All That is Buried

I really liked the cover. It is very appealing designed. The writing style is pleasant and very fluently to read. The characters are very well described and look well thought out and consistently interesting. The tension is always present. The descriptions of surroundings, feelings and scenes were also very good. The story is told pleasant and it succeeds from the first pages to dive directly into the story. The storyline as a whole is very coherent and it seems very understandable and authentic. A very fascinating story that you won't like to stop reading.

Very well written. The storyline was perfect. I could not out it down. Read the book in one day. The author sucks you in to the plot.

I loved this book! I was hooked from the beginning and read it in one go! I definitely recommend. I also cant wait for the next book, giving that amazing ending!!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Allison & Busby for an advance copy of All That Is Buried, the third novel to feature Met detectives DI Jake Porter and DS Nick Styles.

When 7 year old Libby Hallforth disappears from a local fair DI Porter expends all his energy in an effort to find her but months go by with no sign of her. A last ditch reconstruction leads to an alleged sighting of her in Victoria Park but a search of the location turns up a further complication, several sets of human remains. 

I enjoyed All That Is Buried which is good police procedural with several twists and some neat ironies. I have not yet read the preceding novels so had nothing to judge this one on but I can say that it works well as a stand-alone. I thought it was slow to start and didn’t initially hold my attention but as the action hots up it hits its stride and becomes quite compulsive. I enjoyed the twists which sent this reader down the false assumption route until the author turned the tables and left me feeling foolish for swallowing his assertions. It’s clever and I really like the way he manipulated me. I also liked his resolution which I thought offered a bit more than the standard “killer with twisted reasoning caught”.

The novel is told mostly from the investigative point of view but there are chapters from the unnamed perpetrator who is clearly not the full shilling and has no qualms about revealing his motive. I’m not a fan of the perpetrator’s thoughts approach and I didn’t think it was particularly well done in this novel, being repetitive and not particularly enlightening. I also thought, for reasons I don’t want to reveal for fear of spoilers, that it didn’t quite ring true by presenting conflicting levels of lucidity. 

The characters are interesting with Styles dropping the ball a bit as he concentrated on the imminent birth of his first child and Porter trying to be understanding but generally getting annoyed at it. I liked this dynamic as it seems realistic. Mostly, however, the novel concentrates on Porter and he’s a case study all on his own, driven by his investigative needs he has no hesitation in trampling over other investigations or believing that his priorities supersede all others. It should make him obnoxious but his interactions with his boss are amusing and mitigate any flaws. 

All That Is Buried is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.