three graves full – jamie mason

Three Graves Full

I was lucky to be able to get this as an Advance Review Copy.

Jason Getty is a quiet unassuming man – softly spoken and mild-mannered widower of a wife that he adored.  That’s why he finds it so hard to come to terms that there is a body slowly decomposing in his back garden – a body that HE put there.

That’s why, when there are workmen digging up his garden, he nervously awaits the inevitable call to “see what they’ve uncovered”.  However, when he finally manages to control his quaking legs and walks out of his back door, he finds them staring aroound a whole in the ground, not at the back, near the fence, but in a flower bed, right near the house.

Jason joins them, confused, and finds himself staring at a human skeleton.  But this isn’t HIS skeleton! Who the hell has buried a body in his garden.  As the book title suggests, another body is soon found, that also isn’t the one that Jason is accountable for!

Just as Jason had thought that he had to finally face the music for what he had done, he now wonders if there is a chance that he may be able to get away with it after all.

I loved this book as I loved the disparate nature of the main characters, that all came together so imaginatively.  There is a fantastic drip-feed of information that kept me turning the pages (well, clicking my kindle button) well after I should have been asleep!

It is a brave author who introduces one of their main characters as a murderer, and then has to work so hard to ensure that the reader does not make a snap judgement of them.  It was also unusual to feel on the side of both the police AND the person that they were trying to apprehend.

I can imagine it making a film with very ‘squidgy’ gross parts to it.  One section especially comes to mind, “There wasn’t enough firm substance left in the pile to technically fall on Harris, so the finale was more of a splashy dive into him.“ Eww!

There are a few parts that I highlighted as there were some really lovely phrases used.  And one of the best characters is that of Maggie, the faithful dog of one of the detectives – she’s fab!

It has a Coen brothers / Carl Hiassen, Christopher Brookmyre feel to it, and was a great romping read.

Three Graves Full will be published on 12th February 2013.

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