A review by burns_cheadle
Dead Ground by M.W. Craven

4.0

4.5 Stars: highly recommended for fans of fast-paced, character-driven crime fiction. This is the second Mike Craven book I read (for obscure reasons I started in the middle of the Washington Poe series with The Curator), and I am now a certified fan of this marvellous series. Craven does a brilliant job of developing vivid and engaging characters, setting them up against unimaginable terrors and then weaving in just enough side-splitting hilarity to ease the tension. Tilly Bradshaw, in particular, is nothing but pure, naïve, guileless joy. Sure, Craven occasionally "repurposes" memorable phrases from previous books ("his hands were like bunches of bananas and his knuckles were like walnuts" also popped up in The Curator), but personally I could care less—it's a good line and the editors should have caught it anyhow. No more time for writing a review—I am on to The Botanist (Washington Poe #5) as quickly as possible!