To catch a killer… Maybe you’ve got to be one… Acacia Pines, USA.

Sheriff Cohen’s life is falling apart – his father accidently burned down the retirement home, his wife has moved out, and his son is bullying other kids at school. When high-school student, Lucas Connor, is abducted, Cohen sees a chance to get his life back on track – to win back his wife and scoop the reward money offered for Lucas’ safe return.

#HisFavouriteGraves @PaulCleave @OrendaBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

But as the body count rises, it becomes clear that Cohen’s going to have to make the kind of decision from which there’s no coming back … a decision with deadly consequences… A furiously paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller exposing the dark underbelly of small-town life, His Favourite Graves is also a twisted and twisty story of father and son relationships, and the one last gamble of a desperate man to save everything…

My Review

This is probably one of the cleverest books I have ever read. Don’t imagine it’s a straightforward crime drama. It’s full of twists and surprises, at times veering towards the unbelievable, but it’s so convincing, that you go along with it.

Everyone has an agenda, and everyone is capable of the most heinous of acts if pushed far enough. But is your own behaviour justified when the victim is also a killer and abuser of the worst kind?

Recently, teenager Freddy Holt went missing and was never seen again. Then a boy named Taylor Reed threw himself off a roof and died. Ruled a tragic suicide, following constant bullying. Lucas Connor isn’t popular at school. People think he’s weird. So they stuff him into a locker and padlock him in. But instead of being rescued, he’s abducted. His father calls the police, but they are sceptical at first. Till they find the locker has been forced open.

Sheriff Cohen is there on the scene. He knows Lucas’s father Peter. Knows his once successful career as a writer is in tatters, his wife has left him, and he’s an alcoholic. Cohen’s wife has also left, but for other reasons. They are still friends. Cohen hopes that if he can find Lucas and find his abductor, he can scoop the reward money, pay off his debts and get his wife back. Police are not allowed to claim rewards, but he’s thought of a way round that. And if all that isn’t complicated enough, his father has dementia and burned down the care home where he was living, and his son Nathan is the worst kind of bully.

But that’s only a tiny part of it. No-one is who they seem. The main characters will shock you to the core. Just who are the victims and who are the killers? His Favourite Graves turns that on its head and back again. And some people can be both. An absolute corker and one of my top books of the year.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.

About the Author

Paul is an award-winning author who often divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where most of his novels are set, and Europe. He’s won the New Zealand Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur book festival’s crime novel of the year award in France, and has been shortlisted for the Edgar and the Barry in the US and the Ned Kelly in Australia. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He’s thrown his Frisbee in more than forty countries, plays tennis badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many. The critically acclaimed The Quiet People was published in 2021 and was followed in 2022 by The Pain Tourist – a number-one bestseller in three countries.

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.