Necessary Evil
Fletcher & Fletcher, Paranormal Investigators, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Mark Restuccia
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By:
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David Bussell
About this listen
For Jake Fletcher, the end was just the beginning. Cursed to wander the streets of London as a ghost, the only way he can earn his spot in the afterlife is to atone for his mortal sins. And so, he becomes a spectral detective - a phantom PI who helps restless spirits depart the earthly plane by bringing their killers to justice.
When a mutilated body is discovered with wounds matching the first victim of Jack the Ripper, the police realize that they have a copycat killer on their hands, and Jake sees an opportunity to even out his balance sheet.
But while he’s busy chasing down the killer, someone from Jake’s old life resurfaces. Someone who wants to make use of his talents in a way that definitely won’t curry favor with him upstairs.
Coerced into doing his bidding, Jake must maintain a delicate balancing act as he figures out a way to turn the tide on his blackmailer, while at the same time stopping the copycat from attaining the Ripper’s “canonical five” kills.
Will Jake earn his just reward, or will he topple even deeper into the twilight world between life and death?
Mystery, macabre, and caustic wit collide in this bizarre noir. Fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Mike Carey, and Benedict Jacka will love this thrilling detective story with a paranormal twist.
©2019 David Bussell & M.V. Stott (P)2020 David Bussell & M.V. StottListener received this title free
Within the first 5 minutes of starting this book, I was gripped. From the cocky protagonist, the wonderfully descriptive writing style to the perfectly chosen narrator, this was clearly something special.
What happened next was I arranged Friday off work and spent the entire day and half of Saturday with headphones on to finish the story as I simply could.not.stop.
This is the tale of Jake Fletcher, Private Detective and a ghost to boot,working alongside a thoroughly interesting cast of characters to stop a copy-cat Jack the Ripper while juggling incursions from various other sources, both human and other.
Being a ghost, Jake has some particular skills and abilities beyond the mundane as well as a wealth of knowledge pertaining to the supernatural but at no point was this used to try and emulate similar characters such as Harry Dresden or Quincy Harker and the story and setting is fantastically original in pacing and style.
As a Brit, the wordplay and cockiness was brilliant and more than once I was given a bemused look by others as I chuckled, cackled or outright roared with laughter but this by no means a comedy tale and more than one I was beset by gasps and grimaces. The story maintains a perfect balance between the dark and the light, the danger and the comedy and even throws in a beautiful piece of fourth-wall breaking which really had me laughing. All this would of course fall flat if not for the amazing narration provided by Mark Restuccia who seems born to have played Jake as I can imagine no other voice for him.
Throughout the story there seeds dropped suggesting history between characters which was never really expanded upon but I now realise that there has been a series of books prior to this one and soI hope to get the opportunity to experience and review these in the future as this was truly a magnificent tale.
There are so many parts I want to talk about, from the shock I experienced at the end of Chapter 1 and the hilarious trick played by a certain shape-shifter later in the book but to do so would do you a disservice as the book really is just so clever it has to be experienced spoiler-free.
So do yourself a favour and buy this book, it really is one of the best I've read in a long long time.
Best book I've read in a long, long time.
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Brilliant
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Listener received this title free
Great
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Listener received this title free
brilliant tale
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Listener received this title free
This book definitely takes a slightly darker turn than the previous books and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next books have in store!
Great narration that perfectly suits this style of writing. Great pacing and character voices to boot!
All in all… Great! ;)
This is my honest opinion on a free review copy.
“If it’s stupid but it works, it ain’t stupid”
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