Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Review: Grave Expectations by Rob Johnson


 Genre: Crime/Comedy

Description:

“I need a coffin,’ she said.

Not an unusual request to put to an undertaker and not an unwelcome one either, since Max, Alan and Scratch are once again struggling to keep their funeral business from going under.

The sale of a single coffin wasn’t going to save them, of course, but the woman who wants it happens to be a dominatrix with a supposedly foolproof plan to rob a bank.

Max and his partners don’t exactly jump at the chance as their previous attempts at bank robbery had almost always ended in disaster. But maybe this was an opportunity too good to miss.

What they hadn’t bargained for, though, was that the bank job was just the beginning of a catastrophic series of events including blackmail, betrayal, murder and an unwelcome brush with organised crime.”

Author:

Rob Johnson is a playwright with four plays that have been professionally produced and toured throughout the UK. He has also written several books.

For more, visit Johnson’s website.

Appraisal:

As with the other books in this series, the main protagonists are Max Dempsey (okay, that’s not really his name, but it is the name he uses now, read the book to understand why) and his two partners. In theory they’re in the undertaking business, selling coffins, preparing people for burial or cremating their bodies … you know, not what most of us would consider fun, but definitely a legitimate business. But when the only other undertaker in the area seems to be getting all the business and the money coming in isn’t coming nearly fast enough to cover the money going out, a guy’s gotta find some way to make a few bucks to get through the dry patch, right? They’ve robbed banks before and when presented with a proposal that appears to be a sure thing, they jump at the chance. Down the rabbit hole they go as complications happen and their reaction to those only causes more complications. Whether or not it all works out for them and how they finally get to whatever the end result turns out to be is an adventure that keeps them and you, the reader, on your toes as the unexpected keeps happening and the whole time you’re going to be laughing (after all, it is a comedic crime story) as well as happy you aren’t one of Max’s partners.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

You’ll have no doubt that the author as well as all the characters are Brits, not only from the UK spelling conventions, but from the British slang that is constantly coming from the mouths of all the characters.

Also some adult language and some adult topics come up.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

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