The Dead Beneath Us: 1 (The Chichester Crime Mysteries) Paperback – 6 July 2023

Matthew J Evans has an excellent, engaging style of writing. He draws his reader in from the first sentence. His characters are interesting, well drawn and definitely 3 dimensional. This reader had no trouble imagining this book coming alive on the screen. Matthew writes clearly and there is no unnecessary padding. Each sentence carries weight and contributes to the telling of the story. As an ex policeman with 18 years experience, Matthew knows his stuff and this Police Procedural crime novel is convincing. The book has many layers, touches on so many aspects of life, is written with an underlying awareness and compassion for his fellow man and has a touch of humour which is delightful when one has become hooked in and is feeling rather tense! I can't wait to read more about DCI Beniamin Dinescu, DS Emily Summers and team.

I enjoyed this book so will be reading the next one too. Story flowed well & was easy to follow.

I really enjoyed this book. The main characters were easy to warm to and had compelling imaginative back stories. The story was well paced and the plot kept the reader guessing until the end. The setting of an old grand building being used as a school helped to invoke strong images. Towers, tunnels and priest holes all featured and were used to enhance the drama. I very much look forward to reading the next instalment.

It’s not often I am surprised with a plot, but the part at the very end did sneak up on me. I really enjoyed it and finished it in two evenings. Perhaps reading about where I am from played a part in me not wanting to put it down, but I also very much enjoyed reading the police procedural side of things, as well as following the story of the characters at Cotisham. Retrospectively, I cannot remember too much about the descriptions of the characters at the school (albeit this may well be my memory and no fault of the author), but I was able to really imagine the team and have depicted what I feel they look like deep in my mind, again perhaps because I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series and can’t wait for their return. Brilliant work Matthew

I thoroughly enjoyed this opening book in Matt Evans’ Chichester mysteries.The plot whizzed along, with suspense building nicely. Plenty of suspects and clues for the reader to get stuck into. And — unlike another reviewer — I really enjoyed the insights into the characters. At the same time, the details of police procedure felt authentic, which is not surprising given Matt’s professional background.A great start to the series. I’m looking forward to reading more.

A very good start to a new series. I picked it because I know the city quite well and I'm glad I did. Interesting characters as the main protagonists, if a little cliche in places, the dialogue needs a little work, but still believable, and a good mystery sets it off nicely. Definitely ordering book two.

This is the first of what will hopefully be a new series of detective novelsI read a lot of different crime authors and Matthew Evans writes as well as anyone.The plots are interesting and the characters are well drawn and make you want to read moreHopefully they get a big readership as they deserve it

I suppose because I lived and worked in Chichester for a number of years it made this and it’s sister novel more interesting.

I enjoyed this book, found it very hard to point down. Look forward to reading the next in the series.

I will read the next one in the series andhope there are more.

Absolutely brilliant AGAIN

I borrowed this book from Kindle Unlimited, assuming it would be a mystery. It's British, so I expected it to be well written, and it is. Very well written. And I expected there to be more time devoted to the personal lives of the characters than one might expect to find in an American book. What I did not expect was that the entire book would be devoted to the characters, with the mystery used simply as a reason for the characters to interact. I didn't count pages, but I would estimate that two thirds of the book, if not more, is extraneous to the basic story of what happened, and who did it. That's a shame, because Mr. Evans wrote a really great police procedural, then buried it it in social commentary. And that's what I really disliked about this book. I've never been to England, so I have no idea how accurate his depiction of life there is. But, judging by other British books I have read, he has taken the woke aspects of British society and exaggerated them to ludicrous extremes. There are only two characters -- the chief inspector's wife and his sergeant -- who are not members of some politically favored outgroup. Roughly half of the major characters are physically disabled. Three are suffering from PTSD. There's a black woman, a gay man, a transsexual, a blind man, a woman with muscular dystrophy, and on, and on, and on. I think my favorite was a police officer who is so terrified of the outside world that he hasn't left the station for four years. All of the characters exist in a constant state of extreme emotion, chiefly fear. People cry on nearly every page. Three characters, in separate incidents, change their names, their jobs, their homes, and give up their entire lives simply because someone verbally threatens them. Every character, at one point or another, seeks help because they are too frightened to do whatever needs to be done. All of the people in the book live highly structured lives, subject to endless rules and procedures which they mindlessly obey. Everyone is subservient to someone else, who in turn obeys the next person up the chain. No one arrives at a decision, or takes action, independently. Only the villains think and act for themselves -- and they are utterly depraved and evil. Mr. Evans has used his considerable talent to posit a society in which human beings are herd animals, cowering together in fear, blindly obedient to rules, incapable of independent thought, hoping that somehow, at some point, everything will work out -- without, of course, them taking responsibility for themselves. The book is a celebration of weakness. I will never read another by this author.