The Cold Calling

This is the first of the two DI Bobby Maiden books published by Phil Rickman under the name Will Kingdom in the 1990's. I bought and read them in paperback ages ago but was really looking forward to the audio version that has been available in the UK for a couple of years at least. I HATE geo-restrictions. There are in fact a lot of books on the UK site that the authors would have sold to me if it were not for geo-restrictions.

DI Maiden is a reluctant but successful detective, the son of a hard bitten old fashioned copper. He dies after being involved in a car wreck and is brought back to life by the determination of Sister Anderson, a nurse who knew him when he was a young constable.

Another strand of the story involves Marcus Bacton, former schoolmaster and the owner and editor of The Phenomenologist, an old fashioned magazine concentrating on occult knowledge and events, a Celtic Shaman/aging actor and ventriloquist, and a popular television personality/scholar. At the center of this is a tor, an ancient sacred site, which some would hold was sacred to death, others would hold as sacred to life and healing.

Then from America, a New Age columnist comes looking for her sister who was involved with a dream project run by the television personality.

Not as compelling as the Merrily Watkins books, but quite interesting with a host of unique characters. Creepily scary.

Sean Barrett is not as good as Emma Powell who narrates the Merrily books. Powell does a far better American accent than Barrett. Fortunately Barrett pretty much forgets the flat, nasal American accent he gives Grayle in the beginning.

Now let's have the rest including The Man in the Moss and the second DI Maiden book.

The copy editor needed to use his pencil more drastically. The story was excellent, and excellently written, but could have been cut drastically w/out any ill effect.

You really can't lose with either.

There are too many to choose just one. Kingdom gives them equal time to develop and display their fears, quirks, and personalities.

Sean Barrett did very well lapsing from English, Welsh, and Scottish dialects.

There were several: the hospital not so touching scene between father and son, the confrontation between Marcus and the hit men, and the final revelation of the identity of the woman under the street light.

Kingdom (Phil Rickman) displays his incredible talent as a first rate writer and his ability to scare his reader witless without resorting to a never ending stream of gore. He subtly weaves a complicated mix of compelling character development with an equally ingenious presentation of the plot. Anyone with a love of the borderland between Wales and England will enjoy the tapestry of past and present his prose paints.

I love atmospheric mysteries set in the British countryside. Phil Rickman does them quite well. In this book, the plot follows a killer who believes he has a connection to England's pre-Christian era. The elements of resentment, culture and the danger of getting surrounded by darkness keep the reader interested. I look forward to Rickman's other books.

great characters kept my interest throughout. the history very fasinating. I have read and listen to other books by author enjoyed all of them

In a repeated experience, the information regarding the content of this book was acutely misleading and inaccurate. The very least a user of any Library, user of this service, potential customer has to be some authenticity when they are lead to use/buy.

Never. Such extended nonsense cannot be risked again.

Sean Barrett's performance remains as authentic as possible under difficult, embarrassing circumstances. How awful in comparison to the intelligent and serious novels I have had the privilege of listening him read before.

I only persisted because I hoped it might get better and I had returned more books than I am allotted per 6 months.

The astonishing amount of misrepresented novels available nowadays still stuns poor besieged readers. Accurate synopsis of a text is all that can help a reader choose.