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madgrambo's review against another edition
5.0
Finished binge reading this. Now to get back to real life! Fantastic !
maureen72's review
5.0
Listened to this on my morning walks and loved it. Love the characters - Alex and Jill are like chalk and cheese but good together. The storyline is terrific with all the layers coming well together at the end.
samhouston23's review against another edition
4.0
If, as most readers probably do by now, you count The Birdwatcher (2016) as a Cupidi book, Deadland (2019) is William Shaw’s third Alexandria Cupidi novel. The DS Alex Cupidi series is now five books long, and it appears that the entire series is finally available in the US after months of being able to only get the first two books here.
DS Cupidi lives with her seventeen-year-old daughter Zoë in an isolated beach cottage near the bird sanctuary in Dungeness, England. Alex and Zoë are still relatively new to the area, and Alex worries about Zoë having become such a loner since the imprisonment of William South, the former cop and neighbor of theirs who mentored Zoë into the birdwatching world. Cupidi is a good cop, and she covers a wide jurisdiction that leaves Zoë with way too much time to fend for herself. Without South there to help look out for the teen, Cupidi fears that her self-imposed isolation is not at all good for her daughter.
But just as a spree of crimes hits coastal Kent that are certain to complicate Cupidi’s worries, South is unexpectedly released from prison. Cupidi has a plan: she hopes to ease both South and her daughter back into the world by asking South to keep an eye on Zoë while resuming their regular birdwatching activities. It’s a great plan — if only she can get South even to speak to her or Zoë ever again, something he’s not eager to do.
Then, in what will begin a complicated series of events ending in the deaths of several people, including one cop, two teenage boys decide to snatch the mobile phone of the wrong person as they speed by him on a moped. The man wants that phone back, and he is so desperate to get his hands on it that he is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. That’s bad enough, but for a while it escapes the attention of the police because the snatching victim doesn’t dare report the theft. Then, way up in Margate, a severed arm is found hidden inside an art piece on display at the Turner Contemporary Museum after the smell finally catches the attention of patrons and staff. What Cupidi needs to do first is figure out whether she is dealing with a murder or with some kind of medical school prank.
After the two teenagers get themselves into more trouble and realize that their own lives are in danger, Cupidi finds herself in a battle for the resources she needs to properly work her case in Margate. Without a dead body, she doesn’t have a murder. The two boys, on the other hand, seem to leave death and blood behind every time they are spotted. But could the two cases be related in some weird way?
Bottom Line: Series fans will certainly enjoy trying to solve the complicated cases at the core of Deadland. But the best thing about this addition to the series is how Shaw’s main characters, and the relationships between them, evolve over time. Zoë is growing up and becoming the young woman her mother can be proud of despite how much Cupidi worries about her. Young policewoman Jill Ferriter struggles with her self-image and poor choices to such a degree that her future in law enforcement is threatened. Cupidi herself has learned to control her worst management impulses and has earned the respect of her fellow cops. And, best of all, Bill South is back in Dungeness where he is struggling mightily to find some kind of life for himself. Deadland is first-rate crime fiction, and Shaw has created one of the best new crime series to have appeared in the last few years.
DS Cupidi lives with her seventeen-year-old daughter Zoë in an isolated beach cottage near the bird sanctuary in Dungeness, England. Alex and Zoë are still relatively new to the area, and Alex worries about Zoë having become such a loner since the imprisonment of William South, the former cop and neighbor of theirs who mentored Zoë into the birdwatching world. Cupidi is a good cop, and she covers a wide jurisdiction that leaves Zoë with way too much time to fend for herself. Without South there to help look out for the teen, Cupidi fears that her self-imposed isolation is not at all good for her daughter.
But just as a spree of crimes hits coastal Kent that are certain to complicate Cupidi’s worries, South is unexpectedly released from prison. Cupidi has a plan: she hopes to ease both South and her daughter back into the world by asking South to keep an eye on Zoë while resuming their regular birdwatching activities. It’s a great plan — if only she can get South even to speak to her or Zoë ever again, something he’s not eager to do.
Then, in what will begin a complicated series of events ending in the deaths of several people, including one cop, two teenage boys decide to snatch the mobile phone of the wrong person as they speed by him on a moped. The man wants that phone back, and he is so desperate to get his hands on it that he is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. That’s bad enough, but for a while it escapes the attention of the police because the snatching victim doesn’t dare report the theft. Then, way up in Margate, a severed arm is found hidden inside an art piece on display at the Turner Contemporary Museum after the smell finally catches the attention of patrons and staff. What Cupidi needs to do first is figure out whether she is dealing with a murder or with some kind of medical school prank.
