RogerBW's Blog

The Deepest Grave, Harry Bingham 21 August 2020

2015 police procedural mystery, sixth in the Fiona Griffiths series. An archaeologist is found in her home, beheaded and transfixed with Iron Age spears.

Of course the police immediately assume that it's a local nutter. And of course the plot is far more complex than that; one of the things I like about this series is that it never falls back on the lazy crime writer's trope of "a loony did it for their own mad reasons", but there's always a plan behind it.

This time, it's not a plan which makes an awful lot of sense in terms of the real world (and there are some specific problems where reality outruns Bingham's knowledge of it), but it is a plan that is pleasingly baroque and lends an air of strangeness to the otherwise aggressively mundane setting. It lifts what could have been a kitchen-sink drama of mundane police work into something rather more fun. As a reader of SF I'm happy to grant the one implausibility in order to enjoy the story.

"Bleddyn, mate, you've no bloody idea what she wants. None at all. Neither have I. But if you want a word of advice from an officer who's had to work with this one in the past, then just give her her head. A little freedom of action. Only a little, mind, because before you know it she'll be running off God knows where doing God knows what. But if she wants to look at Iron Age killings or, I don't know, old hill forts or whatever, then let her do it."

There's the requisite boss who doesn't get it, and rather more vigilantism than we've seen from Fi before, but both of these fit into the story better than they might have; meanwhile, if you recognise a particular word then a specific reveal will be far less surprising than Bingham means it to be, but I don't suppose most people will.

For me, a bit of a step up from book five. Series recommended by Gus. Another book is apparently expected (but it has been for some time).

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Dead House, The | Series: Fiona Griffiths

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1