A Welcome Grave

The Lincoln Perry Mysteries, Book 3

By: Michael Koryta

Narrated by: Scott Brick

The third novel by award-winning mystery writer Michael Koryta featuring private investigator Lincoln Perry. Once a rising star on the Cleveland police force, Perry ended his career when he left one of the city’s prominent attorneys, Alex Jefferson, bleeding in the parking lot of his country club—retribution for his affair with Perry’s fiancée.

Now Jefferson is dead, the victim of a brutal murder, and his widow has called upon Perry for a favor he knows he shouldn’t grant but can’t turn down: to find Jefferson’s estranged son, partial beneficiary of the dead man’s fortune. The case is simple enough, a routine “locate,” and he’ll be paid plenty of money for the work. The encounter should be simple, too: a brief exchange of information and maybe an empty condolence before Perry gets back into his truck and returns home. Instead, he’s loaded into a police car and taken to a rural jail while Jefferson’s son is zipped into a body bag.

Perry soon learns that Jefferson’s millions are the target of a thirst for revenge that hasn’t been satisfied by blood. As a pair of deadly assailants push deep into the investigator’s life, they bring with them police from two states who are determined to see Perry in jail.

Building on the skill that prompted the Toronto Sun to call him “one of America’s best young mystery writers,” Michael Koryta makes A Welcome Grave an intense exploration of the lengths to which a desperate man is forced to go to clear his name and solve a crime. This is a thrilling new book that justifies the critical acclaim and solidifies his role as an emerging talent among today’s top writers.

©2007 Michael Koryta (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Koryta is one of the best of the best, plain and simple.” (Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times best-selling author)

“Stylish prose…well observed.” ( New York Times)

“Addictively readable.” ( Chicago Tribune)

Riveting story

No problem with holding your attention throughout the entire story. Was disappointed in the main character though. His reactions and decision making were more akin to those of an average person off the street than of an experienced PI/cop.

A Welcome Grave

A Welcome Grave was well written and read. A great suspense novel. Next book please.

Standard-Fare Mystery Thriller

Not a bad detective mystery, but not great either. Drags a bit in the end, so be prepared for a lapse in an otherwise evenly-paced detective fiction.

Good listen, but too many characters

This was a great listen, but it certainly isn't something you can listen to as you're floating around doing other things. There are two rich guys, at least a half dozen gangsters, several Russians and a couple of people you may or may not meet? This book is Charlie from It's Always Sunny trying to solve the case of Pepe Silvia.

workmanlike

Perhaps I've reached a saturation point with this series. The reading is first-rate, the story moves along well, there are lots of perilous encounters to overcome for the doughty hero . . . But there are some silly things. A GSR test would have cleared Our Hero from the false charge of murder, but basic police procedures were neither followed nor mentioned. The whole antagonistic cops thread of the plot was pretty much a simplistic plot device, annoying for causing hardly-believable complications. But with some suspension of disbelief, the suspense is good, the story complex but not too complex to understand, and there is enough revenge going around to satisfy anyone.