After the two teenagers get themselves into more trouble and realize that their own lives are in danger, Cupidi finds herself in a battle for the resources she needs to properly work her case in Margate. Without a dead body, she doesn’t have a murder. The two boys, on the other hand, seem to leave death and blood behind every time they are spotted. But could the two cases be related in some weird way?
Bottom Line: Series fans will certainly enjoy trying to solve the complicated cases at the core of Deadland. But the best thing about this addition to the series is how Shaw’s main characters, and the relationships between them, evolve over time. Zoë is growing up and becoming the young woman her mother can be proud of despite how much Cupidi worries about her. Young policewoman Jill Ferriter struggles with her self-image and poor choices to such a degree that her future in law enforcement is threatened. Cupidi herself has learned to control her worst management impulses and has earned the respect of her fellow cops. And, best of all, Bill South is back in Dungeness where he is struggling mightily to find some kind of life for himself. Deadland is first-rate crime fiction, and Shaw has created one of the best new crime series to have appeared in the last few years.
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
Ramping up the tension...
When a severed limb turns up inside an urn on loan to the local art gallery, DS Alex Cupidi and the team have a real mystery on their hands. First they have to try to work out to whom it belonged and if the owner is dead, and why it was left in a place where it was bound to be discovered, all before they can even begin to investigate who put it there. At the same time, two local lads, Sloth and Tap, are starting out on a life of petty crime. They decide to steal a mobile phone, but unfortunately for them they pick the wrong victim, and soon find themselves being hunted by someone who seems willing to go to any lengths to recover his property, so they run off into hiding. While Alex is tied up in the possible murder investigation, she can’t help being worried for the safety of the boys – criminals they may be, but they’re also victims, of difficult homes, of substandard schools, of a society that doesn’t seem to care. And they’re the same age as Alex’ own daughter, Zoe...
Alex Cupidi is a great detective. She isn’t an angst-ridden maverick, but there are enough complications in her personal life to make her interesting, and her relationship with her daughter is entirely credible. Zoe is seventeen, mostly adult but still part child, and Alex is finding it difficult to get the balance right between protecting her and letting her find her own way in life. The situation is complicated by Zoe’s zealous championing of causes which sometimes bring her into confrontation with the forces of law and order. Shaw handles this excellently, never taking it too far, and there’s plenty of love in the relationship to help smooth over any areas of conflict.
The police procedural aspect is just as good. Shaw lets us know about the painstaking detail that goes into an investigation without allowing the story to get bogged down in it. Alex’ colleague and friend, Jill, has got herself into a tricky personal situation, and this lets us see another side of Alex, trying to juggle loyalty to her friend with the professional demands of the job.
One thing I particularly loved was that Shaw includes people of different ethnicities and sexual orientations without making a big deal of it. I’m so tired of authors feeling they have to write “about” diversity – until we start treating diversity as normal, it never will be. So hurrah for an author who makes it unremarkable...
(This is the second time I’ve made a comment like this recently, the other being in relation to the entirely believable, positive background portrayal of racially diverse Birmingham in Lucie Whitehouse’s [b:Critical Incidents|42204790|Critical Incidents|Lucie Whitehouse|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1538937168s/42204790.jpg|65819163]. A new trend, perhaps? If so, a very welcome one.)
The plotting is great – complex and fast-paced, but never to a degree where the reader feels lost. It takes Alex and Jill into the rich and shady world of art-trading, where vast amounts of money changing hands provides opportunities for all kinds of dodgy dealing, and the wealthy shelter behind their security fences and sense of entitlement. But through Tap and Sloth we also see the other end of the social spectrum, where a meal in a burger bar can seem like a feast. There’s no faux “that day” suspense in this one. Instead, Shaw makes us care so deeply about the two boys that the tension level ramps ever higher as the story unfolds, with some real heart-thumping moments along the way. And there’s no cosiness about it, so that there’s a real feeling of fear that one or both of them may pay the ultimate price for their stupid crime. But equally their story is not too grim or gritty to be enjoyable. There’s a lot of warmth and humour in their friendship – two misfits who’ve each found someone they can rely on, even love.
Shaw makes excellent use of his Kent setting, both in town and out on the wild and forbidding marshland landscape of Dungeness. He lets us see all the contrasts in wealth in this area, the secluded and luxurious homes of the rich, while the old seaside hotels and boarding houses along the Kent coast are now hostels housing many of the refugees and migrants recently arrived on our shores.
