The Book of the Dead

How it reads

The Book of the Dead is thriller (forensic conspiracy thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are family, secrets and justice. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It's a later book in a series — you'll usually want to start earlier. The ending resolves happily. At 454 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.