I will return to give a more detailed glowing review when God gives me 54 hours in a day. It is such a joy to read a captivating thriller with two compelling characters in Tilly and Poe that are awash with depth, fascination, capability and humour. I am already looking forward with great anticipation to the next in the series! Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.ĭead Ground is the latest in the spellbinding crime thriller series from Mike Craven. I loved it, although I admit to having a few niggles, like the over the top representation of teenager Emily, and I wasn't completely convinced by the final reveal either at the end. With twists and turns coming thick and fast, the complex plotting and the stellar characters of Poe and Tilly, particularly Tilly, guarantee that this crime read will become a favourite with fans, old and new. This is a compulsive read that had me turning the pages as quickly as possible, and I didn't stop until I reached the end. Once again Craven provides the usual thrills and spills galore, along with the trademark humour and banter between Poe and Tilly, now including Melody, and recurring characters such as Estelle Doyle. Poe and Tilly find themselves facing one of their most challenging cases that including taking in deadly events in Afghanistan, a visit to Southampton, and a ruthless killer on the loose. A ceramic rat stolen from the crime scene leads the team to a curious failed bank heist carried out 3 years ago by men in James Bond masks, nothing was taken, but left behind in one of the security boxes is a identical rat, along with the shot dead body of one of the robbers. Strangely his body was discovered in a unprepossessing part of the town, in a temporary pop up brothel, how would a visitor unfamiliar with the area possibly know of its existence? His face has been bashed in by a baseball bat and the PM carried out by the esteemed pathologist, Estelle Doyle, reveals he was tortured horrifically prior to being killed. The victim is Oliver Bierman, an ex-military Brit hero living in the US, running a helicopter service with his partner, the American Patrick McDaid, flying in delegates to the summit. The pair are joined by FBI Agent Melody Lee, now vindicated and reinstated after events in The Curator, and representing American interests at the summit and MI5's Hannah Finch. Despite, or perhaps even because of his inability to follow orders, he and Tilly are to look into a gruesome murder that has national security implications for a international trade summit to take place at the heavily guarded Scarness Hotel.

Poe is in court fighting not to lose his isolated Herdwick croft, being ably defended by the genius Tilly, only to be urgently picked up by MI5 operatives. The award winning MW Craven's latest addition to his moreish DS Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw, from the Serious Crime Analysis (SCAS) unit of the National Crime Agency (NCA), series has been eagerly anticipated, it is a fast paced and utterly riveting novel of retribution, looted antiquities and murders in the past and present.

Deathground