'Lonely Graves', Britta Bolt

Pieter Posthumus is no ordinary detective; indeed, he’s not technically a detective at all. A member of Amsterdam’s Department of Emergencies and Internment, Posthumus is a civil servant, charged with identifying the corpses of those who die unnamed and unknown within the city limits, and offering them the dignity of a municipal funeral. With two seemingly unconnected cases on his desk – one suicide, and one death by misadventure – he has a busy week ahead of him.

Meanwhile, across town, Lisette Lammers works for the National Intelligence Service. Like Posthumous, she finds herself drawn to Amsterdam's Kolenkit district, and its Moroccan immigrants, but not by anything as mundane as an unidentified corpse. Her targets are terrorists, and her search for answers will ensure that two separate investigations merge in one lonely, shallow grave.Britta Bolt’s first novel is a breath of fresh, Amsterdam air, full of local detail, and brimming with humanity. The Posthumus trilogy promises something new and intriguing - an unconventional detective series whose twists and turns are built upon a city’s progressive social conscience. A gripping debut, and the start of a memorable series.

'Lonely Graves' by Britta Bolt was published in hardcover by Hodder Headline on 10 June 2014.

A version of this review was published in the Big Issue (Australia), Issue #462, July 2014.