Dead Ground cover art

Dead Ground

Washington Poe, Book 4

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Dead Ground

By: M. W. Craven
Narrated by: John Banks
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About this listen

Winner of the prestigious CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER AWARD 2022

Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2022

Detective Sergeant Washington Poe is in court, fighting eviction from his beloved and isolated croft, when he is summoned to a backstreet brothel in Carlisle where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat. Poe is confused—he hunts serial killers and this appears to be a straightforward murder-by-pimp—but his attendance was requested personally, by the kind of people who prefer to remain in the shadows.

As Poe and the socially awkward programmer Tilly Bradshaw delve deeper into the case, they are faced with seemingly unanswerable questions: despite being heavily vetted for a high-profile job, why does nothing in the victim's background check out? Why was a small ornament left at the murder scene—and why did someone on the investigation team steal it? And what is the connection to a flawlessly executed bank heist three years earlier, a heist where nothing was taken....

©2021 M. W. Craven (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK Crime Crime Thrillers Modern Detectives Mystery Police Procedural Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction Murder Law Suspense

Critic Reviews

"Heart-pounding, hilarious, sharp and shocking, Dead Ground is further proof that M.W. Craven never disappoints. Miss this series at your peril." (Chris Whitaker)

"I've been following M.W. Craven's Poe/Tilly series from the very beginning, and it just gets better and better. Dead Ground is a fast-paced crime novel with as many twists and turns as a country lane. I can't wait for the next one." (Peter Robinson)

"Dead Ground is both entertaining and engaging with great characters and storyline. I loved this first dip into the world of Tilly and Poe!" (BA Paris)
All stars
Most relevant  
This was very enjoyable and kept me intrigued right up to the last page!!
Very well researched and I love Poe’s character as well as his offsider geek.

Definitely highly recommended reading/listening!

Enjoy!
Nicola South Australia

Excellent read, great narration!

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Starts off as pretty dry with a fairly complex storyline weaving it’s way through the narrative with lots of twists and turns. Basically the author sets up quite a weighty scenario and then, through his wonderful protagonists, resolves everything beautifully in surprising ways…. Great listen!

Very satisfying tale

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I can’t say how much I am enjoying this series… my only fear is that, I am about to start the latest/most recent book to date, and will have to wait until the next one is published 😱

Poe and Tilly are mismatches made for each other. Teamed up with ‘DI Stephanie Flynn’ they are fantastic reading. I strongly recommend this series ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dead great!

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First listen I’ve had from this author and wish I hadn’t been so late coming to the party. Incredible and super clever plot. Off to order some more of this. 👏👏👏

Brilliant, clever and entertaining

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I'm editing this review having just listened to the superb first book in the series -- The Puppet Show.
Dead Ground was the first one of the series i discovered and whilst i enjoyed it, i loved Puppet Show, Curator and Botanist even more.
Coming in cold, i wasn't sure if Tilly was overly stereotyped as the autistic genius with a little girl voice. But book 1 establishes her relationship with Poe really well, so I'm deleting that reservation and recommending listening to the books in order.

Loved the characters and the story.
Did wonder about the MI5 agent who doesn't know what luminol is, though (really?)

One of the best crime series out there

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Wow, very exciting story, this kept me guessing to the end. Loved the story and the narration as well. Will definitely read another Craven.

Great story

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First time I have listen to this author, and really enjoyed it. loved the storyline and plots. Narration was easy to listen to as well. looking forward to listening to more.

good story

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Usually the plot to this book would not be one I reach for. But I enjoy Poe, Tilly and the story that they create.

Thrilling

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While I love the characters or Washington and Tilly I didn’t really enjoy this one. I pushed through to the end but found it too complicated . The criminals kept
Coming until the good ones ended up as horrible criminals too! Have loved the other Washington Poe books so much but this one left me flat!

I didn’t really enjoy this one. Too complex and difficult to follow for a non army person

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