Scottish crime thriller with all the right twists to keep you tuned!

DS Max Craigie, of the Serious Crimes Squad, ex military and suffering from PTSD, finds himself in the middle of the bizarre death of a Scottish Crime Lord. The mode of the gangster’s death links back into the 1890’s. That beginning leads Max to uncovering corruption that spreads to the heights of the Scottish Police force. From here on in violence and death spreads out like a festering sore.
An exciting and very readable piece, complete with a couple of very interesting characters including his partner DC Janie Calder. I particularly liked his great aunt Elspeth, and his dog Nutmeg.

A HQ Harper Collins ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

A very enjoyable start to a series that I think will become required reading for me. Good characters and detail, well written and plotted. Excellent.

What a fantastic start to a new series!

Who doesn't love a new Detective on the scene? In this new series we meet DS Max Craigie and DC Janie Calder, a formidable team.

In the first instalment we learn all about DS Craigie, his military past, PTSD and his move to the Scottish Highlands after leaving the London Met.

A story of police corruption at it's highest level, old feuds and crime families.

Fast paced, breathtaking, fantastic plot and exceptionally well executed characters.

All I can say is that if this is the standard to expect I cannot wait for the rest of the series.

4.5*

Thanks to netgalley and HQ for the ARC.

Loved this book. Characters, location, storyline, suspense. I think it meant more as I could picture where they actually were. Kept me gripped to the end. Looking forward to this author's next book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. A really great read. Well written and gripping, I was hooked from beginning to end. Love this type of storytelling and will be seeking out more by this author. Highly recommend.

The head of Scotland’s most powerful crime family is brutally murdered, his body dumped inside an ancient grave in a remote cemetery. Detectives Max Craigie and Janie Calder arrive at the scene, a small town where everyone has secrets to hide. They soon realise this murder is part of a blood feud between two Scottish families that stretches back to the 1800s. Now Max and Janie must turn against their closest colleagues.
This book is a complete page turner. It grabbed me from the start and kept me on the edge of my seat. Lancaster is a great storyteller with excellent twists and great characters. Can't wait to read the next book in the series in order to get back to see what's happening with these characters. If you like books about police corruption then you will enjoy this book. Thanks to NetGalley & HQ Digital for a free copy for an honest review.

‘Dead Mans Grave 🪦’ by Neil Lancaster
🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5
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𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙!! (See what I did there?!?) not just your average police procedural, one written by an ex-metropolitan police officer and one which is easy to follow. Sometimes I feel books like this are just full of police jargon because they can and you end up losing the story because you are trying to decipher the simplest terms. But definitely not the case with this one!

I very much got line of duty vibes from this & the relationship between Max and Janie was defo like another Steve & Kate! The book was fast paced and tense, and had me gripped from the start. I loved how it was set in Scotland and I could just picture the scene.

I love crime and I don’t know how I’ve never come across this author before! I’ll definitely be picking up more.

I would thoroughly recommend this book & can’t wait for the next one! It’s definitely a worthy contestant for the William McIlvanney Prize.

Thanks to @netgalley, HQ Books and @neil_lancaster_crime for the copy! 📖
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Intriguing from the beginning ……. Cleverly written and good characterisations make it a book difficult to put down

Loved love loved. It was such a fast-paced story i read in one go. I loved that the police procedures were true and written by an ex Police Officer which is what made it so real. Kept me in suspense all the way through.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first Neil Lancaster book i'd read (I quickly bought all the others!).

Very exciting story, it kept me gripped at all times.

the fact that the author knows what he's talking about as he was a serving Metropolitan Police Officer for many years.

The characters are strong and believable.

The story moved along quickly. I roared through it.

Highly reccomended!

A really well written police procedural book. It’s part of a series but could be read as a standalone. I did. However, I’ll be buying the rest as this is brilliant. It’s creepy and it’s compelling and it kept me reading so late into the night I’ll be exhausted tomorrow!!

Every now and then I read a book and right from the start I think why have I never read this author before, because I know from the first page it is going to be a corker. This is one of those books! Dead Man’s Grave is an absolutely brilliant start to the DS Max Craigie Scottish Crime Thrillers series.

With one hell of an opening I couldn’t put this book down. why can this grave never be opened is the question?!

I loved Max who is ex military. He is one of those characters I couldn’t help but love. This is a story is full of good guys and bad guys. When we follow a story about a family feud dating back to 1800.

I do love my grit lit and this book has just that. We have the whole gangster added to the mix. With characters that jumped out of the pages I could hear their Scottish accents. Dead Man’s Grave is without a doubt a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

It is so, so good! I am off to amazon to buy more books by Neil. I cannot recommend it enough. Giving it 5 solid gold stars.

