The Hope That Kills

DI Fenchurch East London Crime Thrillers, Book 1

By: Ed James

Narrated by: Angus King

Meet Simon Fenchurch, detective inspector working the Met’s East London beat. Honest and funny but damaged, he’s working a case that could give him answers to his deepest trauma....

The body of a young woman is found on the streets of East London, in the shadow of the City’s gleaming towers. No ID on her, just hard-earned cash. But there is no doubting the ferocity of the attack.

DI Simon Fenchurch takes charge, but as his team tries to identify her and piece together her murder, they’re faced with cruel indifference at every turn—nobody cares about yet another dead sex worker.

To Fenchurch, however, the victim could just as easily be Chloe, his daughter, abducted from outside his home and still missing 10 years on, whose memory still haunts his days and nights, his burning obsession having killed his marriage.

When a second body is found, Fenchurch must peel back the grimy layers shrouding the London sex trade, confronting his own traumatic past while racing to undo a scheme larger, more complex and more evil than anything he could possibly have imagined.

For fans of Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Alex Smith, and JD Kirk, The Hope That Kills is the novel that introduced listeners to troubled Detective Simon Fenchurch.

©2017, 2020 Scott Cullen Ltd (P)2023 Grey Dog Audio

The crime and fenchurch

I love the series and of course Angus King he brings life to story read the series before on kindle like listening to it for first time cannot wait listen next book

The mystery was engaging enough

The characters not so much. Even the great Angus King failed to create enough individuality among them. And very little levity to lift the glum mood throughout. Sorry. I’ll wait for more Rob Marshall.

To repetitive

Didn’t really hold my interest some part just seemed to keep repeating themselves. The conversations where kind winded

EXCELLENT

Very unique, interesting story. Well-written. Good character development.

Nice combo of mystery solving and sudden action.

I'm 68 and all I can think about during the physical scenes though is, "MAN! Is our hero ever going to be in a world of hurt in 15 years when all those injuries turn into arthritis!" Ouch! Poor guy...so dedicated!

Enjoyed Mr. James's book so much I've added him to the list of my favorite authors.

Oh, and of course, Angus King is my favorite narrator. Searching for him is what lead my to this "new" author!

Loved it

Angus King is always great and I really enjoyed the book.On to the next one.

The fight against evil continues

The characters and the narrator were amazing. Many storylines are going on, one of loss, control and loosing oneself out of desperation. It is a book I would read again. Looking forward to the next book in the series

Great mystery

Sad that he didn’t find his daughter. Glad that he’s trying to rebuild his family. I’m glad his dad is helping him.

Cliched and unbelievable

It has an interesting premise but the characters are not interesting (well, except Dad, who is awesome), it’s repetitive (another Geezer?, get a thesaurus!) and it’s really really annoying that the 40 something detective is superhuman with his getting kicked and punched and effortlessly running after suspects 🙄

Beware, trigger warning.

I feel a trigger warning should have come with this book. I avoid books about child torture and human trafficking because they are too disturbing. The subject of this book is way beyond that. Lately, it seems to me that authors of mysteries are engaged in a race to the bottom to come up with the most disturbing and gruesome plots with unlikeable protagonists. I returned this book and I thank Audible for allowing me to do so.