This is one of those rare masterclasses in crime writing that should be made compulsory reading for all aspiring authors. I loved everything about it, especially the sections of the boys on the run, and raced through it because I needed to know whether they would make it. Did I come out of it smiling or sobbing though? I’m afraid you’ll have to read it for yourself to find the answer to that question. One thing I will tell you – I’ll be backtracking to read Shaw’s earlier books, and adding him to my read-on-publication-day list for future ones...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, riverrun at Quercus.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
When a severed limb turns up inside an urn on loan to the local art gallery, DS Alex Cupidi and the team have a real mystery on their hands. First they have to try to work out to whom it belonged and if the owner is dead, and why it was left in a place where it was bound to be discovered, all before they can even begin to investigate who put it there. At the same time, two local lads, Sloth and Tap, are starting out on a life of petty crime. They decide to steal a mobile phone, but unfortunately for them they pick the wrong victim, and soon find themselves being hunted by someone who seems willing to go to any lengths to recover his property, so they run off into hiding. While Alex is tied up in the possible murder investigation, she can’t help being worried for the safety of the boys – criminals they may be, but they’re also victims, of difficult homes, of substandard schools, of a society that doesn’t seem to care. And they’re the same age as Alex’ own daughter, Zoe...
Alex Cupidi is a great detective. She isn’t an angst-ridden maverick, but there are enough complications in her personal life to make her interesting, and her relationship with her daughter is entirely credible. Zoe is seventeen, mostly adult but still part child, and Alex is finding it difficult to get the balance right between protecting her and letting her find her own way in life. The situation is complicated by Zoe’s zealous championing of causes which sometimes bring her into confrontation with the forces of law and order. Shaw handles this excellently, never taking it too far, and there’s plenty of love in the relationship to help smooth over any areas of conflict.
The police procedural aspect is just as good. Shaw lets us know about the painstaking detail that goes into an investigation without allowing the story to get bogged down in it. Alex’ colleague and friend, Jill, has got herself into a tricky personal situation, and this lets us see another side of Alex, trying to juggle loyalty to her friend with the professional demands of the job.
One thing I particularly loved was that Shaw includes people of different ethnicities and sexual orientations without making a big deal of it. I’m so tired of authors feeling they have to write “about” diversity – until we start treating diversity as normal, it never will be. So hurrah for an author who makes it unremarkable...
(This is the second time I’ve made a comment like this recently, the other being in relation to the entirely believable, positive background portrayal of racially diverse Birmingham in Lucie Whitehouse’s [b:Critical Incidents|42204790|Critical Incidents|Lucie Whitehouse|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1538937168s/42204790.jpg|65819163]. A new trend, perhaps? If so, a very welcome one.)
The plotting is great – complex and fast-paced, but never to a degree where the reader feels lost. It takes Alex and Jill into the rich and shady world of art-trading, where vast amounts of money changing hands provides opportunities for all kinds of dodgy dealing, and the wealthy shelter behind their security fences and sense of entitlement. But through Tap and Sloth we also see the other end of the social spectrum, where a meal in a burger bar can seem like a feast. There’s no faux “that day” suspense in this one. Instead, Shaw makes us care so deeply about the two boys that the tension level ramps ever higher as the story unfolds, with some real heart-thumping moments along the way. And there’s no cosiness about it, so that there’s a real feeling of fear that one or both of them may pay the ultimate price for their stupid crime. But equally their story is not too grim or gritty to be enjoyable. There’s a lot of warmth and humour in their friendship – two misfits who’ve each found someone they can rely on, even love.
Shaw makes excellent use of his Kent setting, both in town and out on the wild and forbidding marshland landscape of Dungeness. He lets us see all the contrasts in wealth in this area, the secluded and luxurious homes of the rich, while the old seaside hotels and boarding houses along the Kent coast are now hostels housing many of the refugees and migrants recently arrived on our shores.
