The Grave Man by David Archer

The Grave Man by David Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book (four stars), its writing, and Mikael Naramore's reading of it. I'm reviewing both the ebook and the audio-book. As I mentioned only days ago, I'll always hear Sam Prichard in Mikael Maramore's voice.

Just days ago I said, "I am going to enjoy me some more Sam Prichard Mysteries in the future." In my mind I meant "Death Sung Softly". I ended up re-reading this book, "The Grave Man".

Since I had just read Fallback and recalled it is so closely related to "The Grave Man" I decided to put on the audio book while I did some chores that don't require much mental attention. I ended up listening until it was finished with the book, long after my boring chores were done.


Sam Prichard always wanted to be a policeman since very young watching police stories on TV. In "The Grave Man" we pick him up just after he has been seriously injured in the line of duty as a police officer. Injured so severely his police officer days were over.

The book spends some time developing Sam's character. He is built up to where you know and like him. Gradually David Archer gets him involved with his neighbors and eventually a neighbor needs 'police' help and can not get it from the police, so they ask Sam if he can help.

The neighbor that asks for help takes care of her granddaughter and the father who has visiting rights has failed to bring the grandchild home. Being a police officer Sam's inclination is to reject the case. He hasn't done police work in over a year and "missing children" is one of those "crimes" that greatly discourage police officers for a multitude of reasons. Then seeing the disappointment in his neighbor, he reluctantly agrees to try.

He gets a tip from an old partner about a website the father might be associated with because they suspect the father and website are associated with drugs. After several hours, Sam, being little more skilled than any average computer user, he seeks help. Going on Craig's he posts a job, cryptically, for a hacker to help him with some internet issues he can't get beyond.

He quickly gets a response from Indie Perkins who learned more about Sam than Sam knows about himself in only a short time after he posts the "job" on Craig's list. Impressed with Indie and after doing some background checks on her, Sam figures they can work together and find some mutually beneficial arrangements which Indie agrees to.

In a very short time Indie has provided Sam enough information that if he were still a cop working narcotics, he could cut off the head of Hydra, the mythical creature term Sam and his ex-partner had given to drug crime, in general, in Denver. With Indie's help, Sam learned more about narcotic crime in one night than he did in ten years as a Denver police officer.

In little time, Sam has nearly found the missing child. Impressed with his success so far, he goes ahead and gets his private investigation license and a license to carry a gun.

The book is hard to put down. I've read it twice now. Apparently I was too busy to review it back in November 2016. I recommend it. I also like the fact that David Archer has already written several Sam Prichard novels. Having waited over six years for some authors to publish their next book, the fact that more "Sam Prichard" novels are already available pleases me.

After finishing this book I thought what it might look like as a movie. In my mind, I ran it through the filter of several wildly different directors and came out with a touching love story, a cliche gum shoe detective story, a MacGyver type movie, or even something like a Jack Ryan international CIA thriller.

I suggest you add David Archer to your reading list.

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