounting suspense. Who is killing these people and why? As Kes digs into the town's history, she uncovers horrific secrets in the town's dark past."
— 49th Shelf (Anne Emery)
https://49thshelf.com/Blog/2021/09/23/Crime-Fiction-True-Crime-Historical-Mysteries-and-History