Fanciful story of a murky underworld

I have listened to a couple of Jo Spain's previous books and really enjoyed them. This is the first of the Tom Reynolds stories I have listened to and I was a little concerned that I would be missing out having not read the first five. I need not have worried as although Reynolds is the police Superintendent who leads the case, he is by no means the centre of the story.

This book immediately grabs the readers /listeners attention as we hear of a dazed and confused naked and burned woman on a city street. Naturally, the mystery revolves around who she is and what she was doing and we are soon taken into a murky underground world. The plot unfolds nicely and we meet several unsavoury characters and hear some shocking stories along the way.

The strength of this book is the way that the story mushrooms from a simple arson case and takes us to a sinister world that is unthinkable to many. The author lets her imagination run riot with the story line, some of which was, for me anyway, a little hard to follow at times, but reaches a satisfying conclusion, as all goods books should.

I loved the narration of Aoife McMahon too. I had previously heard her narrate previous Jo Spain books and also the excellent Normal People by Sally Rooney. I would look out for other books read by Aoife McMahon as she is excellent.

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16 people found this helpful

Geordie is not Aoife’s strong point

Mostly love the reading by Aoife McMahon but god the North East accent is terrible !

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Brilliant

Brilliant as ever !!!
Such a fantastic story
My very own slight criticism would be the geordie accent
However I’m a geordie so I’m bound to be overly sensitive about it !!
But the narrator is brilliant and it’s a hard accent to master !!

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Enjoyed this 5th book in the series.

Enjoyable and addictive, I kept going for just one more chapter. There was left a few unanswered questions, so hope there will be a following book. Narrator as amazing as with the previous books.

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Another cracking installment!

Absolutely love Jo Spain's work. Like all the others, this story was gripping, well paced and intriguing. Not so complex that you were just left baffled. Takes you along with it. Likeable characters and superb narration, although the Newcastle accent did make me laugh a little. Just loved it. Hope you are already working on the next one Jo, can't bare to wait too long!

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2 people found this helpful

Very good but not superb

I have listened to all the others in the series and this was as strong. That said, I found it somewhat unrealistic that the now-DCS, Tom, would ignore his holiday and spend a full fortnight partnering the officer he promoted and who leads the case. For me it tipped from what I imagine may have been a reasonable shadowing of the junior officer to a wholesale working alongside her throughout. The other thing, not huge in the scheme, but irritating, was the narrator's attempt at a Newcastle area accent. It was dreadful and moved across Irish, nothing, odd hints at North East and simply nondescript. The book would have been better if this had not been included. That all perhaps sounds more negative than it was, it's just that I'm laying it out. I'll certainly buy the next one.

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Enjoyed

I enjoyed this but it got complicated but all questions solved really quickly. Think I will leave the next jo Spain book for a while

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Enjoyable and entertaining

Better than the previous two books but somewhat convoluted, not in a good way. It defied logic, all the opportunities just slotting perfectly in place. I appreciate it’s fiction but it needs some reality. I don’t know if it was the recording but it was disjointed at times, for example there’s a “posh” restaurant lunch, I don’t know how that came about, they were just there as magically were others!

So while I did enjoy it, I think it should be the last in the series which, in my opinion has run its course.

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Good Listen

really enjoyed listening to this series of audio book, following Tom Reynolds, would recommend 👍

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brilliant

I have truly enjoyed the Tom Reynolds series of books and sad I'm at the end. The narrator had a lovely speaking voice and her soft Irish accent works extremely well with the narrative.

I loved the way Tom worked through the evidence and worked alongside his team to reach a conclusion. Each story was fascinating and gave some insight into Irish history and culture. i was also intrigued with the background stories of the team members, which ensured they were portrayed as people with lives and families of their own.

Looking forward to reading more titles by Jo Spain.

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