Smoke and Whispers

Zoë Boehm, Book 4

By: Mick Herron

Narrated by: Alix Dunmore

Oxford private detective Zoë Boehm turns up dead in Newcastle, launching her friend Sarah Tucker into an investigation with several leads—but no one she can trust.

When a body is hauled from the River Tyne, Sarah Tucker heads to Newcastle for a closer look. She identifies the dead woman as private detective Zoë Boehm, but putting a name to the corpse only raises further questions. Did Zoë kill herself, or did one of her old cases come back to haunt her? Why was she wearing the jacket a murderer had stolen years before? And what’s brought Sarah’s former sparring partner Gerard Inchon to the same broken-down hotel she’s staying at? Coincidence is an excuse that soon appears pretty unconvincing. Sarah can’t leave until she’s found the answers to her questions, however dangerous they might turn out to be.

“In this assured mystery from British author Herron … does a nice job of planting red herrings and making [Sarah Tucker's] amateur sleuthing plausible.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

©2009 Mick Herron (P)2025 Recorded Books

Twisty Turny

Enjoyed character development and suspense. Reader’s voice is pleasant. Some stressful parts but mainly due to discomfort on my part for decisions character made and choices to ignore other things.

Another good Zoe book

Somewhat different from the other Zoe books. It had surprises but was not too hard to follow. Interesting setting.

Newcastle,

I especially liked the description of Newcastle , The story line was pretty good too.

I hope there will be another book in this series!!!

Loved it , kept me guessing . Very Mic Herron in all the right ways. Will listen to it again.

Wake up Sarah

Zoe Boem series are lukewarm until her appearance. Sarah Tucker takes center stage, in all her naïveté and neurosis, and story proceeds haltingly and confusedly; halting as Sarah hems and haws, confused as Sarah is baffled by virtually any event in her pervue. I found this the least entertaining of the series, but still reveled in Heron’s authorial powers of description, simile, metaphor and humor.