This is the first book in a series. It is a police procedural. The characters are engaging. It is a twisty mystery. The writing is very good. The setting is excellent.

I have enjoyed a couple of the author's previous historical novels and was keen to read her debut crime novel writing as Kate Webb.
DI Matthew Lockyer has been side lined to cold cases when he is contacted by convicted killer Hedy Lambert who he helped convict 14 years ago. Lambert asks him to reopen her case as the man she was convicted of killing has turned up alive.
Stay Buried is a thorough and well researched police procedural. I liked the character of Matthew and the author has given him an interesting history. It's an atmospheric read and I enjoyed the bleak, rural Wiltshire setting. It was a little slow paced for me but I'd be interested in reading more in this series in the future.
3.5 stars
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

This was a really good, twisty read which kept you guessing right up until the end. I couldn’t wait to pick this up and read on. I highly recommend this book. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Stay Buried is the first book in the new series of DI Matt Lockyer by Kate Webb and what an entrance he has made.

Side lined to the cold case team after a decision to help a friend in a recent case back fired or did it? Matt see this opportunity to get justice for the victims and their families and his determination is made even more relevant by the personal tragedy he has suffered.

A police procedural told with depth and intrigue, set in a descriptive setting with a collection of interesting characters very much looking forward to seeing the development of this series.

A twisty and atmospheric Wiltshire-set crime novel from a brilliant new voice in the genre. Stay Buried will keep you guessing until the end. This was an enjoyable read. It gave me something to look forward to and the end of the day. The author keeps you guessing until the end as to whose nefarious plot this was!

A police procedural involving a cold case that DI Matt Lockyer ‘solved’ early in his career. Now the woman who he had imprisoned has asked him to re-open the case as the supposed victim has turned up alive and well some 14 years later.

Well written and plotted, this mystery has the reader following DI Lockyer at every step in an engaging way as he re-interviews all the original suspects and puts together what really happened.

I wasn't love at first page but I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. I loved the style of writng and the solid mystery kept me hooked and guessing.
Matt Lockyer is a well plotted and clever detective.
I hope to read other books by this author soon.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Stay Buried by Kate Webb.
Detective Inspector Matt Lockyer has been side-lined to working cold cases, following a bad decision he made in a recent investigation in order to support a friend. Lockyer isn't too bothered though, as it gives him the chance to review some of the cases that keep him up at night and to look into his own brother's senseless killing which still remains unsolved. On a quiet afternoon Lockyer receives a phone call from prisoner Hedy Lambert - a woman he put inside for murder fourteen years ago. She informs him that the man she was originally accused of killing has turned up alive and well. She begs him to reopen her case. All those years ago, Lockyer had been the one to pin down Hedy's motive, but deep down he'd never wanted to believe she was guilty. The thought that he might have sent an innocent woman down for life doesn't sit well with him and he agrees to reopen the investigation. But has it become too personal and is he being manipulated? Perhaps there are some cases that should just stay buried.
Brilliant read. A ton packed. 5*.

Terrific story, setting, characters and writing. Kate Webb has done a great job and earned a place next to the likes of Joy Ellis.

It took me awhile to get into this story, but once I had found my way, there was no way out. This is quite the thorough police procedural, which makes it interesting in the way that the reader can follow day-by-day what is going on with the case - the case that was "solved" years ago. One day the DI gets a call from prison from the one who got a long sentence for murder. She is telling him "the murder victim" has shown up - alive.

The case is very personal to the DI, and there are many twists and turns on the way. Many things and people are not what they seem to be, so many hidden secrets have seen daylight.

Good read that takes the reader's mind off everything else due to the complexity of the case and the many characters whose lives the opening of the old case has an impact on.

