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

I bought this book not because I had any interest in reading it, but to support [a:Francis Pryor 57943 Francis Pryor https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1381263587p2/57943.jpg]'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 [b:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2429135 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) Stieg Larsson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327868566s/2429135.jpg 1708725] 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.