As a police procedural, this is one of the best I’ve read in a long time. It had me from the opening chapter, and it raced along at breakneck pace, with the characters growing chapter by chapter. Max Craigie an ex soldier, suffering from PTSD, and a former Met police officer, he has moved back home to Scotland. Pair him with a new member of the team, Janie Calder, and we have the making of a really good detective pairing. This is a really interesting story, with a 200 year old blood feud , a top crime gang to overcome and police corruption. Gripping read, loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Neil Lancaster's Dead Mans Grave is the first in a series about DS Max Craigie. For lovers of Scottish crime it's a winner. Max is a former soldier suffering from PTSD who has recently returned to Scotland from London. The story involves a scary crime family, an old feud and police corruption. Fast paced and intriguing, I'm looking forward to more in the series. Highly recommend to anyone who loves modern British crime books.

An excellent police procedural with a great opening - a mysterious grave, a curious warning, a long-forgotten burial site in the middle of nowhere.

DS Max Craigie and DC Janie Calder investigate a very modern murder which has its roots in a blood feud dating back to the 1800s. The victim turns out to be the head of Scotland's pre-eminent crime family and his brothers are soon out for revenge. Max and Janie soon realise that the investigation is being hampered from sources within the police, and that this corruption goes a long way up the chain of command.

The book has a distinct feeling of authenticity, due in no small part to the author's background in both the police and armed forces. He clearly knows a thing or two about surveillance and technology, including not to rely on it all the time.

Hopefully this is the start of a new series of Scottish police procedurals and I'll be eagerly awaiting the next volume.

A fantastic new addition to the genre of Scottish police procedural fiction. Detectives Max Cragie & Janie Calder get caught up in a blood feud dating back centuries & involving Scotland's biggest crime family. As they get drawn deeper in to the investigation they find that corruption has infiltrated the ranks of Police Scotland & they are in a unique position to root it out.

Cragie is a character that a reader can really get behind. The introduction of his flashbacks to his time in the army bring a real depth of character very simply & effectively. The loyal team surrounding him are fantastic too, allowing for those much needed funny moments & also genuine emotion. Although this story wraps up nicely I'm very excited to see what comes next & can't wait to get my hands of the second in the series, The Blood Tide, which is out in February of next year.

#DeadMansGrave #NetGalley
The head of Scotland’s most powerful crime family is brutally murdered, his body dumped inside an ancient grave in a remote cemetery. This murder can never be forgotten.Detectives Max Craigie and Janie Calder arrive at the scene, a small town where everyone has secrets to hide. They soon realise this murder is part of a blood feud between two Scottish families that stretches back to the 1800s. One thing’s for certain: it might be the latest killing, but it won’t be the last… This killer can never be caught. As the body count rises, the investigation uncovers large-scale corruption at the heart of the Scottish Police Service. Now Max and Janie must turn against their closest colleagues – to solve a case that could cost them far more than just their lives.
It was like I was reading Jane Casey's novel. Brilliant.
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for giving me an advance copy.

From GoodReads:
A cracking new series.
A blood feud, gangland bosses, mounting body count, police corruption ... and a terrific crime fighting duo
More please

I absolutely love a police procedural book and this one was fantastic. I really enjoyed the story line,it didn't feel like an old one that had been rehashed. I liked all the characters and their back stories, enough to show why they were in the story but not too much that it took over the story line. I will definitely be reading more of this author's books.

Dead Man’s Grave is a fast-paced and tense crime thriller, about revenge and a feud dating back to the nineteenth century, where corruption is discovered at the highest levels of Police Scotland. A former soldier, and officer with the Met, DS Max Craigie is now based at Gartcosh working for the Serious Organised Crime team. Although a native Scot, he does not quite fit in. DC Janie Calder, a privately educated graduate on the fast-track to promotion, is also having a hard time being accepted. Perhaps this is why they work well together when sent to investigate the disappearance of Tam Hardie, head of the most powerful criminal family in Glasgow, if not the whole of Scotland.
Tam is terminally ill and researching his family history when he goes missing; his last communication with his sons was rather cryptic. With only his mobile phone data to go on, Max and Janie narrow the search area down to somewhere in Caithness. It then quickly becomes apparent just how far the reach of the Hardie family into Police Scotland actually is. Desperate measures are called for as they can trust no one. Tam Hardie’s sons are not just mindless thugs, but educated and subtle villains who should not be underestimated.
Dead Man’s Grave is the first book I’ve read by Neil Lancaster, and I was so impressed I bought his Tom Novak series – Going Dark, Going Rogue and Going Back. If you have not discovered them yet, you are in for a treat. Unfortunately, there are only three of them, but hopefully there will be more. Neil’s background as an officer in the Met gives an authenticity to his writing, and the Scottish setting ensures this series will be a must-read for me. Max and Janie are well-written and credible characters, and I look forward to reading how they develop as the series goes on. Look out for The Blood Tide early next year. Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.