Enjoyed this read

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. Could feel the heartache in the detectives narrative as she was searching for the killer.
Will be looking for the next book by this author.

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3 people found this helpful

serial killer

crazy killer lots of suspense and likeable characters.good narration, will be reading more DI Natalie

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Best book ever

I know I say this all the time but this was an excellent book.

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If you're slightly hungover and it's a Sunday...

... and you just want a middle-of-the-road, mildly thrillerish police procedural story that's not going to challenge you or blow your mind (in any way), then Carol Wyer is the writer for you. This book is more-or-less competently put together, but really this stuff is wholly unexceptional. I spend 80 percent of my waking hours listening to audio-books on headphones, so i'll probably end up buying most of her novels, but this is only because A) the reader is pretty good and B) my mind is an insatiably ravening crime-audiobook-eating monster and it's devoured all the good stuff already, so anything remotely passable immediately gets thrown onto the conveyor belt to get chewed up. Having said that, you only need to dust off the surface veneer of this work to reveal an array of glaring flaws, which the writer could probably have spotted and dealt with if she could just have had the passion and persistence to do another 2 or 3 drafts. The characters are sketched rather than finely or boldly drawn; they are only partially developed, so the personal views, opinions and attitudes of the writer can be clearly perceived in the text, like stains that show through under an inadequate paint job. The main character has been knocked together as though following the ikea diagram of a flawed heroine. Her sanctimonious lectures are insufferable, and it seems like the last person to follow her soapbox moralising is herself.
Let's face it, the characters in a story should always be the driving force behind plot because, after all, people, their personalities, choices and behaviour are the reason things happen the way they do. Here it's the other way round: the characters are crammed in to conform to the plotline, which, by the way is virtually identical to The Dare - Book 3.
I mean yeah, it's passable, but there's just no originality to it. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris was written in the mid 80s - and it still has more hutzpah in its little toenail today than all these books. Connoisseurs of great crime writing will find Wyer banal, unoriginal and formulaic, though it must be said that the 3rd book was better than the 1st ( i haven't had a go at 2 yet).
Yes, you're patently familiar. Flawed cop heroine with murder squad investigates, she's conflicted and tortured by the pain and emotion of it all and whatnot, she's rollin' rocks uphill, trying to do right in a man's world, juggling work, colleagues and family, and all the while the killer is out there, and yes, you did meet him briefly early on, and after a few red herrings, she sniffs him out. I mean, come on. It's just so predictable. You can't just rip off Midsomer Murders like this and get away with it! At least not without getting pulled up for it!
I give it 52 out of 100...

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4 people found this helpful

In yellow dresses!

The Narrator came across as an excellent storyteller of the Female Detective and her team searching for the murderer of a little girl killed a few years ago. Then more girls died as a race against time to find one possibly alive.

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listened to this over one day!

loved it kept me interested throughout following each clue. great characters and narration. brilliant .

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Gripping.

The story had me interested all the way, though for a brief moment I thought it was dragging. No obvious holes in the story and a really enjoyable listen.

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Not a bad summer book

This book was OK, the story was rather dry and predictable, and I was expecting a surprise ending that never came so I was left a bit unsatisfied. It's alright for an easy listen.

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Good but not great

This one took a while to get into, I just couldn't quite connect with Detective Natalie. The story it self was interesting enough to kill some time but over all found it a bit generic.

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Excellent listen

Great writing, really enjoyed the story. The narrator did a good job with the different voices.

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