Washington Poe Series 2 Books Collection Set By M. W. Craven (The Puppet Show, Black Summer)

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Reading The Puppet Show, we were immediately drawn to the brilliant and surprising partnership of Detective Washington Poe and analyst Tilly Bradshaw. Mike Craven has created a distinctive, darkly humorous and compelling series that we can’t wait to develop for British and worldwide television viewers.” – Susan Hogg, Head of Drama: Studio Lambert Every time I see a new M.W Craven - Washington Poe novel is released I start to wonder is this the one that isn’t so good… Well rest assured this isn’t that novel and I am starting to think I could read about Poe and Tilly forever and just live happily until the end of time. 🤗 A notorious misogynist, Kane Hunt, reveals a death threat, a pressed dried flower and appalling poetry, prior to dying on a live TV talk show, he is found to have been poisoned. This is followed by the shamelessly corrupt and disgraced Tory MP for Sheffield East receiving the same type of threat, and despite being closely guarded, found dead in his bath. A far right social media commentator, monetising racism, claiming truth and facts are 'fake news', is isolated and closely monitored in hospital by both medical staff and the police, yet once again The Botanist manages to slip through the net. DI Stephanie Flynn, Poe and even Tilly struggle to find any leads, how is the botanist getting away with his crimes, he has surfaced out of the blue, how did he get to be so good? Surely he must have committed similar crimes before? In a twisted narrative a popular killer develops a cult following and Doyle is charged with murder, the pressure is on to solve 2 impossible time sensitive cases.

The series was optioned for TV by Studio Lambert in 2017, a full year before The Puppet Show was published, and things are progressing nicely. However, because I know the actors the studio wants, that’s all I can see when I picture who would play Poe and Tilly. Tilly and Poe are surely set to become firm favourites with crime fiction aficionados. The setting worked well with the murders – brutality set among England’s finest scenery. The plot was satisfyingly twisty and clever and the little bright-spots of humour worked well to offer the reader a little respite from the thrill of the read.” – Michael J. Malone, author of A Suitable Lie Why did you decide to pair up two completely different personalities, who, on paper, look like they wouldn’t work well together? And then there’s Estelle Doyle. It’s true the caustic pathologist has never walked down the sunny side of the street but this time has she gone too far? Shot twice in the head, her father’s murder appears to be an open and shut case. Estelle has firearms discharge residue on her hands, and, in a house surrounded by fresh snow, hers are the only footprints going in. Since her arrest she’s only said three words: ‘Tell Washington Poe.’He had taken up a probation officer position in Cumbria and worked his way to become chief officer. Not long after that, he decided to go into it and become an author on a full-time basis. He now says that he has different motivations when it comes to trying to get into the criminal mind. His first book in the Washington Poe series, set in Cumbria, came out in 2018. The Puppet Show would then be awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger in 2019. It has been since translated into over two dozen languages. If you like this series, you'll be pleased to know there are 18 books in the series as of June 2022. Another disgusting person, a racist podcaster, receives the next envelope. Because all of the Botanist's victims are nauseating people, the public loves him/her. T-shirts are sold, clubs are formed, speculation is rampant. And now meet civilian analyst Tilly Bradshaw. Brilliant, adorably awkward, a social hand grenade; she lives at home with her parents and isn’t allowed out on her own. She has three PhDs but doesn’t know how to boil an egg. Meeting Poe will be her first step into the non-academic world. The world might not yet be ready for her . . .

The Mercy Chair (2024) – Washington Poe has a story to tell. And he needs you to listen. You’ll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder . . . He’ll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the gifted analyst Tilly Bradshaw struggled to break it. He’ll tell you how the man’s murder was connected to a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier when a young girl massacred her entire family. Entertainment/unputdownability (if it's not a word, it should be! :) ) -- 5 stars -- fast-paced and gripping.There is CONSTANT action and suspense. There are two stories that go along side by side, and usually I would prefer one story over the other, but this book is the prime example of masterfully weaving two stories together. I was obsessed with both. I have been off work this week due to health problems, and I have gotten up every morning at 6am to read. M.W. Craven is an accomplished author of fiction. He is an English writer known for his crime fiction novels.

Writing Style ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I love Craven’s writing style and the way he builds a story. It works brilliantly for my personal tastes, and I often think you couldn’t write any of this differently. The balance of humour and sensitivity, with the fear and tension and a forensically plotted story, put Craven up there as a favourite crime / thriller writer. Meanwhile, the Serious Crime Analysis Section of the British National Crime Agency (NCA) are conducting a stakeout in Watford. D.S. Washington Poe, his superior D.I. Stephanie Flynn and polymath crime analyst Matilda “Tilly” Bradshaw are becoming somewhat fractious as they enter the third day of their surveillance in pursuit of a vicious serial rapist. Then Poe receives a desperate summons from his friend and associate Estelle Doyle, Europe’s foremost forensic pathologist. Estelle has been arrested in Northumberland for the shooting murder of her father, a member of the landed gentry. Poe has no doubt of Estelle’s innocence, despite all the evidence pointing towards her guilt. Carlisle-born M. W. Craven took up a probation officer role in Whitehaven in 1999. Seventeen years later, at the rank of assistant chief officer, he became a full-time author.The body count keeps going up, and as it does, Poe finds out that he is much more invested in this case than he would have thought. In a conclusion where everything that Poe has believed about himself gets shattered, he will soon find out that there are things even worse out there than being burned alive. Can he catch a killer before it’s too late? Read this book to find out! With this book, its quite official that MW Craven is my go-to author and this one was so meticulously and smartly done, he's now upgraded from my go-to author to AUTOBUY author. Another intelligently plotted and brilliantly conceived thriller from one of my favourite crime / thriller authors, M.W. Craven. The standout for me in Craven’s books is the storytelling and the way Craven ramps up the tension, thrill, and anticipation, and maintains this to the last word. The layers he builds into the story are meticulously planned, the details and unveiling of evidence and insights into people is forensically plotted, and the characters he has created are likeable and perfectly ‘hinged’. A well-known and outspoken misogynist dies during an interview on television. He seems to have been poisoned. In the investigation following his death, a pressed flower and an odd poem are found among his belongings as well as the envelope in which they were sent to him. Very few mourned his death but Poe is a cop and it is his job to solve mysteries such as this one. The Botanist is an engrossing read, and a worthy winner of the 2023 British Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. It’s the first book by CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning author M.W. Craven that I’ve read, but won’t be the last.