Entertaining read!

Good absorbing story, well narrated with likeable, believable characters and some laugh-out-loud lines. Will definitely be downloading the other books in the series.

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Good pace & reading made it totally listenable

Really absorbing holiday listen cleverly constructed story with interesting characters & some good insights. Eg the life of a child in care & prison but not depressing.

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Must listen to the sample

Very mediocre which was a shame as I had listened to the author on a local radio program and it was set close to my home.

First bugbear and it was my own fault - I cannot stand stories written in the present tense. They grate on me so much that I cannot get past the tense and into the story with ease.
I don't much like female narrators either, especially when they properly read every word and are somewhat prissy into the bargain. This one wasn't great at male voices and her accents, especially the Scots, were haphazard.

Beyond all that, the premise of the story was interesting - was she missing or was she dead? The main female lead was far too emotionally flakey for a middle level police officer and she stepped over the line with her emotional entanglements with players, witnesses, on the fringe of the story line. I wanted to smack her several times.

Of course one had to tick all the PC boxes - the lesbian relationship, the gay relationship, the heroic villain and the good black person. It'd be nice to read something without the "gay is normal and widespread" mantra being thrust down ones throat.

It was well over long, I think the author sought to enlist the aid of every descriptor known to man (or woman) - it could have been reduced by 1/3 and no one would have noticed.

I still ask myself why I bothered with it - apathy and no other good yarns on my iPhone at the time but I won't be getting the next in the series where the flakey, now DI, seems to have got herself knocked up. This book really irritated me - I don't usually write reviews!

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1 person found this helpful

if you're looking for mysteries, then search on.

This is not a crime novel, more of a character gallery of pretty uninteresting people. The tempo is so slow I kept looking at the "time remaining"-meter wondering when it whould pick up. I'm not one for fast paced books with lots of action, so for me to be bored with a story is quite the achievement.
The main character is sort of dull. She's portrayed as this vulnerable yet clever woman in the middle of a midlife crisis. But her story is so boring I can't even remember her name (finished the book 30 min ago). The writing is okay, there are some nice depictions in there, but far from enough to make an interesting read.

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