Hitchcock meets the Coen Brothers in a darkly comic suspense novel with the tense pacing of a thriller and the beauty of the best of literary fiction
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"A ripping good novel" The New York Times
"An astonishing debut novel, smart and stylish... with an absolutely Hitchcockian menace" Peter Straub
There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard, but it could always be worse.
Lonely widower Jason Getty killed a man he wished he'd never met, and buried him behind his own house. A year later, just as he's ready to move on, Jason's gardeners dig up two other bodies on his property, a man and a woman. Apparently unrelated, the surprising stories behind each murder begin to unravel as Jason becomes entangled in a race against time, two determined police detectives, and his own conscience.
Jamie Mason's dark imagination, tender wisdom and sharp sense of comedy take us inside the hearts and souls of all her characters - policemen, criminals, victims, innocent bystanders and one truly remarkable dog.
Psychologically brilliant, relentlessly entertaining and irresistibly pitch-perfect, Three Graves Full is a dazzling literary debut.
"Mason strides confidently into Coen brothers territory with her highly entertaining, solidly plotted debut about loneliness and the need for companionship" Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Three Graves Full is something special - an offbeat, high-class, pacy mystery that blends black humour with dark lyricism, and deft, intricate plotting with dead-on psychological insight. A gem of a debut" Tana French
"Portraying characters so well and so thoroughly, examining and explaining their motives even for murder, requires a level of skill that is rare, marking this an astonishingly accomplished debut and Mason as a writer to watch very closely" Booklist, starred review, A Top Ten Crime Novel of 2013
"Mason's quirky debut novel deftly weaves dark humor into a plot that's as complicated as a jigsaw puzzle but more fun to put together... Mason's written a dandy of a first outing with not a single boring moment" Kirkus
"Filled with biting wit and great prose style, Three Graves Full by newcomer Jamie Mason may be the debut of the year" Bookspan
The writing style is different but pleasing and the plot had me turning the pages. It's hard to find a book like this these days, but Mason pulled it off seamlessly. About 3/4's of the way through it felt like the book slowed down a bit, but then the plot got even more interesting and I had a newfound interest to finish. My only critique to note is that the author mentions some technology advancements such as "cellphones", but didn't use any forensics to make the plot even more believing. However, the book was still good and believable without the technicalities. Hard to believe that there's even a story to read when the first chapter reveals who killed who, right? But there is plenty more to come that will keep you entertained until the end. If you love books with twists, turns, some dark humor and mystery.... Then read this book.
Disclaimer *I received a copy of this book in a First Reads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content disclosed in my review. *
