The Calling of the Grave
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Book Description
Forensics expert Dr David Hunter returns in the menacing new novel from this international bestselling crime thriller writer.
Product Description
'At first glance it could have been anything - a stone, a knotted root - until you looked more closely. Thrusting out of the wet earth, its bones visible through rags of flesh, was a decomposing hand...' It was eight years ago that they found the body buried on the moor. They were certain that this was one of psychotic rapist and multiple murderer Jerome Monk's teenage victims. Which left just two more bodies to find. But the ill-conceived search ended badly. And with Monk safely behind bars, the momentum faltered. For forensics expert David Hunter, and those others who were part of the recovery team, life moved on. And the dead were left undisturbed. Now, though, a nightmare scenario unfurls. Monk has escaped and seems to be targeting anyone involved in that original ill-fated operation. Lured back to the moors by a desperate call for help, Hunter begins to realise that neither the events unfolding now - nor those of eight years ago - are quite what they seem. And as the maniac's violent trail edges ever closer, the past is suddenly anything but dead and buried...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Calling of the Grave is the 4th installment in the Dr David Hunter series. While it can be easily read as a stand alone novel, i highly recommend that u go through the series in order as some important facts regarding the 2nd Hunter book are given away here that may spoil a bit of your enjoyment later on.
I agree with some reviewers here that this is definitely the weaker book so far in this excellent series. And yet i still gave it 5 stars without thinking twice, so highly i rate this author. It is just that the others were on a level that is rarely reached and this was just normally good.
As usual Beckett is an excellent researcher on everything he writes on about and he manages even this time round to give us an excellent picture of the bleak atmosphere of the setting the story is set in. Really liked that the novel starts with 8 years in the past, as it gives us a glimpse in the life of Hunter before we knew him.
Roughly without giving anything away the story starts with Hunter aiding the police in locating the bodies of a convicted serial killer. However all their attempts fail miserably and they return empty handed. 8 years later,after learning of the killer s escape from prison Hunter receives a phone call from one of the original members of the search team. And before long Hunter finds himself immersed in a case that was long buried and forgotten...
The typical twist in the tale at the end that Beckett is so good at makes him one of the best authors in my opinion and i m really amazed to learn that he is not so popular in the UK, country of his origin. Guess we ll have to wait quite a bit for the 5th Hunter book, but i m sure that as always it will be worth the wait.
I agree with some reviewers here that this is definitely the weaker book so far in this excellent series. And yet i still gave it 5 stars without thinking twice, so highly i rate this author. It is just that the others were on a level that is rarely reached and this was just normally good.
As usual Beckett is an excellent researcher on everything he writes on about and he manages even this time round to give us an excellent picture of the bleak atmosphere of the setting the story is set in. Really liked that the novel starts with 8 years in the past, as it gives us a glimpse in the life of Hunter before we knew him.
Roughly without giving anything away the story starts with Hunter aiding the police in locating the bodies of a convicted serial killer. However all their attempts fail miserably and they return empty handed. 8 years later,after learning of the killer s escape from prison Hunter receives a phone call from one of the original members of the search team. And before long Hunter finds himself immersed in a case that was long buried and forgotten...
The typical twist in the tale at the end that Beckett is so good at makes him one of the best authors in my opinion and i m really amazed to learn that he is not so popular in the UK, country of his origin. Guess we ll have to wait quite a bit for the 5th Hunter book, but i m sure that as always it will be worth the wait.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
There's only one word to describe this fourth book to feature Dr. David Hunter: bleak.
A word that describes the countryside, the people, the storyline and Dr. Hunter, not to meantion the homicidal killer on the run on Dartmoor.
That said, the author succeeds in keeping the action flowing as the hunt for the bodies of victims killed eight years ago intensifies. People's reputations are at serious risk, indeed their lives, too, are suddenly placed in the spotlight as the past catches up with the present.
It's a good plot which makes it difficult to second-guess the ending; always a good sign which keeps the reader involved to the very last page. I like, too, the brief connections to the earlier stories in this small series, especially, although sadly, it brings us up to date with Hunter's personal tragedy and may well explain his lack of humour. Usually forensic pathologists have to look on the bright side, despite their calling but Hunter is different. So, too, the other main characters. The author's only concession to anyone remotely worth a smile is one single police officer and look where that gets him.
I expect it will be quite a while before the fifth book arrives now, so make the most of this one. Well worth a read and well up to the mark for books in this genre. In fact, there are more commercial authors who could well learn a thing or two from Simon Beckett, though they probably won't.
A word that describes the countryside, the people, the storyline and Dr. Hunter, not to meantion the homicidal killer on the run on Dartmoor.
That said, the author succeeds in keeping the action flowing as the hunt for the bodies of victims killed eight years ago intensifies. People's reputations are at serious risk, indeed their lives, too, are suddenly placed in the spotlight as the past catches up with the present.
