Stay Buried by Kate Webb

Stay Buried by Kate Webb
Buy Stay Buried by Kate Webb at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: The first book in a new series is a real cracker and I can't wait to see what happens next. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 464/13h36m	Date: January 2023
Publisher: Quercus
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1529421248
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DI Matt Lockyer is on Major Crime Review which sounds quite grand until you realise that it's actually a cold case unit and there are just two of them doing the job. Lockyer's not unduly worried, though although he's not quite so sure about DC Gemma Broad: she's probably capable of something better. It was a bit of a shock when he got the phone call from Hedy Lambert: she's in H M Prison Eastwood Park for murder - and it was Lockyer who put her there, fourteen years ago. She's keen to see him and to tell him that the man everyone thought she'd murdered - but the body turned out to be someone else - has returned home after being away for decades.

It was bad judgement that got Lockyer side-lined to working cold cases and it's to be hoped that he's learned his lesson about helping out an old friend. He's still agonising over the fact that he's not been able to do anything about establishing who was responsible for the senseless killing of his younger brother, Chris, that's left his parents struggling to keep Westdene Farm, on Salisbury Plain, going. Lockyer would be no good there but Chris would have been perfect.

The Hedy Lambert case is another that's stayed with him. He was the one who came up with her 'motive' but he's never been completely certain that she was guilty. He also has a nagging suspicion that there's a mutual attraction there. Matt Lockyer is complicated but not in the mould of the usual 'can't stand authority', 'alcoholic' or 'marital problems' run of fictional detectives. He's a quiet, understated man, doing his best in circumstances where you know that the throw of the dice didn't go his way, through no fault of his own. There's no bitterness - just a determination to get right or put right, what he can. All the characters come off the page fully formed: even DI Steve Saunders, who looked as though he was being set up as someone whom we could all dislike didn't turn into a pantomime villain.

That's not just down to the standard of the characterisation: it's the quality of the writing, which shines through on every page. It's writing that pulls you in and keeps you reading - you know you're in safe hands. It conjured up the atmosphere of the story - and wraps you in it. Sometimes I'd look up from the page and be slightly surprised to be where I was.

The plot is excellent too: there are plenty of twists but no contortions. I didn't work out what was behind the story but the denouement was completely satisfying. It was a cracker of a story and I finished it all too quickly. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For more Wiltshire crime, you might like to try The Girls Who Disappeared by Claire Douglas.

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