A Welcome Grave

A Welcome Grave is the third of the four-book series by Michael Koryta about Lincoln Perry, a private investigator. Considering the book’s title, a grave would be something one would welcome to avoid a particularly horrendous circumstance in life, and that is just how this books starts. Alex Jefferson is being tortured, killed very slowly, mutilated until dead – a grotesque and ugly scene which hangs over the rest of the book. Jefferson just happens to be the man who swooped in and stole Perry’s fiancée some years before, and that led to significant trouble between the two men. A remarkably successful man, Jefferson also had a dark and corrupt side, and upon his death, Perry was the man the police suspected of having done the deed. But then Karen, Perry’s ex and Jefferson’s wife, thought Perry was the very man to find Jefferson’s estranged son Matt, to inform him of the death of his father and his inheritance of $8,000,000. However, when Perry found Matt, before Perry could say anything, Matt said he guessed his father was dead, and then promptly put a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger. Is that a dark enough beginning for you?

This is the fourth book reviewed in the blog by Perry, so he has gotten some interest from Men Reading Books, but like East Coast Don has written, the books mostly did not light his fire. I was mostly intrigued by Koryta’s use of Southern Indiana for part of his story. He is from Indiana University and continues to live in Bloomington, my old haunts. I loved reading about the places I used to know and love, places that I’ve not visited for too long a time. I put this book in my class of airplane novels, something to entertain you on a cross country trip, but a book that is less than great literature. I doubt that Koryta will make it to my list of top ten go-to authors.