Dead Man’s Grave
Neil Lancaster
Neil Lancaster is a former Military Police officer and Metropolitan Police detective, and so, as a writer of police procedurals myself, I was excited to read something by somebody who really knows what he is talking about!
Dead Man’s Grave is the first in a new series starring DS Max Cragie, a former Metropolitan Police detective who relocates from London to Scotland, after an armed operation goes wrong.
The book starts with the discovery of a grave by the head of one of Scotland’s most notorious crime families, inscribed with the ominous words ‘This Grave Can Never Be Opened‘ . The murder of the crime boss uncovers a blood feud dating back to the 1890s and leads to the unmasking of a corruption conspiracy at the heart of Police Scotland.
As you’d expect from a man with Lancaster’s experience, the book is packed with authentic police procedure, but more importantly, it’s a damned good read! The plot is complex, with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Several times throughout the book, the story seems to be heading for a conclusion, but Lancaster throws in a sudden swerve that takes the story off in a different direction, until it finally reaches an explosive and satisfying conclusion.
From the outset, the characters leap off the page; from Cragie’s gloriously foul-mouthed boss DI Ross Fraser, to the sparky DC Janie Calder, they are all expertly realised. Cragie and Calder make for a compelling duo, with just enough revealed about their backstory to hint that the series has legs.
Dead Man’s Grave is the first in a new series starring DS Max Cragie, a former Metropolitan Police detective who relocates from London to Scotland, after an armed operation goes wrong.
The book starts with the discovery of a grave by the head of one of Scotland’s most notorious crime families, inscribed with the ominous words ‘This Grave Can Never Be Opened‘ . The murder of the crime boss uncovers a blood feud dating back to the 1890s and leads to the unmasking of a corruption conspiracy at the heart of Police Scotland.
As you’d expect from a man with Lancaster’s experience, the book is packed with authentic police procedure, but more importantly, it’s a damned good read! The plot is complex, with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Several times throughout the book, the story seems to be heading for a conclusion, but Lancaster throws in a sudden swerve that takes the story off in a different direction, until it finally reaches an explosive and satisfying conclusion.
From the outset, the characters leap off the page; from Cragie’s gloriously foul-mouthed boss DI Ross Fraser, to the sparky DC Janie Calder, they are all expertly realised. Cragie and Calder make for a compelling duo, with just enough revealed about their backstory to hint that the series has legs.
In the interests of disclosure, Neil and I share the same publisher, which in part is how I obtained this advanced reader’s copy. But as I have always made clear, books only appear on this blog if I have genuinely enjoyed them and think others will also.
So I have no hesitation in making this a #RecommendedRead.
Dead Man’s Grave is available for pre-order from HQ Stories, and is published in July 2021.
