The Calling of the Grave

This is not Simon Beckett's first novel centered around forensic anthropology, but it is the first available on Audible. The plot--the search for a corpse believed to be a victim of an imprisoned serial killer--keeps twisting as little can be taken for the truth.

The readers performance does much to salvage this book. The plot however is overfilled with ridiculous contrivances and hackneyed plot devices. I spent too much time to tutting and rolling my eyes during this one.

Linear, effective momentum

It was interesting how effective it was to have a protagonist (Dr. David Hunter) who's essentially passive as a character----or who at least is an obvious vehicle for the reader to get pulled along into the story. He gets pulled into the whole "Where are the bodies of the dead missing girls and the guy who killed them?" saga, allowing himself to be available to several other characters with more active personas. You would think this would make him a boring or contemptible character, but while Dr. Hunter's not the most wildly exciting person on his own, his amenableness to enter exciting situations brings us interest and he never comes off as totally clueless. <br/><br/><br/>Also, although the story itself was quite linear and simple-- agreeable forensic doctor gets pulled into potentially dangerous amateur sleuthing, with increasingly perilous encounters--the author made different choices for several of the characters than I would have expected. I liked that. There were several notable surprises related to both minor and major characters, some life-altering and shocking, others simply a matter of the character's motivations or choices being different than I half-consciously assumed based on their familiar character "type" when first introduced to us.

I bought this audiobook specifically because I wanted more mysteries narrated by Keeble. He's really good for this genre. A police procedural narrator in particular needs to be able to do dialogue in a wide variety of accents for characters of both sexes, all ages and multiple nationalities and socio-economic backgrounds, i.e. the cast of characters whom police will interview. He does all this here (although this is more a "police consultant procedural") but he is also such a great narrator of the exposition of a novel, both in first person (as here) and third person. He sounds like a reasonable, sensible person of average means and perhaps above-average intelligence. That probably describes a lot of the people who read books like this one, hence why he connects so well with us.

Actually, yes. A life changing event happens to one of the characters and it brought a few tears to my eyes with the simplicity and poignancy with which the author rendered it.

<br/>I expected this book to be much heavier on the forensic medicine and anthropology than it was. That's okay, though.<br/><br/> I was surprised by how well this story hung together on such a simple frame and first person POV. I'm generally not a fan of first person narration in fiction; it limits us to one perspective (that's often unreliable), while the presumed detachment and omnipresence of a 3rd person narrator is more secure and enjoyable to me. But here we have a protagonist (Dr. David Hunter) who is so reasonable, calm and flexible (I would say "responsive" to people and events around him) that it's hard to not to surrender to him taking us along for the ride.<br/><br/>This is a great listen when you don't want to have to focus too hard on a big cast of characters, dense passages of description or numerous plot points. From page one, it's just full steam ahead with the good doctor and the adventure he's found himself on.

This started out strong, but faltered midway and then turned into a rather Implassible melodrama. But if you can overlook the mounting plot contrivances and focus on the narration, this is entertaining.

Despite its gruesome subject, I enjoyed the book.

It had enough twists and turns to keep me wanting to listen right up to the end.

Jerome Monk has escaped from confinement. He is a convicted serial rapist and murderer. Eight years before Dr. David Hunter, a medical doctor and forensic anthropologist, had been part of a effort to discover the bodies of some of Monk's victims. It had not turned out well.

Now that Monk has escaped it appears that he is targeting everyone who was involved with the earlier search. As a result Dr. Hunter is now pulled back into the case.

It seems from the other reviews that there is either too much forensic information or not enough. In fact, there is isn't as much in-depth forensic information, but the suspense and action are well done.

Shorter than his prior novels, this one clocks in unabridged at about 10 hours. It's read by Jonathan Keeble. I haven't encountered Mr. Keeble before but he does a good job as the voice of the book. No annoying mannerisms.

There was very little character development causing ambivalence toward the main characters.I did like Monk probably due to his detailed description, even though the character was relatively uninventive for a serial killer, hulking, abnormally strong, and seemingly stupid. The lack of interesting characters slowed the plot.

It is unlikely that I would listen to another Beckett. While not bad, it was unsatisfying.

Jonathan Keeble was animated in the read. Hindered though, because I didn't much like the writing or the story.

While I didn't like the book, I did listen to the end and I wanted to find out what happened. Bit tedious and hollow of an ending though, because I found the twist relatively obvious and I didn't care about the main character.