Three Graves Full

Starred review from December 10, 2012
Mason strides confidently into Coen brothers territory with her highly entertaining, solidly plotted debut about loneliness and the need for companionship. Sad sack Jason Getty has lived in fear ever since killing a man in a rage and burying the body in a remote corner of his yard some 17 months earlier. Just as the guilt-stricken Jason decides that he has gotten away with the crime, the landscaping crew he’s hired to clean up his neglected property find a body under the mulch bed beneath his bedroom window. Police later unearth a second body nearby. Neither is the man he murdered. While the police investigate and Jason worries about that third body, Leah Tamblin becomes obsessed with discovering if one of the bodies is Reid Reynolds, her often unfaithful fiancé who disappeared 13 days before their wedding. With sly wit Mason tweaks genre clichés while respecting crime fiction tenets. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management.

November 1, 2012
Mason's quirky debut novel deftly weaves dark humor into a plot that's as complicated as a jigsaw puzzle but more fun to put together. Jason Getty has a secret that's come close to ruining his life. It's colored everything he has said or done in the past year, even down to neglecting his suburban yard. As it turns out, he might have been better off leaving that yard of his alone, because that's what ultimately undoes him in this entertaining story of a man and the three dead bodies buried outside his ordinary little house. Jason knows about one of the bodies because he put it there. A mild-mannered widower whose late wife wasn't exactly his biggest fan, he ended up spending one long, terrible night digging a grave on the edge of his property's woods, shoveling rich dirt over a man's sheet-covered remains. Then, Jason tried to forget about the grave, ignoring his yard and allowing it to grow over with weeds and unkempt bushes. After enough time had passed, Jason began to feel safe, thinking his secret would remain undiscovered. That prompts him to abandon caution and hire a lawn-care company to install some new landscaping, but he covers himself by making certain the workers stay far away from the hidden body. Turns out that body isn't the problem; instead of unearthing Jason's secret, they dig up not one, but two additional bodies in the yard, and Jason has no idea whom either corpse might be. When a couple of police detectives with a very smart dog and a pair of interlopers show up to complicate matters, the stage is set for one of the strangest nights ever, much of it staged in Jason's yard. Although the self-consciously clever prose threatens to overwhelm them, the characters keep the action rolling in a tale that is often very funny in a weird sort of way. Mason's written a dandy of a first outing with not a single boring moment.

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Starred review from February 15, 2013

It's been a year since Jason Getty killed a man and buried him in his yard. But when Jason hires a lawn service, two more graves of which he had been unaware are uncovered. This discovery begins the unraveling of Jason's already precarious sanity and will lead a cast of characters, including two detectives and a very special dog, to a unique killer and dual stories of betrayal and murder. Mason's prose is at times as lovely as poetry, and wry humor deftly offsets her grim tale to devastating effect. This tale has more twists than a corkscrew and you'll find yourself surprised at nearly every turn. Each character is brought to life with startling clarity, and if you think you can't sympathize with a murderer, think again. Especially delightful is unofficial police dog Tessa, who will make readers grin and break their hearts in equal measure. VERDICT Mason has written a quirky and downright thrilling treat that is not to be missed. Fans of Tana French and Erin Kelly especially will find themselves entranced by this nearly perfect debut.--Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2012
First-novelist Mason hooks the reader with her first sentence, There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard. Mild-mannered widower Jason Getty is responsible for burying one body, but he's shocked when two others are discovered in his yard and found to be the work of the home's previous owner, Boyd Montgomery, who came upon his wife, Katielynn, in bed with Reid Reynolds three years earlier, just weeks before Reynolds was to marry his childhood sweetheart, Leah Tamblin. Getty, on tenterhooks, is massively relieved when police wrap up the latter two murders, until persistent detective Tim Bayard finds blood traces in Getty's house that point to a third crime. As Getty prepares a cover-up, Tamblin comes looking for answers and resolution, and what seemed a closed murder case opens up again. Racheting up suspense is one thing, and Mason manages it masterfully, particularly as it concerns Getty's fate. But portraying characters so well and so thoroughly, examining and explaining their motives even for murder, requires a level of skill that is rare, marking this as an astonishingly accomplished debut and Mason as a writer to watch very closely.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)