This is one of those rare masterclasses in crime writing that should be made compulsory reading for all aspiring authors. I loved everything about it, especially the sections of the boys on the run, and raced through it because I needed to know whether they would make it. Did I come out of it smiling or sobbing though? I’m afraid you’ll have to read it for yourself to find the answer to that question. One thing I will tell you – I’ll be backtracking to read Shaw’s earlier books, and adding him to my read-on-publication-day list for future ones...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, riverrun at Quercus.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
raven88's review against another edition
5.0
The latest addition to William Shaw’s superlative DS Alexandra Cupidi series following The Birdwatcher and Salt Lane, Deadland returns us to the haunting coastal area of Dungeness, and two compelling investigations for Cupidi and her colleagues…
It’s no secret that I think William Shaw is one of the most accomplished, and consistently good crime authors at work in Britain today, and I always embark on his new books with a slight nervous tingle, hoping that each will be as satisfying as the previous. Which brings us to Deadland which was everything I hoped it would be (massive sigh of relief). What I love with this series (and his previous trilogy featuring DS Cathal Breen and PC Helen Tozer) is the way that Shaw, in common with his coastal location, ebbs and flows with his characters, moving them around like chess pieces bringing them back and forwards to the centre of the storyline with Capaldi being at the rooted centre. Consequently, this book reintroduces us to disgraced ex-police officer William South from The Birdwatcher, and where Salt Lane was very much involved with the generational differences of Capaldi, her mother and her daughter, this book switches the focus more onto Capaldi’s colleagues, alongside the central investigations.
I think it’s worth drawing attention to this, to emphasize the sheer quality of Shaw’s characterisation, and how roundly and believably drawn his characters are. Capaldi is a professional working mother with a recalcitrant teenage daughter, South is a man obviously tarnished by his prison experience, constable Jill Ferriter experiencing professional and personal difficulties, a diversion into the weird and wonderful inhabitants of the ‘art’ world and, at the heart of the book two wayward teenage boys, Tap and Sloth, with their own trials and tribulations. Without a doubt, each and every one of these characters are brimming with realism, so that you feel totally part of their contrasting experiences and world views. The narrative voice of each is precise, and authentic, and this is particularly true of Tap and Sloth, and the changes we see in their brash teenage bravado as the book progresses. With subtle changes in rhythm and syntax, Shaw brings all these voices to life, and with it an even greater connection to them for the reader.
Another element of this book that I enjoyed was the striking juxtaposition of the two investigations that Capaldi and her colleagues are tasked with. Throughout his books Shaw has always tackled difficult social issues be they of the 1960s or now, and the fact that this book straddled two very economically and materially different worlds was an interesting facet of the book. From the dripping wealth and pretentiousness of the art world, to the very different world inhabited by the teenage protagonists, Shaw retains the tension of both, and how crime bridges all social strata and class. It’s also interesting to observe the changes of attitude in the police characters between both investigations, and where their sympathies lie, and how their own attitudes reveal themselves. Indeed, the fears and frustrations at play in this book, in both their professional and personal lives too, are as finely balanced with the arc of the plot, holding the whole book in balance, as Shaw assuredly takes us between these contrasting worlds and characters. Sometimes with two storylines playing out there is a tension in the reader to return to one more swiftly than the other, but I think this was neatly avoided with both strands of the story having their own particular pace and moments of peril. I must confess that my former blissful ignorance of the art world kept me wholly engaged as the book progressed, and admittedly none of my preconceptions about the inhabitants of this world were largely disproved. Which was nice.
So a glowing review for Deadland and another heartfelt plea to discover this author for yourselves. With pitch perfect characterisation, immersive storylines, a striking use of location, and accomplished writing and plotting, there is so much to enjoy in this series. Highly recommended.
It’s no secret that I think William Shaw is one of the most accomplished, and consistently good crime authors at work in Britain today, and I always embark on his new books with a slight nervous tingle, hoping that each will be as satisfying as the previous. Which brings us to Deadland which was everything I hoped it would be (massive sigh of relief). What I love with this series (and his previous trilogy featuring DS Cathal Breen and PC Helen Tozer) is the way that Shaw, in common with his coastal location, ebbs and flows with his characters, moving them around like chess pieces bringing them back and forwards to the centre of the storyline with Capaldi being at the rooted centre. Consequently, this book reintroduces us to disgraced ex-police officer William South from The Birdwatcher, and where Salt Lane was very much involved with the generational differences of Capaldi, her mother and her daughter, this book switches the focus more onto Capaldi’s colleagues, alongside the central investigations.
I think it’s worth drawing attention to this, to emphasize the sheer quality of Shaw’s characterisation, and how roundly and believably drawn his characters are. Capaldi is a professional working mother with a recalcitrant teenage daughter, South is a man obviously tarnished by his prison experience, constable Jill Ferriter experiencing professional and personal difficulties, a diversion into the weird and wonderful inhabitants of the ‘art’ world and, at the heart of the book two wayward teenage boys, Tap and Sloth, with their own trials and tribulations. Without a doubt, each and every one of these characters are brimming with realism, so that you feel totally part of their contrasting experiences and world views. The narrative voice of each is precise, and authentic, and this is particularly true of Tap and Sloth, and the changes we see in their brash teenage bravado as the book progresses. With subtle changes in rhythm and syntax, Shaw brings all these voices to life, and with it an even greater connection to them for the reader.