DI Matthew Lockyer is leading a cold case team of himself and one other police officer when he receives a phone call from a woman he helped to convict of murder 14 years before. The phone call begins a re-opening of the investigation as Lockyer becomes increasingly convinced that the conviction was unsafe.
The mystery is a fascinating one with a wide range of possible suspects and the eventual resolution took me by surprise but still felt entirely believable. I really liked the way the different story lines wove in and out of each other.
This is definitely not a cosy crime novel. The story is set in Wiltshire but it is a fairly grim portrayal showing the hard side of living in rural England in particular the difficulties faced by farmers who are struggling to survive. My one criticism would be that the grimness seemed a bit unrelenting. None of the characters actually seemed happy and the ones who were successful in life were generally unpleasant.
Thank you to Net Galley and Quercus books for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Matt is a police inspector, moved into cold cases after an incident. He is contacted by some one he put away for murder, protesting her innocence because the victim has turned up alive. The case is intricate with a lot of twists and turns as the investigation pieces clues and evidence together. You get that did she, didn't she throughout .
Matt himself is a complex character, though likeable and I look forward to reading about his future cases. There are a couple of pointers for investigations in the book. His work partner, Gemma Broad could be expanded a little more, my only criticism in the book.
I enjoyed the puzzle of the cases and guessed some twists but others took me by surprise. It kept my interest and I liked the setting in the English West country
Thanks to Net Galley for a great read in exchange for an honest review.

Writing as Katherine Webb, the author (left) is a well established writer of several books which seem to be in the romantic/historical/mystery genre, but I believe this is her first novel with both feet firmly planted on the terra firma of crime fiction. Wiltshire copper DI Matthew Lockyer, after a professional error of judgment, has been sidelined into a Cold Case unit, consisting of himself and Constable Gemma Broad.

He receives a telephone call from a most unexpected source. His caller is Hedy Lambert, a woman he helped convict of murder fourteen years earlier. The case was full of unexpected twists and turns, none more bizarre than the identity of the victim. Harry, son of Emeritus Professor Roland Ferris had left home as a teenager and, seemingly, vanished from the face of the earth. Then he returns home to the Wiltshire village where his father lives. This variation on the tale of The Prodigal Son, takes a turn for the worse, however, when Harry’s dead body is discovered, and standing over it, clutching the murder weapon, is Ferris’s housekeeper Hedy Lambert. Problem is, it’s not Harry Ferris.

After a few days it transpires the the murder victim is actually Mickey Brown, a Traveller, who superficially resembles Harry. Despite the absence of any plausible motive Hedy Lambert is convicted of murder and found guilty, condemned almost entirely by convincing forensic evidence. Now, Lambert has telephoned Lockyer from her prison to tell him that the real Harry Ferris has returned to his father’s house. Lockyer visits Longacres, Ferris’s house in the village of Stoke Lavington, to find the old man at death’s door with cancer of the blood and Harry Ferris totally unwilling to co-operate with the re-opening of the murder case.

As the story develops, we learn more about Lockyer and his background. His parents are what Americans call hardscrabble farmers, elderly and increasingly unable to make a living out of the farm or see any fruits for their lifetime of hard work. The obvious person to take over the farm was Lockyer’s brother Chris, but he is long dead, having been stabbed in a fracas outside a local pub. His killer has never been brought to justice.

One of the many admirable qualities of this book is that Kate Webb doesn’t take any prisoners in her portrayal of rural Wiltshire. Yes, there are obviously some beautiful places, but there are also farms which are bleak, wind-swept and run-down; there are villages and small towns with rough and tumble pubs which are no strangers to violence. Please don’t expect the sun-kissed limestone cottages and trim thatched roofs of Midsomer; this is Wiltshire in winter from a literal point of view, and metaphorically it is darker territory altogether.

On one level, Stay Buried is a superior whodunnit, as by the half way point Kate Webb has presented us with a tasty line-up of possible killers. There is Paul Rifkin, Ferris’s factotum, the real Harry Ferris, Tor Gravich, the young research assistant who was in Longacres at the time of the murder, Sean Hannington, a violent Traveller thug with a grudge against Mickey Brown, Serena Godwin, and even Roland Ferris himself. Or are we being led up the garden path, and is the killer Hedy Lambert after all? The eventual solution is elegant, complex and unexpected. On another level altogether, the book is a forensic examination of the nature of grief, guilt, and the corrosive effect of harbouring a desire for revenge.

