Born In A Burial Gown

Shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger in 2013, this is the revised and updated first thriller in the Avison Fluke series by M. W. Craven, the acclaimed author of The Puppet Show.

Detective Inspector Avison Fluke is a man on the edge. He has committed a crime to get back to work, concealed a debilitating illness and is about to be made homeless. Just as he thinks things can’t get any worse, the body of a young woman is found buried on a Cumbrian building site.

Shot once in the back of the head, it is a cold, calculated execution. When the post-mortem reveals she has gone to significant expense in disguising her appearance, Fluke knows this is no ordinary murder.

With the help of a psychotic ex-Para, a gangland leader and a woman more interested in maggots than people, Fluke must find out who she was and why she was murdered before he can even think about finding her killer…

Praise for M. W. Craven:

‘Dark, sharp and compelling’ PETER JAMES

‘Fantastic’ MARTINA COLE

‘Britain’s answer to Harry Bosch’ MATT HILTON

‘Thrilling’ MICK HERRON

‘Brilliantly inventive’ WILLIAM SHAW

‘A powerful thriller from an explosive new talent’ DAVID MARK

“Great lead character, great setting, great writing. I am a fan.” AA DHAND

“DI Avison Fluke is a more rounded character than other fictional detectives I have read. He is in remission for a serious disease, which makes him 3D and not the clichéd one-dimensional character in a lot of novels. He is vulnerable and driven which makes him compelling.”

‘Deeply layered, fiendishly clever and absorbing’ MATT HILTON, author of the Joe Hunter series

‘British author Craven’s exceptional first novel, a police procedural set in Cumbria, introduces compulsive Det. Insp. Avison Fluke, who never feels more alive than when he’s hot on a killer’s trail. Deft atmospherics and local color, meticulous cop-shop and medical details, and an intriguing cast of realistic secondary characters keep the pages turning. Among the many fictional police detectives beset by grave personal and professional stresses within this genre, Fluke and his team stand out for their compassion, despite a job that so often confronts the worst in human nature’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review 2015)

‘Craven provides everything you want in a British procedural: a dark world, a tangled case, a clear and logical solution, and a deeply flawed hero who’s still well worth rooting for’ KIRKUS REVIEWS (2015)

NOTE:

This is the revised and updated version of Born in a Burial Gown, first published by Caffeine Nights in 2015