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Grave Expectations: The hilarious and gripping BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick for 2023

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Book four takes you for an emotional roller coaster that you will both love and hate. Just when you think things are going great, the rug gets pulled out from underneath Charlie (very much how it sometime goes in real life.) If you’ve read the series up to this point and are invested in the characters, this book will infuriate you, but it is still worth the read. I won’t say too much about this book as it would give away the good parts, but I will say that the characters are so well written and described that I was actually mad at one of them (in my opinion if an author can make you love or hate somebody, they clearly did their job.) I can’t wait till I find out what happens in the next book “Ashes To Ashes.” When the pair arrive at The Cloisters, they find themselves drawn to a tragic and unrecognisable ghost, clearly an unquiet spirit who met an untimely end. Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family - depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage reactionary Alex - Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when. Together they must race against incompetence to find the murderer before the murderer finds them, in this funny, modern, media-literate debut mystery for the My Favourite Murder generation." Grave Expectations by Alice Bell is a really fun paranormal crime fiction debut that kept me interested in both the characters and what would happen. I will say that listening to the audiobook means you have to really concentrate otherwise it is easy to miss things/get confused, and I did find myself having to rewind quite a bit because I wasn't paying close enough attention. That being said, the audiobook was still really great to listen to, and I thought Sophie Roberts did an excellent job with the narration. The accent was a little difficult for me to understand at times, so I did end up listening to this at around 2.5-2.8x speed; 2x speed in the car. C.J. Archer is the USA Today bestselling author of historical mystery and historical fantasy novels including the GLASS AND STEELE series, the CLEOPATRA FOX MYSTERIES, the MINISTRY OF CURIOSITIES and the FREAK HOUSE books.

This really reminded me of the Glass Onion series of films, which I watched recently and loved. A central character, Claire, full of fun and wit, embroiled in a classic ‘whodunnit’ with a small mix of suspects tied together by familial bonds and secrecy. The premise of Claire being a medium and talking to ghosts sounds completely ridiculous, but turned out to be really fun. The ghosts she communicates with are sassy, sarcastic and funny, with their own quirky personalities and behaviours. Particularly the ghost of 17-year-old Sophie, Claire’s childhood friend, who follows Claire around like a shadow providing witty commentary as she goes. It was very enjoyable.” About the author But in Grave Expectations we finally see Lincoln and Charlie commit to a serious relationship, the appearance of a serial killer targeting paranormal humans and the possibility that someone close to Lichfield Park is trying to harm Charlie. It was great to finally see the common thread connecting all the mysteries that the Ministry has encountered finally becoming evident, as the members confront kidnappings, betrayal and spirits from their past. As a debut novel it's very good. I will definitely look out for Alice Bell in the future, whether Claire and Sophie are part of it or not. Clever, unpredictable and a genuinely humorous modern day country house murder mystery which left me guessing. Perfect for anyone who fancies themselves as a detective." - Nadine Matheson The whole story is really, really good fun and it is a solid murder mystery, but the characters are what makes this a really special read.Together they must race against incompetence to find the murderer - before the murderer finds them... in this funny, modern, media-literate mystery for the My Favourite Murder generation. Yep I'm in tears. The next book will be a bit weird because it's told from lincoln which obviously I'm not used to. Fast,funny, and furious, this book hasbags of humour, bags of heart, and a proper murder mystery at its core. Alice Bell is one to watch!” The concept of Grave Expectations is nothing short of delightful and the novel shines best when it’s exploring the ramifications of being a medium and being one in the modern day. Tonally it reads like Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) meets Midsomer Murders (the show, not the much-darker books by Caroline Graham): charming, breezy, with moments of pathos and darkness scattered throughout what is a predominantly light book. Claire is thirtyish and makes her living as a medium. She is helped in this by Sophie, who is seventeen. Twist? Sophie is a ghost which gives Claire a bit of an advantage in the spirit world. She is asked by an old friend, Figgy, to provide the entertainment at a party at Figgy''s family pile. While there, Claire discovers that there is an unsettled ghost who may have been murdered. She sets out to investigate this with the help of Basher and Alex, both family members.

Clever,unpredictableand agenuinely humorousmodern day country house murder mystery which left me guessing.” I enjoyed almost all of this except the ending which I really wasn't all that surprised about. To me it felt like just another version of the big "misunderstanding" that's always present in any novel featuring any type of romance. Despite this traumatic past, Claire and Sophie are still unprepared for what they encounter when they arrive: a ghost, tragic and unrecognizable, and clearly the spirit of someone killed in a rage at the previous year's party. Given her obsession with crime shows—not to mention Sophie's ability to walk through walls—Claire decides they're the best people to solve the case. And with the help of the only obviously not-guilty members of their host family—sexy ex-policeman Sebastian and far-too-cool non-binary teen Alex—they launch an investigation into which of last year's guests never escaped the manor's grounds.

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To compound this, Charlie’s emotional response to Mrs. Webb after she kidnaps her, shoots her friend, and almost killed her was disconcerting and off-putting. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t screaming for Mrs. Webb’s death here, but the immediate compassion and “Don’t even scare her, Lincoln!” pleas were ridiculous. I’m all for empathy and forgiveness but this just didn’t seem believable to me at all. Clever, unpredictable and a genuinely humorous modern day country house murder mystery which left me guessing. Perfect for anyone who fancies themselves as a detective. -- Nadine Matheson Funny, fast, sharp, original, and addictive, Grave Expectations isa unique breath of fresh air. Brilliant!” That's perhaps the thing that will most determine whether you like Grave Expectations, actually: up with how much fairly specific cultural humour are you willing to put? If, like me, that specific cultural humour happens to be directed fairly solidly at Your Personal Brand of Existence, you'll probably get along very well with it. (Do you, for example, enjoy the visual metaphor of a dom National Theatre topping the boats in the Thames over which it looms?) If not, you'll have to sift through quite a lot of jokes you don't really like to get to the murder mystery parts that you presumably do like. If you don't like either of those things, I simply don't know what to tell you. Alice Bell grew up in South West England, in a sort of middle-of-nowhere where teenagers spend their weekend drinking Smirnoff Ice in a field that also has at least one horse in it.

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