Sad to say that I was very disappointed in this book. This author usually writes some crisp, well thought out crime fiction but this one was just okay. The ending was less than satisfying and the characters were not that interesting.

I received this book as a free PDF from Netgalley. I must say I enjoyed this book by Lynda La Plante. The main character, Jack, was very likable because he was both flawed and admirable. The story had a lot of twists and turns, interweaving multiple character and situations. As a reader, I was able to keep up, though. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes detective/mystery books.

I found this book to be three books in one! By that, I mean there were so many different crimes, too many characters, too much jumping around to various past events and the current time. It was just not my favorite style,

The highly popular, Hall of Fame author, Lynda La Plante, has treated us to another great crime thriller and the start of a new series starring her new protagonist DC Jack Warr. Buried is a novel that is clever and compelling and shows the natural ease La Plante has in creating characters and devilish plots in this genre.

DC Jack Warr is drifting in his career, happy to move from Devon to London to support his partner, Maggie, become more established as a surgeon.

“Maggie and Jack had agreed that moving from Devon to London was the right thing to do for her career. His career, in his words, wasn’t as big a deal as hers. Maggie knew she wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon, whereas all Jack really knew for sure was that he wanted to be able to go and watch Plymouth Argyle whenever they played at home.”

His new boos DCI Simon Ridley takes a chance on him and together with DC Anik Joshi and DS Laura Wade, they are assigned an investigation into a fire at Rose Cottage, where a body is recovered plus evidence of burnt money. The money is tied to a cold case train robbery from 1995, where £27 million was stolen.

In parallel Jack’s own research into discovering who his biological father is, reveals some startling details and a connection, not only to the other side of the law but specifically to the cold case he's currently investigating. This revelation is shocking for Jack but has the result that it may give Jack something unique in his character that isn’t always legal, and connections to another world, that regular police could never access. The tantalising dilemma is which side Jack will be most eager about and feel drawn to.

The plotting from La Plante is intelligent, complex and always mysterious. The police investigation brings the police team into contact with a group of women who are brilliantly drawn. The female gang have some throwback to La Plante’s Widows series and again she calls on her knowledge of writing these roles to make the interactions with the women compelling and entertaining. The story also takes us into East End gangs, which is where La Plante is a force on her own. If you looked up East End Gangs in a reference book it would say – see La Plante. Her delivery of the narrative and dialogue feels authentic and often gritty.

The novel provides police investigation threads and the personal life surrounding Jack, with equal distinction and complexity. Both aspects create a novel with wonderful depth and fertile ground that La Plante can sow storylines into as the series progresses. The range of well-crafted characters is exciting and they draw on our emotions with wonderful variety.

Buried feels like a novel that has all the ingredients to be a brilliant crime thriller but that the mixture just isn’t quite right at the moment although it will come good in following books. I would like to thank Bonnier Zaffre and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC copy in return for an honest review.

This is the first Lynda L Plante book that I have read. I am familiar with her work on screenplays (I love Prime Suspect!). I really enjoyed this book. It opens with a prologue where we are introduced to a group of women, (Esther, Dolly, Angela, Connie, Julia, Gloria, Kathleen) most of whom will go on to play a big part in the story. It's 1994. Chapter one is set in present day. Rose Cottage has been burned down and a body is found inside.
"Buried" introduces DC Jack Warr. Jack is part of the team investigating the body in the burnt-out cottage. He is also confronted with the fact that his adopted father is dying of cancer. Jack is a complex character. Forced to choose between spending time his dying father and obeying orders from his superior officer, Jack ends up disappointing both. I hope there are more books in this series as I am very interested to read more about Jack Warr. Will he end up being a police officer his team and the public can trust and depend on to do his job well or will he cross the line to get what he wants?
I enjoy the trope of current case connected to cold case and this is an example of it being done really well.
There are themes of underestimating people, the baggage we carry, and the struggle between nature and nurture. I look forward to reading more in this series.

Interesting start to a brand new series.
Very well written, the storyline flowed and the characters very interesting and developed. Being a first time reader of the author I am delighted to admit I am now a fan. Anxiously awaiting the next installment of the series.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the advanced copy of the book.
#netgalley

Buried, by Lynda La Plante, is a complex story with a complex protagonist. The story starts as a murder mystery: who killed the man whose corpse was found burned in an old cottage--along with millions in bank notes. The discovery of the bank notes leads the investigating team to delve into old, unsolved robberies and DC Jack Warr to delve into secrets of his own past.

The story sometimes skipped from present to past without transition, but that may have been due to the formatting of the ARC I was reading. Perhaps in the final edit, there will be some sort of demarcation. I found myself re-reading paragraphs, to be sure I understood the timeline jumps.