It's a good plot which makes it difficult to second-guess the ending; always a good sign which keeps the reader involved to the very last page. I like, too, the brief connections to the earlier stories in this small series, especially, although sadly, it brings us up to date with Hunter's personal tragedy and may well explain his lack of humour. Usually forensic pathologists have to look on the bright side, despite their calling but Hunter is different. So, too, the other main characters. The author's only concession to anyone remotely worth a smile is one single police officer and look where that gets him.
I expect it will be quite a while before the fifth book arrives now, so make the most of this one. Well worth a read and well up to the mark for books in this genre. In fact, there are more commercial authors who could well learn a thing or two from Simon Beckett, though they probably won't.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Till now, these David Hunter novels were composed in the shadow of Patricia Cornwall, unrelentingly full of deliquescent body parts, most amply so in "Whispers of the Dead" which was set in the US in a so-called Body Farm. But this latest book marks a change, a shift away from heavy gruesome, and instead runs a plot that's all twists and turns and considerable thoughtfulness.
The opening is highly forensic at first, an excavation on Dartmoor to recover the dead victims of a serial killer. To assist the police, the serial killer is brought out from imprisonment, and an escape attempt turns the investigation of the graves into chaos. But although the book then fast forwards eight years, it's this first scene which will return, and return, because it holds all the clues which will take their time to unravel. There's tension in plenty as the protagonists from the excavation on the moors return, in menace and in confrontation that pulls everything inside out, and inside out again, and again. Passages of tenderness are interspersed, and the menace is heightened as vulnerabilities and feelings are at stake.
The endings - best to put that in the plural because there's at least three - leave no stone unturned, and are not exactly comforting. To the end, the writing is lucid, indeed relentless in its clarity of phrasing and thought, and at times quietly poetic. It left me impressed, and with a sense that Simon Beckett has moved forwards, and is becoming skilled in unwinding bleakness without any longer needing to take us to the autopsy room to bring about the shudders.
Recommended.
The opening is highly forensic at first, an excavation on Dartmoor to recover the dead victims of a serial killer. To assist the police, the serial killer is brought out from imprisonment, and an escape attempt turns the investigation of the graves into chaos. But although the book then fast forwards eight years, it's this first scene which will return, and return, because it holds all the clues which will take their time to unravel. There's tension in plenty as the protagonists from the excavation on the moors return, in menace and in confrontation that pulls everything inside out, and inside out again, and again. Passages of tenderness are interspersed, and the menace is heightened as vulnerabilities and feelings are at stake.
The endings - best to put that in the plural because there's at least three - leave no stone unturned, and are not exactly comforting. To the end, the writing is lucid, indeed relentless in its clarity of phrasing and thought, and at times quietly poetic. It left me impressed, and with a sense that Simon Beckett has moved forwards, and is becoming skilled in unwinding bleakness without any longer needing to take us to the autopsy room to bring about the shudders.
Recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing
I have enjoyed Simon Beckett's previous works but found the latest one somewhat turgid. It may well have been my mood at the time of reading, but I wasn't gripped and had to make a... Read more
Published 11 days ago by dolally
Converted Simon Beckett Fan
This is the first Simon Beckett book I've ever read and I really enjoyed it, without knowing any of Dr Hunter's back story. It was recommended by my Dad. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Rachaelmnorris
The Calling of the Grave
'The Calling of the Grave' by Simon Beckett is an outstanding crime/thriller.
Forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter is engaged in the hunt for the victims of serial... Read more
Forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter is engaged in the hunt for the victims of serial... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Carroty Nell
Good, but too predictable
I love Simon Beckett`s books and this is another great read.
Its definitely his weakest book so far though. Read more
Its definitely his weakest book so far though. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. D. I. Bennett
Brilliant
Sam Becketts books are brilliant. So far three David Hunter thrillers all different and very descriptive with a sting in the tail for all of them! Brilliant
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. A. I. Ilsley
Worth waiting for
Simon Beckett doesn't produce his books very frequently but they are worth waiting for.This is no exception with lots of twists and turns from start to finish with no "soggy bits"... Read more
Published 1 month ago by STEVE
Going off the boil
This is the fourth book in the Dr David Hunter series and having very much enjoyed The Chemistry of Death and Written in Bone it has been down hill since and i found this a very... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Cenkay
amazing
simon beckett is a star! just couldn't put down the book! excellent! can't wait for the next one! best read in months.
Published 2 months ago by christelle
the least favourite of mine
I was bowled over by WRITTEN IN BONE and the CHEMISTRY OF DEATH is my second favourite. Unfortunately I wasn't quite as thrilled with this book. Read more
Published 2 months ago by judith roycroft
The calling of the grave
I Could not wait for his next book to come out as l had read the last 3. As usually the minute l picked it up l did not want to put it down. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dobby
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