Book Reviews and More: Blood, Bone and Coffin - Edwin Torr

Friday, 11 June 2021

Blood, Bone and Coffin - Edwin Torr - Dead Means Dead Book 0.0

Blood, Bone and Coffin

Dead Means Dead Book 0.0

Edwin Torr

aka J.E. Mayhew

Obolus Books

ASIN B07BZDZ4TH

This is the 9th book I have read from the pen of this author. But who is he really? I have read all of his adult crime novels published as J.E. Mayhew. I have read one of his Young Adult collections of short stories as Jon Mayhew. And this is the first I have read under the pen name of Edwin Torr, but it will not be the last. Reaching out to the author before reading this one I believe there are 8 stories published under this name and in this series. There are three novels and 5 novella’s or short stories to date. And though this is the first chronologically I believe it was the last published, and written. It is a really fun story. While reading this I could not help but think about Cedar Sanderson’s The Groundskeeper Raking Up the Dead and Zombie Death Extreme Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator by Karina Fabian all three authors approaches are very different the stories are somewhat similar and just as enjoyable and memorable.

This story was immensely entertaining. And there is something eerily familiar about Detective Inspector Savage. The story focuses around a job that Tom Coffin; Specialist Funeral Director has been called on to resolve. His job is to put the undead back in the ground. And he is partnered with a cop, Sergeant Quinn, who is on the outs and at first does not believe what they are really up against. Coffin’s mode of transport is a car called Persephone, a Jaguar XJ hearse a 1995 model. A vehicle that looks like the offspring of a family station wagon and the Popemobile.

But things in Hampton Green are not what they appear. Yes it appears someone has crawled out of their grave. An older man who had been at a retirement home before passing. And by all reports was a very nice, kind and gentle man. And Coffin and Quinn need to put him back where he belongs. But something still feels off. And by the time Coffin realizes the pieces he missed will it be too late? To find out you will need to read this story.

This story was awesome from the first few sentences.

“The phone always had a habit of ringing when I was right in the middle of something. I supposed that was true for everyone but, for most people, I guessed that the intrusion was more of an inconvenience than anything else. Maybe their phones rang when they were in the middle of baking something delicate and difficult or when they were smiling across the table into a pair of sparkling eyes.

I wasn’t cooking a soufflé or on a hot date, I was seconds away from wrestling a dead guy to the ground and sending him back to his maker. I crouched behind a gravestone, knee-deep in long, wet grass with rain water trickling down the back of my neck. The dead guy half sat and half slouched against the stone that bore his name. I could smell him from my hiding place. He’d been underground for a while and that sweet, rotten scent filled the air around him. From where I hid, I couldn’t make out his face, just the slope of his huge shoulders and the grey dome of his bald head. This one had been a mountain of a man and probably still had the strength to make a mess of me if things went wrong.”

And it just kept going from there. It was a quick read but has me completely hooked. I have already picked up the first novel and next short story and will likely devour the 8 works in the series.

This story is Urban Fantasy at its best. It is a good fun story. Action, Adventure, and dealing with the undead. I love his British Crime novels as J.E. Mayhew, and enjoyed his YA as Jon Mayhew, but to be honest this one is right up there. If I had to pick a genre that he was best at I do not honestly think I could do it. This was an excellent story that I give top marks to and highly recommend.

Books as J.E. Mayhew:

DCI William Blake Series:

0.5 Tyger Tyger

1.0 A Poison Tree

2.0 Fearful Symmetry

3.0 The Bones of the Dead

4.0 Cruelty Has A Human Heart

5.0 All the Lies

6.0 Death's Cold Hand

7.0 No Time For Sorrow

8.0 Dark Visions of Torment

…