A good read from an author who know what he's doing, keeps you on your toes until the end.

This is the 6th book in the DS Griffith's series already. Unfortunately I have not read the previous novels, so I don't know if I perhaps miss some references to events in the previous novels, but I think this book reads nicely as a standalone book.
I think I must start the series from the start to appreciate the books to its fullest.
Recommended to anyone to appreciate a good read.

Another great Fiona Griffiths novel. I’ve loved all of them so far and this is no exception.

Published in the Oxford Times Thurs July 13:
Gaynor Charteris, a well-liked and highly respected archaeologist is found murdered – and this is no ordinary crime.
The victim has been decapitated and her body stabbed with historical spears.
It seems to be sending a message but it’s not clear what it is or who it’s intended for.
It’s exciting news for DS Fiona Griffiths who has been literally counting the days since she had a murder to get stuck in to.
If that sounds cold-hearted, well, I suppose it is. But our remarkable heroine isn’t your run-of-the-mill police officer. As well as having a matter of fact attitude to death (and a back story that goes a fair way to explaining why) she also has deep empathy for the victims she comes across.
This manifests in her going into trance-like states as she communes with them.
Fiona is funny, clever and complicated, and a thoroughly fascinating character who is making her sixth appearance in a novel by Oxfordshire resident Harry Bingham in The Deepest Grave.
Newcomers, like myself, are likely to quickly warm to her and catch on to her foibles and fans of her previous escapades will welcome her return.
The series has been designed to work as stand alone books or read in sequence, so it’s not too late to start now, although if you like things in order you might want to go back to the beginning and start with Talking To The Dead.
The Deepest Grave is worth waiting for; the plot involves complicated shenanigans with dodgy historians, more gory murders, organised crime and a link to King Arthur.
Characters from previous books make an appearance and are joined by a couple of new sidekicks – a vicar who’s handy with a shotgun and a tough-talking but vulnerable archaeology student.
It’s likely we will see more of them in future and that’s something to look forward to.
The Deepest Grave, Harry Bingham, Orion Fiction, £12.99

Follow Detective Sergeant Fiona Griffiths in her sixth novel working with the South Wales Police from Cardiff. This book can be read as a standalone, which was good as I have not read any of Harry's other books. The Deepest Grave is a murder investigation that is told as a first person narrative, so your focus is all about Fiona.

I am a fan of first person narrative novels and Harry gives you the personality of Fiona straight off the bat. I kept thinking of Nessa from Gavin and Stacey, although Fiona never asks "What's occurring?". I liked how Harry used the local character of Cardiff in his story even though no character had a curry and asked for "half and half".

I liked the setting of this novel as I have lived in Cardiff since 1991. It was a joy to read a novel set on my home turf and although Fiona travels around a lot, Harry makes sure all the locations are real. It annoys me when authors set their stories in fictitious locations. I feel that readers would also enjoy this novel even if they had never visited Cardiff. Harry uses Welsh place names and words in such a gentle way that English born readers, me included, will view the spellings as normal, for example Llanymawddwy and Caledfwlch.

The plot was good and every now and then, Harry would review the progress of the murder investigation to stop the reader forgetting any of the details and flow of the story. The Deepest Grave covers a lot of ground and issues. I found it a pleasant read to go through. The ending is fine and everything is wound up tidy. What I liked most was the author's note at the end when Harry explains the differences in crime thrillers.

I thought The Deepest Grave was an enjoyable, workaday, GOOD read. It gave me what I wanted, a story to roll along with, like reading friends' updates on Facebook. The Deepest Grave gets 4 stars from me but Harry does explain in his author's note how different styles of crime thriller appeal to readers. This reasoning I appreciate and although I vote The Deepest Grave 4 stars, for many readers this could be a 5 star read.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher. I am h0oked. I now need to get the 5 previous books. Absolutely brilliant.

Fiona Griffiths is a Sergeant in the Major Crimes Unit in Cardiff. She loves the adrenalin rush that a murder hunt gives her and she has been counting the days since she last had a dead body to investigate – in this case 453 days to be precise. As she sits twiddling her thumbs, there are other things on her mind.

Her boss, D.C.I. Jackson has gone off on a break and rumours abound that he may make it permanent. That’s disappointing for Fiona, because she knows her boss understands her way of working, but her newly promoted colleague, Inspector Bleddyn Jones, is a very different kettle of fish, and they get along about as well as chalk and cheese. Jones is very much the procedural policeman. Everything is by the book and he has little time for those such as Fiona who like to follow their own path and work instinctively.

Fiona has a lively personality, but as you learn more about her, you understand that her background and family don’t necessarily lend themselves to the career of a homicide detective, coupled with which, Fiona has a rare mental health condition which flares up from time to time and which will again rear its head during the course of her investigation.

The murder of Gaynor Charteris, a respected archaeologist, has been carried out in a pretty grotesque manner. Decapitated and her head put on display, she has been stabbed with three Iron Age spears.

Bleddyn Jones is convinced that this must be the work of a local ‘nutter’, but Fiona is less convinced and when she befriends a PhD student, Katie at the dig that Katie and Charteris were working on, she soon finds that the picture may well be more complex than anyone understands and she begins to follow a trail that will take her into the world of academia, violent criminals and a vast conspiracy worth millions.

After a slow start, I soon warmed to Fiona and quickly got caught up in the story. Though this is the 6th Fiona Griffiths story, it works perfectly well as a standalone novel, and I didn’t feel I had missed anything not having read all the others.

I enjoyed the mythological aspect of the book (if indeed you believe that the story of King Arthur is mythology) and the way in which Bingham cleverly weaves the story in and out of the legendary King’s time into the present day.

