The Curator (Washington Poe)
'Dark, sharp and compelling' PETER JAMES'Fantastic' MARTINA COLE'Britain's answer to Harry Bosch' MATT HILTON'If you haven't read M W Craven yet, now is the time to start' Abir Mukherjee It's Christmas and a serial killer is leaving displayed body parts all over Cumbria. A strange message is left at each scene: #BSC6
Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency's Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were some victims anaesthetized, while others died in appalling agony? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren't even aware of? And why did the victims all take the same two weeks off work three years earlier?
And when a disgraced FBI agent gets in touch things take an even darker turn. Because she doesn't think Poe is dealing with a serial killer at all; she thinks he's dealing with someone far, far worse - a man who calls himself the Curator.
And nothing will ever be the same again . . .
Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency's Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were some victims anaesthetized, while others died in appalling agony? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren't even aware of? And why did the victims all take the same two weeks off work three years earlier?
And when a disgraced FBI agent gets in touch things take an even darker turn. Because she doesn't think Poe is dealing with a serial killer at all; she thinks he's dealing with someone far, far worse - a man who calls himself the Curator.
And nothing will ever be the same again . . .
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Community Reviews
Well another fast-food crime novel; enjoyable enough but ultimately unsatisfying. Let's start with the good points, the leads are likeable if hardly believable and Craven keeps the storyline moving along quite briskly. It's hokum but decent quality hokum
But. Many of the sins of the genre are here. A ludicrous (albeit ingenious) plot - the denouement is particularly underwhelming; everything skillfully orchestrated by the usual mastermind serial killer; and murder seen as a jigsaw puzzle, with the victims (and indeed suspects) just wooden pieces. The main issue here for me is that of tone. Though not billed as a comic novel, there is a jokiness running through that often jars with the brutality of the crimes as though it (and the reader) is not sure what it's supposed to be. The jokes are often rather good, it's just I wonder what they're doing in this book.
But. Many of the sins of the genre are here. A ludicrous (albeit ingenious) plot - the denouement is particularly underwhelming; everything skillfully orchestrated by the usual mastermind serial killer; and murder seen as a jigsaw puzzle, with the victims (and indeed suspects) just wooden pieces. The main issue here for me is that of tone. Though not billed as a comic novel, there is a jokiness running through that often jars with the brutality of the crimes as though it (and the reader) is not sure what it's supposed to be. The jokes are often rather good, it's just I wonder what they're doing in this book.
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