Grave's End (DS Alexandra Cupidi #3) by William Shaw
Genre: Crime fiction, Police procedural
Read: 2nd January 2022
Published: 23rd July 2020
★ 1 star
DESCRIPTION:
Protest. Rebel. Die
An unidentified body is found in a freezer.
No one seems to know or care who it is or who placed it there.
DS Alexandra Cupidi couldn't have realised that this bizarre discovery will be connected to the crisis in housing, the politics of environmentalism and specifically the protection given to badgers by the law. But there are dangerous links between these strange, reclusive, fiercely territorial creatures and the activism of Cupidi's teenage daughter Zoe and her friend Bill South, her colleague Constable Jill Ferriter's dating habits and long forgotten historic crimes of sexual abuse - and murder.
DS Alexandra Cupidi faces establishment corruption, class divide and environmental activism in this gripping new novel by a rising star of British crime fiction.
MY REVIEW:
When I first read the premise for this book, I thought it sounded intriguing. But upon reading it again just before starting, I was indifferent to it. And then when I started reading, I found myself wondering what on earth I was thinking when I requested it. Despite all the rave reviews, I had to let this one go as I just couldn't get into it and found it a little strange. Why, you may ask? Well...
The story begins with a unique, if not bewildering, viewpoint of a badger. Yes, you read that right. A badger. And in between the many other chapters, the badger's perspective is revisited throughout. I'm sorry but this was just too weird. I love animals and everything but I'm not not reading a fantasy or a children's book but crime fiction. With murder, crime and intrigue. But I could find nothing intriguing within the chapters I did manage to get through.
I didn't much take to the heroine of the series, DS Alexandra Cupidi, and her interaction with her younger colleague Jill Ferriter didn't particularly endear me to either woman either. I think probably the fact that I have not read anything else in the series thus far yet again I am finding myself walking into something that's already in full motion and I'm left there feeling lost and dazed...and thoroughly confused.
I'm sure if I trudged on with the book, it may have gotten better, but I have far too many books on my shelf to waste time on something I am clearly not enjoying. I wanted to like this book...I want to like all books I read...but sadly, we cannot like every book we read.
Unfortunately, GRAVE'S END is the first of my reads for 2022 and it did not begin with a bang...but rather more like a deflated balloon. But as so many others loved this book and this series, please don't take my word for it. I suggest you check it out for yourself...you may be surprised. You may love it. Or you may not. Who knows? Reading is subjective and we can't all like everything we read.
I do, however, loathe to leave negative reviews and it's not something I do lightly. I know that every book I read is someone's hard work...the research, the hours, the work they have put into each and every page...I appreciate that entirely. And I hate it when I leave a negative review but it is my honest opinion...and my opinion only.
I would like to thank #WilliamShaw, #Netgalley and #RiverRun for an ARC of #GravesEnd in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
He worked on Details magazine and remains a contributing editor there. For Details he spent a month in the Utah desert living with Stone Age survivalists, went undercover at cross burnings with the neo-Nazi Christian Identity Movement in Idaho, shot AK-47s with Zionist fundamentalists in upper New York State and spent a week staying at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center in Hollywood. He started his journalistic career as the Assistant Editor of the punk/goth magazine ZigZag. Since then his work has appeared in publications around the world, including The Times and The Independent. His first book, Travellers, was an oral history of Britain's New Age travellers. That was followed in 1994 by Spying in Guru Land, an account of a year spent as a member of several British religious cults.
His book, Small Ads, based on his Observer column, appeared in 2005 as A Superhero for Hire.
His recent works include police mystery novels based in London in the 1960s; the main characters are Detective Sergeant Breen and Woman Police Constable Tozer.
Shaw's police novel Salt Lane (May 2018) is the first in a new series which features DS Alexandra Cupidi. The novel The Birdwatcher (2016) is set before the events of this book, followed by Deadland (2019), Grave's End (2020) and The Trawlerman (2021).
William Shaw lives in Brighton, United Kingdom.
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