Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason
Jun. 29th, 2014 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard.
But it could always be worse.
Lonely widower Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d never met, and buried him behind his own house. But a year later, his gardeners dig up two other bodies, a man and a woman. Apparently unrelated, the stories behind each murder begin to unravel as Jason becomes entangled in a race against time, two determined police detectives and his own conscience.
Jason Getty has a body buried in his garden, having killed a man he wished he’d never met in a rare moment of unbridled rage. A lonely, socially awkward man, Jason’s been living with the guilt ever since, terrified that his crime will be discovered. So when he hires some gardeners to tidy up his garden, he’s prepared for the worst. The only problem is that his gardeners find two bodies – a man and a woman - neither of them have anything to do with Jason.
Detectives Tim Bayard and Ford Watts arrive to investigate, quickly identifying the victims as Leah Tamblin’s missing fiancé Reid and Boyd Montgomery’s wife, Katielynn. What follows is a black comedy of errors as murderers, detectives and innocent others converge on Jason’s garden at the same time …
Jamie Mason’s debut novel is a black comedy about an inadvertent killer who finds himself in a nightmare that spirals out of control. Although it’s got a great premise and some humorous scenes, the prose was too purple for my taste and the overwriting stifles many of the scenes. At the same time, the characters are largely stock caricatures (although Jason does start to develop some depth towards the end). For what should have been a great read, I found myself increasingly bored by it and as such, I’m not sure I’d rush to check out Mason’s next book.
Almost every paragraph is filled with a simile or metaphor and as a result the pace of the story (which needs to be kept fast-moving for the comedy to work) instead sags. There were a number of times when I got the detectives confused with each other and the point of view shifts don’t always work – particularly where Mason ends up having to go back in time for one character to explain how they end up meeting another. Additionally the twists are telegraphed too early and I didn’t believe in the detective’s willingness to believe one character’s explanation given how far-fetched it was.
As a main character, Jason’s not well developed enough to root for one way or another. Timid and passive, I didn’t really care about his predicament with Harris because it was of his own making and likewise wasn’t invested in his personal revelations.
Ultimately this wasn’t as funny as I’d hoped and as such I’d be cautious about getting Mason’s next book.
The Verdict:
Jamie Mason’s debut novel is a black comedy about an inadvertent killer who finds himself in a nightmare that spirals out of control. Although it’s got a great premise and some humorous scenes, the prose was too purple for my taste and the overwriting stifles many of the scenes. At the same time, the characters are largely stock caricatures (although Jason does start to develop some depth towards the end). For what should have been a great read, I found myself increasingly bored by it and as such, I’m not sure I’d rush to check out Mason’s next book.
But it could always be worse.
Lonely widower Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d never met, and buried him behind his own house. But a year later, his gardeners dig up two other bodies, a man and a woman. Apparently unrelated, the stories behind each murder begin to unravel as Jason becomes entangled in a race against time, two determined police detectives and his own conscience.
Jason Getty has a body buried in his garden, having killed a man he wished he’d never met in a rare moment of unbridled rage. A lonely, socially awkward man, Jason’s been living with the guilt ever since, terrified that his crime will be discovered. So when he hires some gardeners to tidy up his garden, he’s prepared for the worst. The only problem is that his gardeners find two bodies – a man and a woman - neither of them have anything to do with Jason.
Detectives Tim Bayard and Ford Watts arrive to investigate, quickly identifying the victims as Leah Tamblin’s missing fiancé Reid and Boyd Montgomery’s wife, Katielynn. What follows is a black comedy of errors as murderers, detectives and innocent others converge on Jason’s garden at the same time …
Jamie Mason’s debut novel is a black comedy about an inadvertent killer who finds himself in a nightmare that spirals out of control. Although it’s got a great premise and some humorous scenes, the prose was too purple for my taste and the overwriting stifles many of the scenes. At the same time, the characters are largely stock caricatures (although Jason does start to develop some depth towards the end). For what should have been a great read, I found myself increasingly bored by it and as such, I’m not sure I’d rush to check out Mason’s next book.
Almost every paragraph is filled with a simile or metaphor and as a result the pace of the story (which needs to be kept fast-moving for the comedy to work) instead sags. There were a number of times when I got the detectives confused with each other and the point of view shifts don’t always work – particularly where Mason ends up having to go back in time for one character to explain how they end up meeting another. Additionally the twists are telegraphed too early and I didn’t believe in the detective’s willingness to believe one character’s explanation given how far-fetched it was.
As a main character, Jason’s not well developed enough to root for one way or another. Timid and passive, I didn’t really care about his predicament with Harris because it was of his own making and likewise wasn’t invested in his personal revelations.
Ultimately this wasn’t as funny as I’d hoped and as such I’d be cautious about getting Mason’s next book.
The Verdict:
Jamie Mason’s debut novel is a black comedy about an inadvertent killer who finds himself in a nightmare that spirals out of control. Although it’s got a great premise and some humorous scenes, the prose was too purple for my taste and the overwriting stifles many of the scenes. At the same time, the characters are largely stock caricatures (although Jason does start to develop some depth towards the end). For what should have been a great read, I found myself increasingly bored by it and as such, I’m not sure I’d rush to check out Mason’s next book.
