Book review: English crime writer M.W. Craven thrills with a Fearless man in new series

Fearless

By M.W. Craven
Fiction/Constable/Paperback/448 pages/$25.48/Amazon (

amzn.to/44JVpHk

)
4 stars

Ben Koenig knows four ways to escape from the locked trunk of a kidnapper’s car. When none of them work, he gets comfortable first and goes to sleep.

English crime writer M.W. Craven’s new crime and mystery series focuses on a man – a former head of the United States Marshals’ Special Operations Group – who is built differently. Diagnosed with a rare recessive genetic disorder known as Urbach-Wiethe disease, Koenig has no capacity for fear.

A thrilling and page-turning examination of what boundless bravado can help a man achieve, the first book in Craven’s new series also pushes the reader to question if fearlessness has its limits, even as the quality is widely lauded in the world of crime investigators.

After all, Koenig’s director Mitch Burridge allowed the man to remain on his team on condition that he would accept oversight by another person – a form of risk assessment that still eventually proves inadequate.

Fast forward to the present, and Koenig has been absent from service for six years – trying not to let his old life catch up with him.

When Burridge springs up one day tasking the reclusive Koenig to find his missing daughter, his directive to Koenig – the only man who can take on the ruthless task – is the complete opposite: “You f***ing kill them.”

The first section of the book is not always compelling, as Koenig’s lack of fear primarily manifests in a mode of detached first-person narration when faced with dangerous scenarios: “Two were holding taser X26s. Black and yellow and nasty… Hurts like hell. Completely debilitating.”

But Fearless picks up considerably by the second section, when his investigations lead him to a clue that Martha’s disappearance might be related to a solar energy plant company in a desert town 56km from the Mexican border.

“Sometimes investigations move forward by tugging on the most unlikely of threads,” says Koenig. Thus, his fast-paced investigation brings him to chocolate milkshakes, a futuristic landscape of solar panels and dinner with an enigmatic Peyton North who always wears a yellow suit.

True to his character, Koenig takes many lives within the span of 400 pages, but hardly expresses remorse, at least until his recklessness brings down an unexpected friend he makes on this journey.

These moments where Koenig’s fearlessness breaks down – even if only slightly – are some of the more interesting parts of the book. As the series develops, one hopes that the quality of fearlessness will receive a more complicated treatment and that the reader will be able to see Koenig beyond his fearless exterior.

Otherwise, this is a compelling series opener by Craven that satisfies one’s craving for action and mystery.

If you like this, read: The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven (Constable, 2019, 368 pages, $16.18, Amazon, go to

amzn.to/3OvXNfd

). Winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, this is the first book in Craven’s Washington Poe series, which follows the titular detective sergeant’s investigation of a serial killer who burns people alive.

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