Today I’m incredibly excited to be a part of the blog tour for M.W. Craven’s follow up to the brilliant The Puppet Show! Read on to find out more and see what I thought…
Title: Black Summer
Author: M.W. Craven
Series: Washington Poe #2
Publisher: Little Brown UK
[Synopsis]
After The Puppet Show, a new storm is coming . . .
Jared Keaton, chef to the stars. Charming. Charismatic. Psychopath . . . He’s currently serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of his daughter, Elizabeth. Her body was never found and Keaton was convicted largely on the testimony of Detective Sergeant Washington Poe.
So when a young woman staggers into a remote police station with irrefutable evidence that she is Elizabeth Keaton, Poe finds himself on the wrong end of an investigation, one that could cost him much more than his career.
Helped by the only person he trusts, the brilliant but socially awkward Tilly Bradshaw, Poe races to answer the only question that matters: how can someone be both dead and alive at the same time?
And then Elizabeth goes missing again – and all paths of investigation lead back to Poe.
Can Black Summer be a worthy follow up to the brilliantly entertaining The Puppet Show? The answer is absolutely!
We make a welcome return to the world of the ever-confident DS Poe, and his brilliant sidekick Bradshaw (who I love reading about once again), with a storyline that is, to me, even more intriguing than that of The Puppet Show. Both stories are brilliant but I just found the story in Black Sumer to be easier to get into, and to really lose myself in. I didn’t want to put this book down, and hugely enjoyed trying to guess the solution to the seemingly unsolvable crime – how can Keaton’s daughter, Elizabeth, be alive and kicking when Poe was absolutely sure that not only was Elizabeth dead all those years ago, but her horrible father killed her. You know if Poe thinks a certain way, it’s likely to be the truth, so this story gets into the reader’s head and makes them start to wonder: could Poe have really f*cked up? And if he hasn’t, then HOW on earth has Elizabeth come back to life? Therein starts a race against time to try and work this out, prevent the evil Keaton from leaving prison, and avoid Poe himself getting dangerously tangled up on the wrong side of the law…
I would definitely recommend this novel – it’s fast paced without being rushed, and keeps the tension high throughout as Poe and Bradshaw come up against some really unlikeable characters – from the criminal and police worlds! It all combines to make a truly addictive read. Bring on book 3!
[Rating: 5/5]
Many thanks to M.W. Craven for providing a copy of this novel, on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.
[About the Author]
M. W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle, running away to join the army at the tender age of sixteen. He spent the next ten years travelling the world having fun, leaving in 1995 to complete a degree in social work with specialisms in criminology and substance misuse.
Thirty-one years after leaving Cumbria, he returned to take up a probation officer position in Whitehaven, eventually working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later he took the plunge, accepted redundancy and became a full-time author. He now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals…
M. W. Craven is married and lives in Carlisle with his wife, Joanne. When he isn’t out with his springer spaniel, or talking nonsense in the pub, he can usually be found at punk gigs and writing festivals up and down the country.
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