Description
‘Fantastic’ Martina Cole
‘Dark, sharp and compelling’ Peter James
‘A thrilling curtain raiser for what looks set to be a great new series’ Mick Herron
Detective Sergeant Washington Poe is in court, fighting eviction from his beloved and isolated croft, when he is summoned to a backstreet brothel in Carlisle where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat. Poe is confused – he hunts serial killers and this appears to be a straightforward murder-by-pimp – but his attendance was requested personally, by the kind of people who prefer to remain in the shadows.
As Poe and the socially awkward programmer Tilly Bradshaw delve deeper into the case, they are faced with seemingly unanswerable questions: despite being heavily vetted for a high-profile job, why does nothing in the victim’s background check out? Why was a small ornament left at the murder scene – and why did someone on the investigation team steal it? And what is the connection to a flawlessly executed bank heist three years earlier, a heist where nothing was taken . . .
Praise for M W Craven:
‘A brutal and thrilling page turner’ Natasha Harding, The Sun
‘A powerful thriller from an explosive new talent.
Tightly plotted, and not for the faint hearted!’David Mark
‘A gripping start to a much anticipated new series’ Vaseem Khan
‘Satisfyingly twisty and clever and the flashes of humour work well to offer the reader respite from the thrill of the read.’ Michael J. Malone
‘Nothing you’ve ever read will prepare you for the utterly unique Washington Poe’ Keith Nixon
Anna Kierczynska (verified owner) –
He. Did. It. Again.
I am a big fan of Tilly and Poe series, and every single year I think that a given book in the series is the best and I don’t know how Mike can write anything better… and then he writes even more brilliant story! And yep, he did it again.
“Dead Ground” is very different to the previous books. Poe and Tilly don’t chase a serial killer, discovering fresh bodies, worrying that the next victim can be found any minute. This time thanks to Tilly’s fantastic brain they discover that the killer has indeed killed in the past, and that he’s probably about to do it again.
The book starts with Tilly and Poe in the court where Tilly smashes with her intelligence the city legal representative who wants destroy Poe’s house. A fantastic start that made me laugh!
In “Dead Ground” we have a high level murder, which requires a collaboration with FBI agent Melody Lee again (this time in person!) and a secret British organisation…
The main focus is on the crime that happened in the past, without solving it, there’s no way to solve today’s murder. And there are many powerful and resourceful people who don’t want the sensitive topics become public. Even Tilly can’t find information online, which is unusual. Someone is very good in hiding and removing the data.
Whenever Tilly speaks, she makes me laugh. I am so #TeamTilly and I want more and more of her in the books!
This time, the fourth instalment is a Poe story. He was the main character and he even took some steps without telling Tilly (not cool, Poe!), and thanks to his military background he noticed details that were missed by everyone else. His past experience was essential in solving the crimes.
I feel like it’s a new level of writing, I feel that plotting the solving a crime years after it was committed is much harder than plotting a story where fresh bodies are dropping every 50 pages giving a new evidence.
Enjoyable, fantastically written and a must read for everyone.
Order it, lovely people!