Grave Intent by Alexander Hartung

[Jax14]

As is his custom, Dr. Bernhard Valburg goes to place flowers at his wife's grave. This time he finds a shallow grave dug next to hers with a cross bearing his name and a date of death on it. The date is tomorrow. Panicked he calls police dispatch who believe it to be a hoax but as a precaution advise him to come to the station. He never arrives and his body is found in the grave the next day.

So begins a race against time for Detective Jan Tommen as more graves are discovered. With the help of forensic pathologist (and highly acerbic) Zoe, hacker Max and a mountain of a man, Chandru, they try to piece together the connection between the intended victims and stop the murders taking place. When one of them becomes a potential target, no holds are barred to find the perpetrator.

This story ticked off all the boxes of a solid mystery/crime thriller. Even though the characters appear in a book before this, the necessary info is repeated and at no stage do you feel as though you are trying to catch up. The characters are solid. Even when some are only touched on you can still get to grips with their personalities, actions and emotions. The bonds of friendship run deep in this story, as characters are pushed beyond their limits to make life changing choices. The fast pace and flow of the story is great-keeps you turning just one more page and then just one more page! The logical progression of evidence to find the killer makes sense-so often the reader has to push plausibility boundaries but this story leaves you satisfied after reading the last page.

A few minor punctuation issues crop up, but nothing to distract from an excellently written book. A fantastic thriller able to be read in a day, with non-stop action, believable characters and a cohesive storyline. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance review.