Will Craven do a Billingham

Mike Craven seemed like the perfect author to close my reading of this years Theakston’s list given that he won in 2023 with The Botanist. There has only been 2 authors that have won it back to back before, that’s Mark Billingham and Denise Mina.



This entry from Mike is a lot different to his Tilly and Poe series as his new protagonist is an American former US Marshal with a rare brain disease which makes him fearless, hence the title.



Mike is obviously a film fan and makes several hilarious film references from the protagonists point of view, and when one of the characters says ‘you’re not going to go all Reacher on us’ this may give you some idea of the possible inspiration for this, although, I’m not inside Mikes head, I’m just guessing.



With the open and sprawling landscapes of the US allowing Mike to be more adventurous with what his characters can do, you can see why lots of UK writers have tried to do this and in-fact the last entry on the list to try this in 2021 was Chris Whitakers – We Begin At The End and it went onto win, is this an omen?



I believe that the use of the Full Metal Jacket (apologies if I have got this wrong) description of the weapons slowing down a fight scene to heighten the tension by letting you know what his protagonists actions could lead to makes it intriguingly different and an understandable entry on this years list.



Good Luck to everyone and I say once again – Don’t forget to vote for your favourite……