There are lots of interesting characters in this story. Some are sympathetic, many are not. I found the devolution of the central character to be disconcerting. He starts as a kind, loving individual who has floated along at work without being highly motivated, to being someone less attentive to his family, more enthused by his work, and greatly intrigued by his discovered connections to dead gangsters.

I read fiction to be entertained, and while "Buried" is an interesting story, I found the conclusion dismaying, and doubt I will read further in the series.

I enjoyed reading this book but throughout the story I would get bored at times and would out it down. At the same time there was some scenes that made me not want to stop reading it! I think the author, Lynda La Plante, did an amazing job at describing the the forensic process. Me being a a student who studies forensics, I appreciated that she made sure her scenes were factual.
One thing I wish was developed more was the characters, I wanted to care about them more than I did, I wanted them to solve the crime more than I wanted jack to resolve his personal issues. Overall I enjoyed the plot and would recommend to someone looking for excitement and true crime.

I have seen this author being discussed on multiple blogs the past couple of years and hen I got a chance to read the first in a new series I had to give it a try.

Once again though, I hit the roadblock of not liking something popularly lauded. I am not sure exactly what it could be. The mystery itself was pretty exciting and twisted. We have a body recovered from a burning house. At this house, they also find remains of burnt money which immediately has bells ringing in the minds of people who have been on the force for longer. This older case that everyone is reminded of might be connected to an even earlier case! So far, so good, but then come the investigation officers. Our series lead Jack Warr started off an interesting chap, a little laid back but once the case gets more convoluted, he gets involved. The storyline got a little absurd when he starts to investigate his own life, and it turns out that the excuses he gives might actually end up being based in fact (not something he knows when lying in the first place). The coincidences were too strong to digest, and if he was not there in the story, I would have rated it higher. In the same way, if the main plot was even slightly different, I might have not finished the book.

I have read quite a few grey characters in the books I have been reading, and I am not ethically opposed to them, but in this case, large chunks of Jack Warr's personality seem hard to digest and just move on. I have to iterate that I am in the minority and this has happened to me when reading thrillers and police procedurals, with me not liking many. If you have read this author before and liked her books, then I am sure you will enjoy this too!

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

There are a plethora of characters in this new series, so a bit confusing trying to keep them all straight. A fire breaks out in a run-down cottage and a charred body is found in the wreckage, along with millions of dollars in cash burning in the fireplace. It turns out the money traces back to a 1995 bank robbery that has never been solved. Detective Jack Warr is interested in finding out more, and he is fascinating character that I can see being part of a long-lived series. There are a lot of great stories behind many of the people in the story, and the ending was a nice surprise. I look forward to reading more about Jack. Thanks NetGalley!

Buried by Lynda LaPlante

A story of present day sleuthing in England, the protagonist, Jack Warr is on the hunt on two fronts. One is for the killer of a burned body found in The Grange, a once grand manor house, and the other is a search for his biological father.

Detective Constable Warr finds himself digging in a different direction for the killer(s)than his fellow police officers. He has gone rogue. He is also on a secret mission using his police position to check out DNA, unearth buried bodies and to question those who may have known his birth father. Warr needs to know who he really is. Could he be the son of an unsavory character?

As it turns out, his sleuthing also leads him to uncover the players of an unsolved diamond theft and a train heist. Who shot who, who stole and hid the money/diamonds, how did they do it and who is his bio dad? All these mysteries and more get solved in this story by Lynda LaPlante in Buried.

Many thanks to #BonnierZaffreUSA and #NetGalley for an ARC for my review.

A cracking story with a great new set of characters! Jack Warr and Maggie are a super cute couple, he is a mixed up policeman for various reasons and his life gets very complicated....will he do the right thing? Full of tension and intrigue, this crime thriller will tick all the boxes. Fast paced, easy to read, not confusing despite the complexity of the world he inhabits and a romance - what more could you want? I will definitely be buying the next Jack Warr book in 2021 😍

Buried is the first book in Lynda La Plante's new series featuring Detective Jack Warr. I loved the Widows trilogy and this new series carries on from those crimes, but is set several decades later. It was great catching up with several old characters again. Buried can be read as a stand alone too. Lynda is my favourite author so I can't fault this book in any way. With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my digital copy.

I had such high hopes. While the book was good, I don't know if it will cause me to read the next one. I just don't like Jack Warr and if I don't like the main protagonist, it's hard for me to read. I realize he was written this way and it's just my personal taste.

Jack has transferred to London. His new CO has high hopes for him which so far he hasn't met expectations. A body is found in a burned out cottage and thousands of pounds in expired bills are partially burned in the fireplace. Now, this part of the store is fascinating. It leads to a train robbery that took place many years ago which then leads to a diamond heist that happened years before that. The characters are interesting.

