I’m afraid I’m badly out of step with most other reviewers here, but I really didn’t think Dead Man’s Grave was much good. I tried it because it came with strong endorsements from Ian Rankin and Jane Casey, both of whose work I admire very much, but this is nowhere near their league.
DS Max Craigie has just moved back to Scotland after time in the Met. Craigie is endowed with a range of abilities and qualities which are verging on the superhuman; intelligent, empathetic, a street-tough boxer, ex-army with an extraordinary array of skills as a result, with an ESP-like ability to sense when he is being watched, and so bursting with integrity it’s a wonder it doesn’t give him a nosebleed. He becomes embroiled in an investigation into Scotland’s toughest gangland family which reveals deep corruption within Police Scotland. He sets out to bring the whole lot down – as he tells us very regularly.
It started off reasonably well, but began to pall as implausibilities and clichés mounted up. I wouldn’t dream of including spoilers, so you will have to guess for yourself whether, for example, Max is Taken Off The Case or whether there is a Tense One-To-One Climax In A Deserted Location From Which He Only Narrowly Escapes. I just didn’t find any of it believable; not the characters, not the way in which things developed and not the over-convenient way in which Max Gets The Better Of His Opponents.
On top of this, the writing wasn’t very good. Neil Lancaster will insist on spelling things out for us which he’s already implied, and peppering this laboured prose with stale usage and cliché. Lots of people need to get their ducks in a row, for example, and characters eyes are often filled with hate while others keep being gripped by resolve or determination. He insists on telling us all these things rather than showing us. What is obviously a joke or banter is invariably followed by a description of someone chuckling or of a smile spreading across their face to make sure we’ve got the point – and ruining any lightness which may be intended. Dialogue is often pretty clunky, with people telling each other things they already know or talking in a way which doesn’t ring true. People spontaneously explain their motivations in painstaking detail, which no-one in real life ever does. Sententious speeches crop up pretty regularly, presumably because we need to be reminded what splendidly upright people the good guys are. (Did I mention that Max is gripped by a determination to bring all the bad guys down?) Even the title makes little sense as a thriller – I mean, graves are supposed to be for the dead, aren’t they?
I’m sorry to be so critical, but I really didn’t get on with Dead Man’s Grave. I struggled to the end, but I won’t be bothering with DS Craigie again.
(My thanks to HQ Digital for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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