Spoken Bones

A DI Fenella Sallow Crime Thriller, Book 1

De: N.C. Lewis

Narrado por: Deborah Balm

Duración: 9 h y 52 m

Resumen del Editor

This dark secret could finally break her…

Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. When the body of a retired artist is discovered atop the blackened embers of the town bonfire, the community is rocked to the core.

It falls to DI Fenella Sallow and her team to find out how she came to be there. In her 50s, the veteran detective inspector thought she had seen it all. But behind the curtained windows and closed doors of the idyllic Cumbria coastal setting lurks pure evil.

Fenella must confront her dark past. Haunted by the unsolved case of a missing girl, she knows it is a race against time. Can she stop this death from slipping through her fingers, too?

Before long, it becomes disturbingly clear that the killer is playing a twisted game and will do anything to conceal the terrible truth of what happened on the beach on Bonfire Night.

Set against the backdrop of beautiful coastal Cumbria, an ancient land of legend, folklore, and myth, Spoken Bones is the first book in the Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow series.

This pause-resisting crime thriller will keep you hooked until the very end. If you like police procedurals with psychologically complex characters and shocking twists, then you’ll love Spoken Bones.

Perfect for fans of L.J. Ross, J.D. Kirk, Simon McCleave, Stuart MacBride, Matt Brolly, Angela Marsons, Alex Smith, J.M. Dalgliesh, J.E. Mayhew, David J. Gatward, T.G. Reid, Jack Gatland, Robert F. Barker, and J.R. Ellis.

©2021 N.C. Lewis (P)2022 N.C. Lewis

Ends abruptly

I love a good murder mystery. I love how the author ties everything up at the end and you have to kind of go back and think “oh yeah that’s right I remember when so and so did so-and-so, now it makes sense”. Not this book. There’s absolutely no buildup to the end and the resolution of the murder. It just pops out of the blue. I cannot even remember anything about the character who was ultimately the murderer, not my favorite author.

Character development was pretty good.

I like the setting in Cumbria, the descriptions of the coast and the connections to communities there.

Small village police procedural set in Cumbria

First in Fenella Sallow detective series. Well plotted, good character development with one exception, looking forward to the future of detectives, warm atmosphere. The only jarring unit was the over-the-top and unbelievable nastiness of the superintendent.

Give the Poor Reader a Clue!

One of the reasons I enjoy mysteries is trying to figure out ahead of the reveal who the murderer really is. To do this, the writer must skillfully insert clues that the alert reader may observe--or not. Overly obvious clues spoil the story. But no clues at all is against the rules. Sadly, "Spoken Bones" falls into this outlaw category. There was not a single clue I could detect that in any way implicated the murderer. There were masses of clues pointing in other directions, which is fine. There was some background talk about looking into this or that, but nothing that the reader could have discerned as pointing at the murderer. That being said, the narrator did a good job and I enjoyed her dialect. The locale was well-drawn. The characters were interesting and the story hums along at a good pace. Too bad about the fatal flaw at its heart.

Thoroughly enjoyable

Getting to know DI Fennela Sallow in this first book of a series was a delightful listen.

In contrast to some of the other reviewers, I enjoyed the narration. I prefer narrators with an accent appropriate to the setting of the novel.

I am a fan of police procedural mysteries and this one is a new favorite!

Audible, please release the other five mysteries in the series!

characters

Excellent plot. couldn't figure out who did it til all was revealed. Loved the performance.

5

It is hard for me to find a realty good British
rural police proedural that I like.
This book is excellent.

Mediocre mystery

My first book by this author. It had no depth at all, nothing more than a series of interviews with multiple suspects. Characters were weakly drawn. Won’t read another book by this author.

Engaging, beginning to a series

The cliffhanger here is so overwhelming. It almost made me resentful, but I will probably go on to get the next in the series.

Frustrating denouement

I liked the characters, but the book comes across to me as a somewhat promising first effort that needs maturation and a better editor. Many threads are dropped without a trace, descriptions of characters' behaviors are repetitive, and when the resolution comes, there is no explanation of how the detective figured it out. The performance kept me going but overall a waste of time.