Rebecca Bradley

Totally recommended
This is the third book of this excellent Police procedural series featuring DI Claudia Nunn, well written with superb characterisation throughout. An atmospheric engaging mystery with some shocks and surprises along the way. Whilst there are some references to the previous books this could be read as a standalone story. However there is a running theme carried on from book one, so my advice would be or should that be Maria's advice from The Sound Of Music, start at the very beginning a very good place to start.… (more)

The continuing story of Tig, whose quiet life in the archives comes to an end when the nasty Primate, real power behind the throne, since Tig's older brother became king, engineers a treaty with another country that depends on a marriage between Tig and Princess Rinn. Tig has to agree as the Primate will sell Tig's beloved archives otherwise.

After the marriage, they embark on a sea voyage to Rinn's homeland. She turns out to be self absorbed and sex mad with every young man onboard but following a number of assassination attempts, and his gradual realisation that the Lady of Gil was not destroyed when he smashed the artefact containing 'her', and the entity is in his mind, pressing him to become 'one' with it, Tig pretends to be a doting husband to deceive Rinn and her cousin as he starts to comprehend the hidden agendas of his new in-laws.

I found this more interesting than the first volume. At least there was no harping on about dirt and squalor, and instead we learn a lot more about the previous history of the various empires that have risen and fallen, and ultimately how it relates to the Lady.

After six years following the events of book one Tig is dealing with his grief and guilt over Calla, though I did start to wonder if all the dreams about her and a little boy indicated that he was going to discover that she had survived after all, so I wasn't surprised when Calla turned up with their son halfway through . Lord Shree, former Sherank warlord, is now a scholar but takes up duty as Tig's bodyguard and another character, Chasco, who is an ex member of the resistance, joins them. The characters are more disparate this time around, though some are not well realised, e.g. Rinn who is a shallow stereotype. As in the first volume, there is self deprecating humour.

One quirk of the first person style is the odd "little did I know" type aside and Tig's narration of the progress of a terrible plague through the known world while he and the others are at sea, which you have to assume he found out about after the events of this book ended, as although the plague reaches the island he ends up on via a ship from elsewhere, he has no way of knowing exactly how devastating it has been. Also given that he has had to accept union with the entity, I imagine that the third volume must deal with the fallout of the plague given that Tig only cured it on the islands, and the return to Gil after his separation from Rinn. Or maybe not - apparently the third volume is set 20 odd years later, narrated by his son, so that seems a bit odd.… (more)

Although this is volume one of a trilogy, it is fairly self contained. Tig, retiring scholar, is suddenly forced into the role of champion on behalf of the exiled rulers of Gil, to return and try to recover the lost artefact, the Lady, which will enable him to overthrow the sadistic Sherank invaders who have enslaved the people and imposed a reign of terror for the last seventy years.

The main character is quite engaging and some of the subsidiary characters are developed enough to be able to tell them apart, but the constant emphasis on the filth and squalor that the conquered folk of Gil are forced to live in, becomes a bit wearing after a while. Also, there are some not convincing stereotypes such as the prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold, and it was pretty easy to guess the identity of the traitor and the 'twist' re two main characters.

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I was lucky to get this short novella from the author to read. I have not read Shallow Waters the first book in the series and that Three Weeks Dead is a prequel to. But, I found no problems getting into the story.

In Three Weeks Dead, we get two POV. We have Jason Wells the husband to the kidnapped dead wife and then we have DC Sally Poynter, a young and inexperienced policewoman. Both are faced with troubles of them own, Jason with the moral dilemma of doing the right thing, not giving in to the kidnappers, but still wanting the body of his wife back. And, Sally is young, trying to balance marriage life with being a police and at the same time hoping to not doing anything wrong with the case.

For me was Three Weeks Dead an interesting book because I don't think I have ever read a book where the dead body is used as a bargaining chip. It was quite interesting to follow Jason as he wrestles with himself about not giving in to the kidnapper's demand. I mean it's easy to sit here and judge telling Jason mentally that she's just a dead body, she's not there anymore. But, for him, that's still his wife's body, a woman she loved. As for Sally, I have to admit that here newbie attitude was a bit grating for me, but I do like that Sally towards the end started to feel a bit more mature. However, here problems with a fellow male colleague in the book annoyed me, sure I can understand that some clashes occur, but it's not a long story, and I felt sometimes that it took a bit too large part of the story. It's not especially new in police books to have a male police hating a female police so it could be that I was just tired of an old cliché. It will be interesting to read Shallow Waters to see how I will feel about the situations.

Also, as much as I enjoyed the story was it pretty short and I often feel that short stories are like a synopsis of a book. Give it more flesh, more story, and you will have a great book. I felt it reading this one, the idea was great, and I would have loved reading a full-length book. As a novella was it not bad, but you only scratch the surface when it comes to the characters. I always want more!

I want to thank the author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! … (more)