The country is in crisis. A sniper is striking at random across the country. Seventeen unrelated victims on seventeen occasions have been killed by an assassin who leaves no clues. When anyone could be the next possible victim, the population is terrified. Outside events are being cancelled, people are staying away from windows… Despite the body count, the police have made no progress. And the obvious people to track down such a killer, the dream team of Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw as been split up, with Tilly recruited by the government and Poe seconded to raiding suspicious fishing boats.

Poe finds himself up against a killer unlike any he has encountered before. An untouchable monster with a warped agenda – and it seems that Poe might be next in his sights…

When last we saw Poe, he’d had a pretty dark time in The Mercy Chair and is still suffering from PTSD. That was a compelling, thrilling book but boy, it was dark. M W Craven does warn the reader that this book does spoil some stuff from that one, mainly because aspects of that story needed continuation – Poe is still in therapy, for example – and I would strongly recommend reading that one first if you haven’t because it’s brilliant. And then read this one, because it’s brilliant too.

I heard Mike speak at Stockport Noir earlier this year and was fascinated by how he deliberately oscillates the tone of the books – they can’t all be as dark as The Mercy Chair, and this one certainly isn’t. Well, a couple of bits are, notably the continuing threads from the previous story, but by making the story less dark, the upside is that we get more Tilly Bradshaw, who is one of my favourite characters in modern fiction. As is Poe, come to think of it…

Worth saying, I suppose, given the title of the blog, that there’s not much of a mystery in this one. Most of the books in the series have a bit of a whodunnit to them, but the lack of it isn’t a problem. I didn’t really notice it until after I’d finished the book so it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

There’s so many wonderful tiny touches here that I want to mention but I really can’t because I don’t want to spoil them – the use (or non-use) of Chekhov’s… something for example, the stuff at the convention, the appearance of someone else from the Craven-verse, Tilly’s concern over Poe’s bowel movements… but the thing I do want to point out is the thing that makes this series different (and arguably better) than most others out there – the epilogue.

Most crime writers of series such as this would have stopped the narrative at the final chapter. But Mike Craven isn’t most crime writers… That’s all I’ll say, you’re just going to have to read it yourself. It’s one of the best things that I’ve read this year and suits the series perfectly.

Oh, one thing – I don’t believe that even Tilly could solve one of the great unsolved problems in Mathematics in ten minutes. That was a bit much I thought. There you go, something mildly negative. The rest of the Maths was spot on though – it should be, as I did mark Mike’s working for him a year or so ago. (He got full marks all by himself, I should point out).

Simply put, this is the best thriller/mystery series out there at the moment. So either start camping outside your local bookshop or go and read the previous titles so you’re all caught up. You won’t regret it.

The Final Vow is out this Thursday in hardback and ebook. Many thanks for the review copy.