Dead Ground by M. W. Craven

Detective Sergeant Washington Poe is in court, fighting eviction from his beloved and isolated croft, when he is summoned to a backstreet brothel in Carlisle where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat. Poe is confused – he hunts serial killers and this appears to be a straightforward murder-by-pimp – but his attendance was requested personally, by the kind of people who prefer to remain in the shadows.

As Poe and the socially awkward programmer Tilly Bradshaw delve deeper into the case, they are faced with seemingly unanswerable questions: despite being heavily vetted for a high-profile job, why does nothing in the victim’s background check out? Why was a small ornament left at the murder scene – and why did someone on the investigation team steal it? And what is the connection to a flawlessly executed bank heist three years earlier, a heist where nothing was taken…

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I’ve said it before, and will undoubtedly say it again, but I love this series. While I was for some unknown reason reluctant when the series first appeared – despite several of you loving it! – I did find my way to them eventually and haven’t looked back since. It’s a cliché, but Poe and Bradshaw really do feel like old friends now and it’s always a pleasure to revisit them.

Dead Ground is the fourth novel in the series, and while it’s not quite my favourite, I really enjoyed it. The case is as brilliantly complex as I’ve come to expect as a man is found beaten to death in a brothel, his murder soon linked to a bank heist in which nothing was taken. It’s a real puzzle and while I was able to work out some of what was going on from the clues provided, I can’t claim to have solved the crime or worked out the motive. The team soon find links to the war in Afghanistan and I felt that this element of the narrative was very well handled. Craven avoids glorifying warfare and sensitively highlights the impact on the families of those who die in such conflicts.

Washington Poe is an absolutely brilliant character. He gives lone wolf vibes, and yet once you get to know him, you realise that’s not really the case. He’s happy to work with others provided they do their bit and don’t get in his way. This really comes to the fore in this novel as Poe has to work with both MI5 and the FBI. Special Agent Melody Lee of the FBI was introduced in The Curator and it’s great to see her in action in this novel – she’s every bit as wonderful as I expected from her introduction in the previous novel, and she and Poe work well together. I really hope that we see more of her. His MI5 handler, Hannah Finch, is another matter entirely, and I loved seeing Poe give her the runaround when needed. She does prove to have her uses, but I expect the two won’t stay in touch by choice.

What makes these novels stand out from the crowd is the absolutely brilliant but socially awkward Tilly Bradshaw. While Poe takes a more traditional approach to an investigation, Tilly comes at these crimes from a different angle, using data, analysis, and some absolutely superb coding skills. I love that Poe and Tilly have become such great friends throughout these novels, and have enjoyed seeing her develop and grow in confidence. I’ll also admit that I love the unintentional humour of Tilly’s comments which add a lighter note to the grittiness of these novels.

There’s never a dull moment in these books, and Dead Ground is no exception as Craven keeps the pace and tension high with short, sharp chapters that really do make you want to keep reading long into the night. I’m already looking forward to reading the next two novels in this series, The Botanist and The Mercy Chair, although I am trying to pace myself and not just binge read the rest of the series ahead of the publication of book seven, The Final Vow, currently set for release in August.

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The Washington Poe series:

1. The Puppet Show
2. Black Summer
3. The Curator
4. Dead Ground
5. The Botanist
6. The Mercy Chair