Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle

Sometimes a line in a story or book resonates deep inside the reader. This one did.

“’Davis, I’ll tell you something. They ain’t nothin’ worse than missing a woman.’” (Page 146)

Former Charleston Police Officer Davis Reed is missing a woman and much of his life due to pills, alcohol, anger and anxiety issues. He has fled home for a change of scenery and an attempt to focus himself. For the next six months, he is living in a cabin in Cruso, North Carolina, with the intention of writing a book. The book is to be on the true story of the B-25 plane crash at nearby Cold Mountain. There were no survivors in the crash just after WWII. The fact that he has no experience writing, beyond police reports and whatever he did for his private detective gigs, does not deter him from the book writing plan.

The ongoing and routine day and night drinking as he makes various beers in the basement and his significant pill addiction deter the wring process. As does his bad leg and the pain in it and general goofing off. Davis Reed is not a writer. He is drifting through the days haunted by his past and one fateful night when his world changed.

He is also somebody who cannot stop obsessing when he sees something odd. Finding a ring full of keys is the trigger for an all new and escalating obsession. Finding the keys where he did was odd enough. What keeps happening with the keys is even odder. Those keys are the first in a long line of dominoes that eventually lead to a violent confrontation in the mountains of western North Carolina.

A highly atmospheric and massively complicated read, Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle unfolds at a steady and escalating pace. Filled with occasional wisecrack, more references to the heavy metal music of the eighties than you can shake a stick at, and a cast of eccentric characters, the book is a complicated and fun mystery read. It is also one of those novels where characters are cussing constantly and that will annoy some readers. So too will be all the constant discussion and thoughts regarding home brewing of beer. Neither was an issue for this reader.

My reading copy came from the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021 ( )

Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle was a true page tuner! I don't often find myself enjoying thrillers as much as I enjoyed this one! The plot was fast paced without skipping over details which I can't say enough good things about! One of my biggest pet peeves in books is plot holes and scenes that are skimmed over and not elaborated on. But this story is perfectly written with an air right plot line and I loved all of the plot twist! This book definitely needs to be on everyones "to be read" list! ( )

I really enjoyed this book! I went into this book rather blindly and my gamble worked out. I was hooked by this book early on and once I got into the book just a bit, I did not want to put it down. I was really curious about what was really going on and how this group of characters would figure it all out. I am so glad that I decided to give this book a try.

Davis is a former officer turned private investigator and it is safe to say that he has a few issues. After things go horribly wrong in Charleston, he decides to rent a cabin near Cold Mountain and write a book. He doesn’t get a whole lot of writing done though as he spends much of his time with Dale, the man from who he is renting the cabin. When he comes across a set of keys on a trail, he can’t seem to let the mystery behind them go. Before long, Davis along with Dale, who happens to be a local deputy, are busy trying to figure out who the keys belong to and how they ended up on the trail.

The characters in this book were wonderfully done. They all have their flaws, some pretty big flaws at that, but I really felt like they felt authentic. I like that these characters aren’t always serious, they often seem incompetent, and that they were able to surprise me a few times. There were a few moments in the story that I found myself chuckling because I could easily envision some of the crazy things these characters do in their quest to get to the bottom of things. I was drawn into the mystery and I was completely stumped as to how everything would work out.

I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a well-crafted mystery filled with wonderful characters that I grew to care about over the course of the story. I love that the author even worked a bit of humor into the novel. I will definitely plan to read more of Steven Tingle’s work in the future.

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books. ( )