#BlogTour ‘The Curator’ by M.W Craven

In

About the book…

It’s Christmas and a serial killer is leaving displayed body parts all over Cumbria. A strange message is left at each scene: #BSC6. Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency’s Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were some victims anaesthetized, while others died in appalling agony? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren’t even aware of? And why did the victims all take the same two weeks off work three years earlier?

And when a disgraced FBI agent gets in touch things take an even darker turn. Because she doesn’t think Poe is dealing with a serial killer at all; she thinks he’s dealing with someone far, far worse – a man who calls himself the Curator.

And nothing will ever be the same again…

Huge thanks to Beth at Little Brown for inviting me to join the tour for the third Washington Poe novel,‘The Curator’, which is out on the 4th June in audiobook and ebook formats.
He has done it again!

MW Craven has created a fresh labyrinth, dropped Tilly and Poe smack in the middle and set a Minotaur loose to track down. The Ariadne’s thread of this tale belongs to their boss, Stephanie Flynn, weighed down -literally and metaphorically by the latter stages of pregnancy-and Tilly’s Mole People. This is the name given to the self confessed computer nerds whose hacking and surveillance skills are second to none and are central to cracking the identity of this book’s protagonist, The Curator.
If you have read the other books preceding this-and if not, why not?get to it!-the you will be aware that Craven’s openers pull no punches. He leaves you, the quailing reader, under no assumptions that these are the good guys and these are not. That is not to say there is a loss of subtlety and nuance in his books, he has simply created characters with very clear moral compasses so when they get their men/women, they are making this world a safer place-Poe is, in my humble opinion, the British Harry Bosch whereas Matilda ‘Tilly’ Bradshaw is entirely her own creation and I bloody love her to bits-please don’t break her!
The eponymous Curator is so called due to his/her ability to manipulate others to do their bidding-the name comes from a FBI agent who could be the US Poe counterpart in investigative work . The story begins with the discovery of three sets of fingers turning up in random, seemingly inexplicable -almost impossible-places at Christmas time, belonging to 3 seemingly unconnectable people.
One dead body, a kite stuck in a tree later, Poe and Tilly realised that they are dealing with the most difficult and challenging cases of their careers thus far.
A dazzling display of technology which even luddites like myself can follow-trust, me, this week I fixed a plug with sellotape and argued point blank with my other half that just because smoke is coming out of a blender, doesn’t mean it might not come back to life if we just gave it a break-blows you away with being deceptively simple at the same time as being supremely clever.
The narrative has twists which could give you nosebleeds, and you genuinely feel that you are racing alongside Poe and his team as they rush to crack the code of what the Curator’s endgame is.
Fiendishly clever, with notes of one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels-nope, not going to say which one as it would give the game away-‘The Curator’ is everything you’d hope for from MW Craven and more. All the usual ingredients are there-black humour, Poe’s affection for Tilly causing you to punch the air when people wrong her, and he steps up, a twisted villain,and his own search for his identity continuing.
What I love about the Washington Poe series is the contrats between his personal and professional lives-at work he spends his time restoring the identities of those lost and murdered people, whilst exposing their killers and yet, his own past is a mystery that seems to be further away from exposition the more that he digs.
How many days are there till book 4?
I am sure someone out there has set an alarm!
Do yourself a favour and go buy the book!

About the author

M. W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle, running away to join the army at the tender age of sixteen. He spent the next ten years travelling the world having fun, leaving in 1995 to complete a degree in social work with specialisms in criminology and substance misuse. Thirty-one years after leaving Cumbria, he returned to take up a probation officer position in Whitehaven, eventually working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later he took the plunge, accepted redundancy and became a full-time author. He now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals . . .

M. W. Craven is married and lives in Carlisle with his wife, Joanne. When he isn’t out with his springer spaniel, or talking nonsense in the pub, he can usually be found at punk gigs and writing festivals up and down the country.

Twitter-@MWCravenUK @BethWright26 @LittlebrownUK

You can find all the latest news and forthcoming events at M.W Craven’s website-it is highly enjoyable with lots to read on it! (I thoroughly agree!!)

https://www.mwcraven.com/

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