Buried

DC Jack Warr, Book 1

By: Lynda La Plante

Narrated by: Alex Hassell, Annie Aldington

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

The first book in a brand-new thriller series by the Queen of Crime Drama, Lynda La Plante. A burnt-out cottage, a fortune buried in the ashes - and a body that could solve a decades-old crime....

Jack Warr is a young DC with the Metropolitan Police. Charming but aimless, Jack can't seem to find his place in the world - until he's drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down.

In the aftermath of a fire at a derelict cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remnants of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes - the hidden legacy of Dolly Rawlins and her gang of Widows.

Jack's assignment to the case coincides with an investigation into his own past. As he searches for the truth about his identity, Jack finds himself increasingly drawn into a murky underworld of corruption and crime. Those millions have not been forgotten - and Jack will stop at nothing to find the truth.

An exciting and action packed new thriller, with roots in La Plante's best-selling novels, Widows, Widows' Revenge and She's Out.

©2020 Lynda La Plante (P)2020 Bonnier Books UK

Critic reviews

"Lynda La Plante practically invented the thriller." (Karin Slaughter)

"A compelling, clever plot with a brilliant cast of diverse characters. Utterly riveting." (Rachel Abbott, million-selling author of Only the Innocent)

Enjoyable

Excellent enjoyed the story, well constructed and easy to listen to. Look forward to the next book.

Great Book

The writer keeps you interested and in the mystery taking you back in time. Great performance!

Narrator is great!

Well written book, interesting story, narration is excellent. The narration style is not necessarily dramatic but I found it most appropriate and I am very much enjoying listening to this book.

Enjoyed It

I enjoyed the story but not the narrator. Annie should have continued done the performance. I would have enjoyed it much better.

Buried

Boy...this investigation was tough! It would have been better if he took time off to deal with his family issues, but he couldn't.

not your usual crime drama

I enjoyed the performance and the unique style of the narration.

lots of depth to the main character. I feel I really know him.

Worth the listen!

I really enjoyed this book! It characters are strong and even complex. It has many layer’s and took me a while to get everyone straight. Like the headline says, definitely worth the listen.

Misleading description

it is described as book 1 in a series, but it is really a continuation of several books/TV scripts from the 1980s.

it is described as a thriller, but I read cozy mysteries with more action. It is mostly talking and much of it tangential to the main plot line or even more appropriate for a soap.

Speaking of mysteries, this is not really a mystery either, since the reader learns most of what's going on 1/3 into the book, and there are almost no mysteries left by the time we are hafway in (all that is left is for the cops to figure it out, and to us to discover whether the bad guys get away with it.)

Not that one should even expect a deep and convoluted mystery, not when the author seems unable even to keep her chronology straight (e.g., the book is set in 2019; the body discovered in its opening pages is described as "late 30s to mid-40s"; and we later learn that it was the body of someone who was a married police officer in 1995.)

Plot devices range from improbable (a random 1980s London gangster entering the picture simultaneously along two completely independent lines); to highly improbable (a gang of supposedly highly competent criminals, who manage to pull off the biggest train robbery in decades, planning all along to stash the loot in the one place where it would be virtually impossible for them to get it back); to utterly ridiculous (a bunch of ex-cons getting a government permit to open a group home for children.)

And all of it is spiced up with multiple gratuitous and irrelevant references to pedophiles (the term, which, according to the author, does include a man of any age, down to late teens, who is sexually attracted to a 15 year old, but seemingly does not include elderly ladies wrestling 9 year old boys to the ground and forcibly kissing them.)

Buried

My first book I have read/listened to by this author , definetly will be looking for more. Loved the story and the way it unfolded, the characters and the emotions. The narrations were perfect for these characters.

Excellent and exciting

It took me a couple of tries to get into the first 15 minutes-but once it got going-I couldn’t wait to listen to it again. Like a snowball going downhill-the story kept getting better and bigger. Highly recommend!