Another element of this book that I enjoyed was the striking juxtaposition of the two investigations that Capaldi and her colleagues are tasked with. Throughout his books Shaw has always tackled difficult social issues be they of the 1960s or now, and the fact that this book straddled two very economically and materially different worlds was an interesting facet of the book. From the dripping wealth and pretentiousness of the art world, to the very different world inhabited by the teenage protagonists, Shaw retains the tension of both, and how crime bridges all social strata and class. It’s also interesting to observe the changes of attitude in the police characters between both investigations, and where their sympathies lie, and how their own attitudes reveal themselves. Indeed, the fears and frustrations at play in this book, in both their professional and personal lives too, are as finely balanced with the arc of the plot, holding the whole book in balance, as Shaw assuredly takes us between these contrasting worlds and characters. Sometimes with two storylines playing out there is a tension in the reader to return to one more swiftly than the other, but I think this was neatly avoided with both strands of the story having their own particular pace and moments of peril. I must confess that my former blissful ignorance of the art world kept me wholly engaged as the book progressed, and admittedly none of my preconceptions about the inhabitants of this world were largely disproved. Which was nice.
So a glowing review for Deadland and another heartfelt plea to discover this author for yourselves. With pitch perfect characterisation, immersive storylines, a striking use of location, and accomplished writing and plotting, there is so much to enjoy in this series. Highly recommended.
chroniclesofabookmum's review against another edition
4.0
“The thing about growing up is learning who you care for”
Welcome to my stop on the Deadland blog tour. I was kindly sent this book to review by Quercus Books and given this wonderful opportunity, thank you so much guys.
Deadland is the first William Shaw book that I have read, when I was asked to partake in this blog tour I was apprehensive as this is the second book in the series. I was reassured by the publisher that it would not matter and this book could be read as a stand-alone, I am so glad that I listened as this was such a fantastic book. Deadland is so unique compared to other crime related books that I have read in many different ways; ways in which I will discuss in this review.
This crime mystery, instead of being fast-paced was a slow burn for me. However, I feel like this was a really positive aspect of the plot. It had me hooked, I was slowly drip fed information to which I could build theories (none of which were right, might I add) gradually. In between this I was able to really get to know the characters. William does fantastically when it comes to developing characters, I felt a real connection to many of them throughout the book and it could be seen that a lot of time and care was put into them. My particular favourites were Sloth and Tap, I loved watching their friendship grow and learning about the under-class social backgrounds that they have derived from. I found it really interesting and was really eye opening to how the under priviledged lived. Never have I felt such strong emotions towards a criminal character, however these guys really pulled at my heartstrings and I absolutely loved that some of the story was told from their POV.
I also loved Ferriter as a character. A really important theme of consent in relation to sexual intercourse was explored with her character. A theme that I believe is slightly blurred within society; a big part of my work is dealing with this kind of theme and therefore I was very interested and pleased with how William portrayed this through the eyes of one of his characters. I really liked watching her develop, blaming herself to the realisation that what happened was wrong and in no way is she to blame. She was another character that I really felt for, I really enjoyed getting to know her and also eventually getting to know her background. What a strong independent female character, this really was the cherry on top of an already fantastic book. Other important themes that were touched upon within this book were critical incidents such as Grenfell and also same sex relationships. All of which I feel are very important and was humbled to see that they had a part in this story.
If all of the above is not already good enough, William Shaw is most definitely a Harry Potter fan. Throughout reading Deadland I noticed the subtle Harry Potter references. I happen to know that William is also a Hufflepuff (the best house ever), check out my Q&A at the bottom of this post for more information.
Honestly, I would really recommend that all who read this review should pick this book up. It was such a good read, something to really get your teeth into. There is so much going on and so many fantastic qualities, so much so that I am confident you will not regret picking it up. Since reading this book I have already picked up the other two books in this world so that I can dive straight back in.
zoer03's review against another edition
Oh my god... awful just plain awful... characters were a mess... just trash and felt rushed. The grammar and sentence structure just odd and took me out from the story. Feel bad that I bought the book and wasted money on something soo trite and pathetic.