A review by booksrockcal
Dead Man's Grave by Neil Lancaster

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh my gosh I absolutely loved this book. It’s a crime novel, a dark thriller, and a police procedural all at once. And it is set in the Scottish Highlands and Glasgow. The book begins when two police officers in Scotland are called to investigate a murder in a graveyard in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. It turns out the murder is part of a Scottish blood feud going back to the 19th century. And the murder is connected to Scotland’s biggest crime family whose success is assured by the crooked (bent in Scots) police officers who support their drug trade and murderous schemes. When Max Craigie, a former Army officer and Met Police officer in London who has moved home to Scotland and joined Police Scotland begins investigating he is at first stymied by those bent police officers seeking to stop the investigation but eventually he cracks the case in a page turning mystery that had me staying up late to finish. I liked that the book did not change the Scots words for American readers. I heard about this book from Fabled bookshop- this will not be Neil Lancaster book I read.