This is excellent crime fiction, with a central character who has the quirks and flaws to make him totally credible. The geographical backdrop against which DI Matt Lockyer does his job is painted ‘warts and all’, lending a psychological darkness to proceedings.

Well written, with very real characters. Why would the police working cold reopen a case where the perpetrator has been in prison for fourteen years? Do they doubt themselves? Or is it just that they're getting nowhere with real cold cases they're investigating.

Loved it, felt a bond with a couple of people in it. Convoluted, but exciting.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher I read a free advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion.

Stay Buried is the first book I have read by Kate Webb and the first book in a new police procedural series featuring DI Matt Lockyer who works in the cold cases team.

The book features multiple story arcs all of which are developed throughout with some being left nicely open ended for future books.

The main storyline moves along at a good pace whilst allowing the characters to breathe and grow.

Stay Buried is a very good first book in a series and one I recommend.

Three and a half stars.

Detective Inspector Matt Lockyer is now working cold cases after crossing the line on an arson case involving an old school friend. He gets a call from Hedy Lambert, serving twenty years for murder, hid first murder case in fact. She wants to speak to him urgently, there is new evidence in her case - the assumed victim has turned up very much alive after thirty years.

Fourteen years ago Hedy was housekeeper to Professor Roland Ferres. A young man, originally thought to be Roland's estranged son Harry who had been missing for sixteen years, was murdered in one of the Professor's barns, the same one in which his wife Helen committed suicide. Hedy discovered the body and was covered in blood; the murder weapon, a kitchen knife, only had her fingerprints on it. Matt pursued Hedy's conviction with zeal, it was his chance to prove himself, but he was never 100% convinced that she was the killer, perhaps because he felt an attraction to the young woman.

Now with Hedy's call, Matt is worried that there may have been a miscarriage of justice and requests leave to reopen the case. Back in 2005 with a clear suspect the police did not investigate any other potential killers thoroughly. Also, forensic techniques have improved enormously over fourteen years, they may find new evidence.

As Matt and his DC Gemma Broad investigate they find plenty of other suspects, but who did they want to kill, Harry or the actual victim Mickey Brown? How did Mickey fool his father into thinking he was Harry? Did the killer do it for the Professor's money? Was Mickey killed to cover up something? Can Matt be objective when he still has feelings for Hedy? They also start to uncover other mysteries, like why did Helen kill herself?

I enjoyed this crime novel, it was twisty and there were other personal threads running through it, like SC Broad's relationship, Matt's parents, his elderly neighbour (I suspect her husband was killed in Matt's attic), and Matt's friend Kevin. Matt was a bit angsty, his younger brother was murdered on a pub crawl when he was just eighteen and the killer was never found. His death has profoundly affected Matt and his parents. However, I did guess who killed Mickey (and why), hence not four stars. I am definitely interested in reading the next book in this series.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is a stunning debut by an author new to writing crime novels. Set in Wiltshire, DI Matt Lockyer has been set to work on cold cases. He has a fascinating backstory that steadily emerges alongside the well plotted case he is working on. The ending leaves me expecting, and hoping, this is the first in a series, as I will look forward to reading more by this author.

Matt Lockyer sent Hedy Lambert to prison. Now working cold cases he is contacted by Hedy insisting she is not guilty.
Will the case be re-opened and resolved or is Hedy manipulating Matt from her prison cell?

I loved this so much. Such a brilliant debut and characters and I really want to read more about them. The storyline was totally engrossing and I really didn't want it to end.

I really struggled with this book and did not finish it. Reviewing via netgalley, it is rare I don’t persevere but I just couldn’t get into it.
The style was quite slow for me and I like something a bit grittier with an immediate hook.
I loved the setting and the mix of old and new crimes to solve. I was amused that the detectives colleagues used to call him Farmer Giles.
I liked the cover.