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A Song From Dead Lips

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A Song From Dead Lips

By: William Shaw
Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
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London, 1968. A young woman is found naked and strangled in an alley in well-to-do St John's Wood. The neighbours would love to pin it on the enigmatic black stranger who has just moved in. Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen is convinced there's more to the case than anyone wants to admit; no-one's listening. In walks WPC Helen Tozer – awkward chatterbox, farmgirl, and the first woman to enter the murder unit – and gives Breen a breakthrough.©2013 William Shaw (P)2013 AudioGo Ltd Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Mystery
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A new author for me and a new narrator.

A cracking story set in London at the latter end of the sixties. You should be aware that
the book does contain some prejudices against working women and racial slurs but this didn't offend me at all. It seemed to be 'normal' for the setting.

Starts slowly and builds up in to a nice who dun it but it does go a little bit flat at the end. Throw in believable characters, a tiny bit about the Beatles/other musicians, bit about London and you really do have a half decent book though. The narration was spot on.

Worth the money :)

The swinging 60's plus murder

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Excellent story but what I loved about the book was the recreation of the 60's. How people lived, treated each other and the emergence of female liberation. it brought back memories, although I was born in 1956 so was more of a child during the 50's. But I remember the brown carpets, greenshield stamps and the protest marches.
The way the men treated Constable Tozzer wouldn't be acceptable now but I loved how she didn't get offended, just gave as good as she got. You could feel how she liked the banter and perhaps we have lost something by becoming so PC. Different time, different rules. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
I also liked how real life events were brought into the story. The whole book was so believable. If you lived during that time it is a walk down memory lane and if you didn't read it to see how we got to where we are now.

Good commentary on the 60's era

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I think this is the first in the series which is why I thought I'd take the plunge. It was OK really - it is dated and has dreadful attitudes shown towards women and Africans , generally the story was OKish, but I didn't really like the rookie detective Tozer - I may try the next in the series after a bit of research as I do generally like William Shaw. I have just finished this book and have an 'underwhelmed and dissatisfied' feeling.
The Main character Breen, is OK and I think it may be worth a try to check out number 2. Cameron Stewart was fine with the narration - though his women's voices made me laugh on occasions.

Dated and a little disappointing

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Great characters and good story, with excellent references to the time it was set in - but spoilt by dreadful performance.

The voices were awful.

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I enjoyed this story much more than I thought I would. It really captured the feel of the sixties and I'm looking forward to hearing more of Breen and Helen

Very enjoyable

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