When private investigator Theo Tate find himself standing by a grave in the process of having a body exhumed little does he know that this is just the beginning of an investigation that will involve multiple corpses, deep secrets and dark betrayals. Cemetery Lake by New Zealand author Paul Cleave opens with a bang and immediately grips the reader and, as the story develops, the more twisted and dark it becomes.

Theo himself is not in a good place as he is dealing with a horrendous tragedy that befell his family two years ago. He is barely coping but when this case comes along it seems to press his buttons and even though he knows he should leave this to the police, he cannot stop taking matters into his own hands. Theo is an ex-police detective but, eaten up with grief and trying to hold his anger, guilt and depression in, he is like a loose cannon. The author keeps the atmosphere dark and the momentum building as Theo pulls himself deeper into a moral abyss as he relentlessly tracks a psychopathic serial killer.

Cemetery Lake is the third book in Paul Cleave’s Christchurch Noir series, and the first, but not the last, to feature Theo Tate. I found this a powerful story that had excellent timing and although Theo isn’t a character that demands either the readers liking or sympathy, I look forward to reading more about him. ( )

I enjoyed this book, although it did take a while to get into initially. It was an intriguing plot with some good twists. Not sure I liked the main character though, but an interesting conundrum about how low you can go. When do you reach bottom? What are we capable of doing? Is there a way back? ( )

From Amazon:

Cemetery Lake begins in a cold and rainy graveyard, where Private Detective Theodore Tate is overseeing an exhumation—a routine job for the weathered former cop. But when doubts are raised about the identity of the body found in the coffin, the case takes a sinister turn. Tate knows he should walk away and let his former colleagues on the police force deal with it, but his strong sense of justice intervenes. Complicating matters are a few loose ends from Tate’s past. Even good guys have secrets, and Tate thought his were dead and buried for good. With time running out and a violent killer lurking, will he manage to stay one step ahead of the police, or will his truth be unearthed?

My Thoughts:

With Cemetery Lake, Paul Cleave has quickly risen to the top of my favorite authors list. I read this book out of order but that doesn't matter to me. All I care is that I get to read a deeply engrossing story which this book more than qualifies as. the mystery story here is quite good but this is also a very dark novel about the depths of the human soul. While the mystery itself takes more twists and turns than any book I have read in a long time...it will diffidently hold your interest throughout. This is the story of a man whose life has fallen apart after the death of his family caused by a drunk driver. The accident and Tate's reaction take him to a place where it seems his life couldn't get any worse...but then it does. When this case comes along and he finds himself descending deeper into darkness. While the narrative is at times oppressive, you just can't stop reading. If you're a fan of dark psychological thrillers then this is just the book for you. ( )

Set in modern Christchurch, New Zealand, Theodore Tate used to be a cop, but 2 years ago his wife and daughter were in a terrible accident. Things have been on a downhill slant since then. Now, he does some work for the local police and one of those things is to be present during exhumations and sign off on the paperwork. However, this exhumation brings up lots and lots of questions. First, there’s a couple of bodies in the cemetery lake. Next, the body they expected to be in the coffin isn’t there; instead it’s a body of a young woman.

From there on, the police want to take point and the tell Tate to butt out. However, he can’t let it go. He calls in favors and old friendships as he does his own investigation. He’s driven because he believes it is all related to a case he was working when his family was in the devastating accident, a case he dropped the ball on and should have finished out. The mystery leads to more bodies and Tate breaks so many rules.

Things are complicated and part of that complication is a priest who knows more than he’s telling. He’s bond by the confessional and that makes things tricky, morally speaking. I liked this twist being tossed in because for me it is simple: the law comes before the confessional, especially when it comes to very serious crimes such as murder. But that is not the case for everyone and this story really delves into those facets.

To add fuel to the fire, there is this news reporter that pushed him into saying things he shouldn’t, which she uses in a slanted news story. It’s more hot water for our troubled would-be hero. I found him fascinating because he isn’t your typical Good Cop Fallen On Hard Times character. Throughout the course of the story, he does a few things that I don’t agree with. He does feel remorse over most of them and yet his drive to solve this keeps pushing him to greater extremes. The ending wrapped up the murder mystery nicely, but left plenty of questions as to what will happen to our main character in the next installment.

I won a copy of this book from the Lazy Day Library Facebook group (via The Audio Book Reviewer) with no strings attached.

Narration: Paul Ansdell was pretty good, tho I don’t know why he didn’t use any NZ accents. I did go double check myself by listening to some NZ folks on YouTube. He had a variety of British accents and that was great for keeping all the characters distinct. His female voices were believable. ( )

My original Cemetery Lake audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

In a lake on a cemetery, bodies are rising to the surface, while during an exhumation the body of a girl is recovered from a coffin which was meant to hold a male corpse. That’s the situation which starts off Theodore Tate’s search for a fanatic serial killer.Tate is your typical anti-hero: an ex-cop turned private investigator after an accident in which his young daughter died and which left his wife in a catatonic state. He’s full of guilt, regularly turns to alcohol to get through the day and has few friends left. His methods are pretty

Tate is your typical anti-hero: an ex-cop turned private investigator after an accident in which his young daughter died and which left his wife in a catatonic state. He’s full of guilt, regularly turns to alcohol to get through the day and has few friends left. His methods are pretty unconventional, to say the least, and won’t sit well with some listeners. If you need a likable protagonist, then you’ll probably won’t enjoy this quite as much as I did.

Cemetery Lake is a dark psychological thriller and full of the uncompromising twists that blind-side you and are characteristic of Paul Cleave’s writing. Like his other thrillers, this kept me attached to my headphones for far longer than I had planned because I just didn’t want to stop listening until the mystery was solved. By the end of this, the case was solved, but questions remained about Tate’s future. Guess I need to get hold of the next book. Cemetery Lake is the first in the Theodore Tate series, which consists of four books at present. Only the first two are available on Audible.com at the moment, but I’m hoping all will be released eventually.

The narration by Paul Ansdell is once again excellent. He takes on the first person narrative and becomes Theodore Tate, grief-stricken, torn between good and evil, but also always with a touch of wit. There were no issues with the production.

Highly recommended for fans of dark psychological thrillers featuring a conflicted anti-hero.

Audiobook was provided for review by the publisher. ( )