I’m really happy to be on the blog tour for ‘Buried’ by Lynda La Plante; it’s great to be helping to introduce detective Jack Warr to the book crime scene.

Blurb

The gripping first book in a brand-new thriller series by the Queen of Crime Drama, Lynda La Plante.

DC Jack Warr and his girlfriend Maggie have just moved to London to start a new life together. Though charming, Jack can’t seem to find his place in the world – until he’s drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down.

In the aftermath of a fire at an isolated cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remains of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes. Jack’s search leads him deep into a murky criminal underworld – a world he finds himself surprisingly good at navigating.

But as the line of the law becomes blurred, how far will Jack go to find the answers – and what will it cost him?

In Buried, it’s time to meet DC Jack Warr as he digs up the deadly secrets of the past . . .

My thoughts

I love the Jane Tennant book series and following TV adaptation, so was super excited to be invited on the blog tour for La Plante’s new crime series, starting with ‘Buried’. This book introduces her new protagonist, detective Jack Warr and he is certainly a complex character. I moved from general annoyance, to likeability, back to frustration and annoyance…AND back to liking again. At the close of the book, I’d be up for reading more of Jack Warr, now that his nature/nurture debate-fed character really came to life in the last chapters of the book. He’s a man of contradictions, and the developing complexities of his actions build great character for this type of crime series protagonist.

So, the book links in with the ‘Widows’ books from La Plante. I’ve not read these, or watched the television adaptations, so Dolly Rawlins and her gang was not familiar. However, this didn’t matter, as La Plante’s plotting is very tight, and enough is embedded into the story of the past events for it to work without glitch. The root of this story is a past crime coming back into the police radar after a burnt body is found, with a rather large sum of money! This draws the investigation back to an unsolved train robbery, where millions of pounds were stolen, and the criminal gang (and money) disappeared without trace. This cold case enables La Plante to draw in, link and introduce Jack Warr.

I really enjoyed so many of the characters in this novel, there’s some great depth, humour, sadness and conflict, both private and professional. I loved the connections to the crime underworld, and how Jack is drawn into the past in a pretty personal way. There’s a lovely backdrop theme of adoption and this really hooked me into Jack’s story.

So, a brilliant beginning to what I hope will be a successful series. It’s a crime thriller read that hooks you in from page one and comes highly recommended from me.

Check out the other fabulous book bloggers on this tour for more opinions:

Available now – buy independent if you can!