The Lifers' Club: An ancient site, a modern murder

Alan Cadbury #1

by Francis Pryor

Alan Cadbury is a professional a digger of ancient sites and a man who likes to unravel the mysteries and meaning of the past. For many years, Alan has worked with the 'Circuit Diggers', so called because they work the 'circuit', moving from one excavation to another, as new sites open across Britain. Most of the sites they dig are ahead of industrial development, new housing estates, gravel quarries, or roads. They are a down-to-earth bunch; but they all know what they want from life. Feared by respectable citizens, they are always covered in mud, deeply suntanned and drunk (or stoned) on their days off.

Like others on the circuit, Alan Cadbury is he won't let problems lie, even when he's slumped drunk in a lonely bedsit, somewhere in the Fens. But there's another side to him, in the late 90s he helped to give a forensic archaeology course and there met Richard Lane, now a senior detective in the Leicestershire force. DCI Lane helps him tackle new cases. But this is his first big an 'honour killing', perpetrated eight years ago in Leicester.

It's a dark tale of past wrongdoing and modern criminality. And it's not without violence. Alan's life may be harsh and at times unpleasant, but it's not likely to be very long, either. Oh yes, archaeology can be a very dirty business…

Genres: Crime, Fiction

521 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Francis Manning Marlborough Pryor MBE (born 13 January 1945) is a British archaeologist who is famous for his role in the discovery of Flag Fen, a Bronze Age archaeological site near Peterborough, and for his frequent appearances on the Channel 4 television series Time Team.

He has now retired from full-time field archaeology, but still appears on television and writes books as well as being a working farmer. His specialities are in the Bronze and Iron Ages.

His first novel, Lifers’ Club, is due to be published in 2014.

Reviews

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting enough story, modern crime mixed with archaeology, shades of Elly Griffiths's series about her heroine Dr Ruth Galloway. But here the book is set 7 years after the crime, so it's really a case of all talk and no action. And there is a LOT talking, it's a very wordy book, and I confess to skim reading whole paragraphs of it, especially lengthy descriptions of archaeological processes.
It's probably of more interest if you're an archaeology buff, sadly I'm not.

[Peter Maloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much, it felt like a Dick Francis book in that it was easy to read and had a good pace, but the story has far more depth and content.

Without giving anything away, this book challenges the reader to look beyond the obvious & preconditioned responses. It kept my interest throughout as new layers of intertwined themes were revealed, and ended up with a satisfying conclusion.

[Mac Whatlley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Francis Pryor’s first novel

An excellent mystery and an entertaining read. I discovered his novels mentioned on his blog, was intrigued and not disappointed. Though I’m a fan of Time Team I am new to his published works.

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can appreciate the authors immense knowledge of history and archeological items however it doesn’t make for fascinating reading over 500+ pages.

Could have been shorter with less talk of thunder storms/the weather and cups of tea. Lacked conversation and character development.

[Melody]

DNF

[Karen Wirth]

Lots of twists and turns. I enjoyed this book and snagged another by Francis Pryor.

[Elizabeth Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book not because I had any interest in reading it, but to support Francis Pryor's crowdfunded publishing (and get my name printed in the book, of course). The book I got in return is an archaeologist who runs across some crime and decides to solve it himself. As the protags of crime fiction do.

Alan Cadbury (our archaeologist) feels wooden - Bad Stuff happens to him (as does Good Stuff), and yet he doesn't seem to bat an eyelid. He doesn't break down or become overly excited or really show any emotion at all. The archaeology and related science-y bits are great if you're interested in that sort of thing, but dense if you are not. At times the writing feels pretty rigid as well - this is Prior's first foray into fiction (if you don't count History in that category, but that's an argument for a different day), but parts of Lifers' Club feel like a non-fiction work (a little like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo feels like it's written by a journalist).

That said, it wasn't a bad read. The twist on the whodunit ending was a nice surprise - there is more to it than Cadbury solving the case and finding out who the 'real killer' is, and the human repercussions of that, rather than the generic grateful wrongfully-arrested prisoner, is really nice to read. There is more of Alan Cadbury's story in the works and I'll probably read that too.

[Lesley Arrowsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lifers' Club is written by Francis Pryor, who is a real archaeologist who has written several very good non-fiction books on archaeology - and reading the descriptions of archeological digs here took me right back to the days when I was a circuit digger. Reading about setting up the grid, and dumpy levels (used for surveying), and trowelling back - it was like relaxing into something when you don't even realise you've been tense.
The mystery was interesting and complex as well, involving an "honour killing" in a Turkish family and the Turkish family's links to one of the archaeologists who were working on a dig when the young woman disappeared, who has since done very well for himself and now runs his own company. Our hero, Alan Cadbury, goes to work for the company, and at the same time is trying to prove the innocence of the young man convicted of the murder of his sister, who is a member of the Lifers' Club of the title in the nearby high security prison.
There was an interesting sub-plot about a Victorian pillar of the community who turned out not to be such a nice man after all, thanks to discoveries at a dig in a churchyard, which ties into the main plot when several of the Saxon skeletons they dig up turn out to come from Eastern Europe.
I really enjoyed this one, and will be looking out for the sequel.

[Jack Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've given this four stars because I'm interested in archaeology, and I like Francis Pryor, but I'd probably give it 3.5 if I could. It's solidly plotted and not badly written - although if you want to see great writing from FP then Britain BC or Seahenge, non-fiction titles, are better, in my opinion.

It's a tad overlong and there are some proofreading niggles. Alan Cadbury is not a massively inspiring protagonist, but I guess he's perfectly adequate. That sounds like I'm damning him with faint praise and I suppose I am. It's nicely paced but not exciting. There are some nice descriptions of Fenland weather and scenery, and quite a lot of interesting stuff about digs, skeletons, and so on. I'd happily read the next one but I don't know if I'd buy it - I'd hope my mum buys it and I can borrow it as I did this one. (I did buy this, but for Mother not for myself.)

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. I do tend to enjoy crime fiction which has a non police investigator. So an archaeologist fits the bill nicely. Brings a different perspective to things. Well paced, good characters, and enough drama to leave me looking forward to my next opportunity to pick the book up again.

[Sandrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I found some of the action a bit hard to belief, it was an enjoyable read and I might be intrigued to read the sequel.

[Stevyn Colgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good romp :) Bit low at first but great when it got going. Looking forward to Book 2!

[Mark Grisham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muddy trenches, bones, four wheel drives, English weather, secrets and a shrewd and determined archaeologist make this quite an interesting and thrilling mystery.