The Coffinmaker’s Garden

Not a genre I would usually go for as I am a little bit put off by violence, but I found this police procedural entertaining if requiring a suspension of disbelief about the actions of some of the characters! Despite this being the third book in the series I had little trouble picking up the plot and the characters. 


Ash Henderson is an ex detective inspector who is called to help investigate murders along with police colleagues. The plot centres around an investigation where the house is falling into the sea where the bodies are buried. I found the plot gripping, with some very exciting moments of peril for the main characters. Aside from that, it had a lot of dark humour in it, though the author resisted peppering it with the f word! However, I wouldn't describe this as one for the squeamish. There's torture and child murder and some moments of violence that are pretty horrific. Ash gets away with all sorts of things too, and seems to manage seemingly superheroic feats of strength, but I get that whilst the author was going for gritty, it also needed the sense of someone able to avenge the victims without too much of a fear of retribution from authorities. I liked the way the author portrayed the other characters too, from the police to the ex cons and villains.