Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason

More than a year ago, mild-mannered Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d never met. Then he planted the problem a little too close to home. But just as he’s learning to live with the undeniable reality of what he’s done, police unearth two bodies on his property—neither of which is the one Jason buried.

Jason races to stay ahead of the consequences of his crime and while chaos reigns on his lawn, his sanity unravels, snagged on the agendas of a colorful cast of strangers. A jilted woman searches for her lost fiancé, a fringe-dweller runs from a past that’s quickly gaining on him, and a couple of earnest local detectives piece it together with the help of a volunteer police dog — all of them in the wake and shadow of a dead man who had it coming. As the action unfolds, each discovers that knowing more than one side of the story doesn't necessarily rule out a deadly margin of error.

Publisher: Gallery Books | Genre: Suspense | Source: Publisher| Rating: 1 Cup

Challenges Read For: Blogger Shame

Okay, so I struggled with this one. I started it way back in October, was hooked on the first 9 chapters, then the book became annoying and I put it down. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to pick it back up again but I was curious to see how it played out.

 

Here’s what’s going on: Jason Getty murdered a man, buried his body in his backyard, then hired a landscape crew to clean up said backyard. When the landscape crew makes a gruesome discovery, Jason thinks he’s been caught until they reveal they’ve found two bodies neither of which Jason buried. With detectives and crime scene investigators swarming the place Jason knows he must take action and move the body. Although when Leah Tamblin sneaks onto Jason’s property searching for answers about what happened to her fiancé, she never expected to find a decomposing corpse and Jason never expected to be caught unearthing it but what’s more troubling is the man who murdered the first two bodies has returned.

 

“There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard.” Seriously, with an opening line like that and the fact this book was labeled as ‘Hitchcockian menace’ and ‘high-class mystery that blends with black humor’ I was expecting something great. Sadly, the book fell short.

 

I didn’t care for Jason, and oddly enough, it wasn’t because he was a murderer. He was spineless and overly paranoid. He allowed things to happen to him then whined for pages about how he was being treated and I just couldn’t feel sorry for him. There was no character growth and it became annoying. I felt sorry for Leah. She was only there to get answers about the disappearance/murder of her fiancé and ended up being involved in Jason’s nightmare. Although by the time the last page was read, I couldn’t really feel sorry for her either since she just sort of went along with everything.

 

Heading hopping doesn’t bother me; when it’s used correctly, it can reveal much needed information and enhance the book. However the head hopping in this one was out of control. It wouldn’t have bothered me if it had only been Jason, Leah, the murderer, and the detectives but it included Tessa, the police dog and Maggie, the wife of one of the detectives. Did we really need to know what the dog was thinking? And the information Maggie added to the book wasn’t even tied in with anything and bogged down an already unsteady plot.

 

There was a slight plot twist but I spotted it so early on it wasn’t surprising when it was revealed.

 

Overall, this was lacked all things that it promised. I didn’t see the dark humor or the thriller qualities. I would call this one an odd character study with light elements of suspense.  And oddly enough, Tessa, the police dog ended up being my favorite character of the book.