This is an enjoyable story, well told with lots of unpredictable turns and I would happily read more in the Fiona Griffiths series. It’s out in e-book today and is only 99p as I write. Get clicking!

I gave this book my best shot but I couldn't get into it finding it over complicated and confusing. I realise that I am in the minority and wish the author well with the publication

I really enjoyed this book. It is fast paced and gritty and humorous in places. I really liked the authors humour. The characters seem so real and you can empathise with them and feel you know them by the end of the book. This is the first Harry Bingham book that I have read. I now want to read the rest of the Fiona Griffiths series and I hope the author continues to write them.

This is the 6th book in the Fiona Griffiths series by author Harry Bingham. I was given a short story a few months ago by the author as a taster for this series and was instantly drawn to the lead character Fiona Griffiths. My opinion was that this character would make great reading and I was looking forward to reading a full length novel. So when the opportunity came up to read one I was very excited to start it and I wasn't disappointed.
DS Fiona Griffiths is certainly not boring and as a lot of other great detective characters trouble appears to follow her. A gruesome murder is discovered where the victim has been decapitated with an antique sword and Fiona leads the way to uncover the truth.

The victim Gaynor Charteris was an archaeologist excavating a nearby iron-age site. A well liked and respected woman it is not obvious why anyone would want to kill her never mind in such a grotesque way. Fiona finds evidence of a crime that seems to have its origins in King Arthur's greatest battle and she struggles to get her superiors to take it seriously.
Fiona is a very complex character and has her own mental health issues that make her more interesting.
I really enjoyed this book and will certainly read more of this author and this series in particular.
I would like to thank Net Galley and Orion Publishing Group for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advance copy of The Deepest Grave, the sixth novel to feature Cardiff based DS Fiona Griffiths.

It is 453 days since Fi's "last proper corpse" so she's not overly excited by the news of a new murder. This changes when she learns that the victim, archaeologist Gaynor Charteris, was beheaded and stabbed with 3 antique spears. Suspecting there is much more to it than Inspector Bleddyn Jones's preferred "local nutter" option she does her own digging and finds links to King Arthur and the Dark Ages.

This is the second Fiona Griffiths novel I have read and I enjoyed it much more than the other one I read, Talking To The Dead as Fi is now much more likeable and credible. The novel is told in the first person and is laugh out loud funny in parts as Fi has a quirky take on life - I particularly enjoyed the opening chapter which involves a dinosaur made of paper clips and the Great Crossbow of Doom. It sets the scene and invites you to read on which I did gladly. I also loved her dark thoughts about Inspector Jones and his by the book policing methods, some of them are priceless.

At the end of the novel Mr Bingham states that he follows the Conan Doyle school of writing - outlandish plots which might conceivably be possible rather than the more realistic procedurals readers have become used to. So it may be that the plot walks on the wild side but it is clever and has plenty of twists and turns, many of which I didn't see until the very smart Fi points them out. It is compulsive reading and I found myself in full "just another chapter" mode until the end.

The Deepest Grave is good, escapist fiction with a quirky, funny protagonist so I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Fiona Griffiths is certainly quite a unique character, coupled with a very unique plot and this book is a winner. The plot centres around the murder of an archaeologist who is excavating items from the Dark Ages and the time of the legendary Arthur. Well written, compelling and a very interesting plot coupled with modern day policing and this makes for a good summer read. Many thanks to Orion Books and Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads.

This is the latest installment in the DS Fiona Griffiths series, one of the most unusual and compelling protagonists in crime fiction. There are occasions in this novel where Fiona's actions and thoughts make me feel uncomfortable but I still think the world of her. Based in Cardiff, Fi is mooching around, pondering on the fact that it has been 462 days since her last corpse, until she arrives at the scene of a body that has been beheaded. The victim is archaeologist Dr Gaynor Charteris, and needless to say Fi is keen to spend time with the head and the body but only gets substantial time to do that at the morgue later on. The case is led by the ambitious DI Bleddyn Jones, a 'by the book' man who does not get Fiona, and is issuing warnings to her before long. This is a story that enters the territory of Welsh Arthurian legends and ancient antiquities.

Charteris has been working on a dig at Dinas Powys, and a number of items have been stolen from there. Fi gets close to Katie, a PhD student working the dig, who is full of useful archaeological knowledge, and as it turns out, is dying from Motor Neurone Disease. There are burglaries in churches in North Wales that involve items relating to the Dark Ages and Arthur. There is growing belief in the existence of Arthur and the discovery of artifacts from that period of history. The investigation leads to a number of academics, a secret group, and a more ruthless, criminal and murderous presence. With a rising body count and a hostage situation, Fiona finds that Katie and her family are endangered and there is nothing she is not prepared to do to ensure they are safe. DI Jones eventually turns out to pull all the stops to support Fiona, although this does not resolve their differences entirely.

Fiona has her own unique character and has mental health issues that look to be returning, they have been exacerbated with her spending time with the dying Katie with whom she is so close. She seems to be able to cope and seeing her friendship develop with Katie is a real joy. There are other terrific supporting characters such as Fi's dad and George Bowen. Her need to commune with the dead to the extent she does is unusual and odd. I still feel squeamish at times though, such as when she wishes she has Gaynor's bloody head with her in a plastic bag. However, it certainly drives her to find justice for her corpses. I loved the blend of ancient Arthurian legends and antiquities with a compelling present day police procedural. The author highlights the contemporary issue of the rising trade in fake and looted antiquities in the novel. Fantastic crime fiction which I highly recommend. Cannot wait for the next one in the series! Thanks to Orion for an ARC.