another great listen

really enjoyed this book. one or two things irritated though, mainly the narrator not knowing the right tube for One Man went to Mow!

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by turns gruesome touching and mysterious

This captures the spirit of Exmoor in an expected and touching way. A proper mystery and properly touching right up.to the last beat.

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Brilliant!

This is the third part of the Exmoor trilogy and whilst I enjoyed the first two, this was by far the best. Totally gripping. Belinda Bauer’s excellent writing perfectly depicted by the brilliant narration of John Sackville.

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Another great Exmoor mystery

A great stand alone novel, but also part of her Exmoor stories so some returning characters and some new ones. Similar to the others, the story is a bit harrowing and deals with tricky topics, but there are moments of humour to lighten the load. A bit of a stretch to think that the police would have been so tardy though - or that 6 missing children wouldn't have sparked off wider media coverage and increased police presence from other forces - however leaving that to one side, I would recommend this to fans of the genre who aren't troubled by such details.

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Chilling and athmospheric

Would you listen to Finders Keepers again? Why?

Yes. Belinda Bauer's thriller is not a who-done-it, the perpetrator is made clear early in the novel, but an unsettling psychological study of captor and captive. The motivations and reactions of each character is excellently captured and I would be happy to read about their development again.

What did you like best about this story?

After some minutes of listening to this book I felt I had some idea of what path it was taking but I was constantly surprised by Bauer's writing. The novel combines great tension and excellent character studies.

What about John Sackville’s performance did you like?

The characters he embodies range from young children to elderly men and in each case he captures the personality perfectly and uniquely in his reading. A masterly performance.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I didn't listen to this book in one sitting because at times the tension created was so intense I needed to break of. But I was always eager to get back to it!

Any additional comments?

This is a stand alone book though some of the characters in it feature in Bauer's earlier novels Blacklands and Darkside. I would recommend all three. She is a writer who avoids the obvious path and always creates a totally engaging and unsettling world for the reader or listener.

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I enjoyed it, but….

The idea of eight people, including a six feet four policeman being held hostage in dog kennels does stretch the bounds of imagination a little. This follows 8 people murdered in the same part of Exmoor in the last (also enjoyable) book. And it would have been preferable for the killer to be finally caught, rather than what happened.
On the upside, Bauer’s characters are beautifully drawn. I would happily have read more books in this series. A clever idea, just a little overdone.

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Finders Keepers

I found the book to be spoilt by the depiction of the police investigating the case being akin to the kind of "Plod" resembling Dixon of Dock Green. Children are going missing, right under their noses, in a small village type setting, and the police appear oddly detached and sit about waiting for the next child to be taken basically, again right under their noses. This gave the book in my opinion an air of incredulity from start to finish. There was no real "search" for the missing children other than knocking on a few random doors and no-one was investigated or rounded up for questioning? The children were missing for months and there was no sign of reality of the race to find them. Everyone involved was about as laid back as if they were dealing with a lost cat. A big old abandoned set of farm buildings nearby didn't come up on the police radar as a possibility of somewhere to hide children?

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