On the personal side, jack finds out his adoptive father is dying. This leads to him to search to find out who his birth father is, he already knows who his birth mother is. This is the part that I didn't care for. Yes, both plots are intertwined and one feeds the other, it just didn't do it for me.

The premise of this book was great. Didn’t see the need for Jack’s other story line. It took away from the focus of the robbery. The book was choppy but could just be the ARC copy. Didn’t really like or feel anything for the women in this book. They all seemed cold and heartless. Characters are pretty forgettable. Would like to give this author another try.

I really enjoyed this book. Character development was good. The plot was very interesting. Not a lot of typos.

What do a diamond heist, train robbery worth $27 million and a charred body in a cottage spanning several decades have in common? Jack a non committed cop just learning to trust his “gut”, trying to determine who he is and what he wants to do with his career when he is called to the scene of the cottage fire. As the pieces click into place he is called to meet with a group of fascinating women who lived at the Grange when the train robbery was committed. I enjoyed the story as it unfolded and appreciated the character development. I did find it difficult to tell at times the jump in timeline or perspective, but hope that was delineated better in later copies as I was given an ARC. I highly enjoyed this book and recommend it, all opinions are my own.

A year ago I read SHE’S OUT, an older book by this author and was left with mixed feeling. There were questions I wished had been answered and supposedly good characters I did not particularly like. So, when I saw many of the same characters included in a book set many years after SHE’S OUT, I jumped on the chance to read BURIED.

From the earlier book, I was reunited with Esther Freeman and her gang of ex-con women as well as long since retired ex-policeman DS Mike Withey. Newly introduced is DI Jack Warr, a wonderfully drawn and intriguing character who is to be the central focus of a new series of books by the author.

Threads left unsolved by SHE’S OUT take center stage in this book. What ever happened to the fortune in jewels that the women all yearned to get their hands on? And what about the daring train robbery that took place shortly after Dolly Rawlins “got out” in the previous book? There was a fortune in missing money still unaccounted for and there were no clues as to who was responsible for the robbery. A total of £30 million was taken and never found by investigators.

The book opens at the fire which destroyed Rose Cottage, adjacent to The Grange—the focus of SHE’S OUT. In the ashes investigators find the charred remains of a man and remnants of burned £1 and £5 notes. DI Jack Warr is a key part of the team that follows the clues that wind their way through the SHE’S OUT gang toward the answers.

Though there are threads that are still not resolved, this was a wonderful and extremely satisfying read. I was thrilled to get beyond the unsatisfying ending I was left with in SHE’S OUT and look forward to following Jack’s trail in future of the Jack Warr books by the author.

I was given a copy by NetGalley with the promise of an honest review.

I had great hopes for this mystery but I was totally confused by the lead character, Detective Jack Warr. But then he is totally confused, and keeps getting more and more off center and by the latter part of the book he is tending towards psychotic. Does he want to; be a detective or find his birth father, be a detective or dislike his co-workers, constantly disappoint his girlfriend or find his birth father, miss every last important moment with his adoptive parents or find his birth father. Detective Jack Warr can’t seem to make up his mind on which side of the law he wants to walk. His ability to self-explain many questionable choices turned out to be a bigger problem for me that for this Detective.

Too bad, all that really got in the way of what was an interesting mystery. Thank you Bonnier Zaffre USA for a copy.

I really enjoyed this book. I love mafia movies and I stumbled across La Belle Mafia while looking for mother mafia movies to watch and I feel in love with the female gangster trope, even though those women fell into the roles because of necessity. Imagine my surprise when I found out one of my favorite movies was also a book!!

Ok I'm going to stop fangirling.

After Belle Mafia and Widows I just had to get my hands on her latest book and boy oh boy I was not disappointed. La Plante's heroes and even her villains are flawed. They aren't all evil and all good. They are decent folks that stumble and the evil in thee world is capable of good when the chips are down. I like grey characters as well but I can take a true evil character with the best of them. She has a way of making her characters feel like real breathing people. They leap off the page and become corporeal and its like watching a pantomime in your living room. you forget you are looking at words on a page.

As usual La Plante gave us a cabal of strong women. Not strong in the sense of Wonder Woman, but strong in the unbendable nature. Their desire to survive no matter what lemons life throws at them. Their desire to stand on their own two feet without a man or society telling them its ok. That sort of strength. There is beauty in that.

The pacing was good, even with the backstory and the setup. There were a few moments where you might have gotten bored, but a turn of the page cured you. This is the first in a brand new series and its another home run.

La Plante has stumbled across a formula that works and I for one want to be along for this ride as long as possible.