The Curator by M.W. Craven

Washington Poe book 3. Constable, 2020. ISBN: 9781472131959.
(Age: Adult - Senior secondary) Recommended for readers who enjoy the mystery genre. Another engrossing mystery featuring Poe and Tilly is sure to grab fans of this pair. In another unique plot, following The puppet show and Black Summer, the pair are faced with a strange case. Why are some women anaesthetised before they are killed and others not? What is the mean of the message #BSC6 left behind and how is the killer managing to leave his macabre messages behind with no one seeing him? The intervention of the disgraced FBI agent who gets in touch, brings even more information. She believes that Poe is dealing with a man known as The Curator, more deadly than a serial killer.
Craven is an amazing writer who comes up with quite different plots in his novels. This one is bizarre and engrossing and kept me glued to the page right until the unexpected end. It left me thinking back to the clue left early on for astute readers but which can easily be overlooked.
After reading a couple of stories in a series, I am often a bit fatigued by the sameness of the characters but this is not true of Poe and Tilly. Their working relationship, trust and friendship grows in The Curator, and DI Flynn, now heavily pregnant, is a sympathetic character too. And the writing, full of suspense and some humour, the bleakness of the Cumbrian landscape, flows along smoothly and makes for a book that begs to be read in one or two sittings.
Books by Craven are not to be missed by anyone who enjoys a good mystery.
Pat Pledger