Lonely Graves – So many twists and turns.

Lonely Graves by the duo Britta Bolt is the first in what will be the Posthumus Trilogy an excellently translated work set in their adopted city of Amsterdam. What has been created is an excellent suspense thriller that has bundles of twists and turns. For a first crime thriller this is a winner for the writing duo as the plot is well thought out and well written.

Pieter Posthumus works on the Lonely Funerals team after being moved sideways in the City Council for always going that little bit further than required. The Lonely Funerals team is responsible to make sure all those that die alone do not go unmourned on their final journey. Pieter takes his responsibilities seriously as he tries to trace the families as he finds out as much as he can about those who have died.

A young Moroccan is found dead and has been ruled as a suicide or accident by the police and the case has been closed and passed to the Lonely Funerals team. The job of finding out who this Moroccan is lands at Pieter’s desk which he tackles with relish and starts digging in to this person’s past. This will bring him in to contact with those being investigated by the Secret Police who want to arrest a group of Moroccans for terrorism offences.

Pieter or as he is known PP leads his investigation with all the humanity he can bring and a certain charm. I personally preferred reading PPs investigations that the conflicting investigations of the Secret Police which seem to drag on, who seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot.

Remembering that this is a translation the prose is quite clear and crisp and the editors have worked well. This is not a racy read turning pages at a rate of knots, but it is an enjoyable read with many twists and turns that sets you up for the next book beautifully. ( )