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  • The Body in the Dales

  • A Yorkshire Murder Mystery, Book 1
  • By: J. R. Ellis
  • Narrated by: Michael Page
  • Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (647 ratings)
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The Body in the Dales cover art

The Body in the Dales

By: J. R. Ellis
Narrated by: Michael Page
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Summary

An unpopular victim. An impossible crime. A murderer on the loose.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Body in Jingling Pot, this edition of The Body in the Dales includes editorial revisions.

A body is discovered deep in a cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales. Leading the investigation into the mysterious death are experienced DCI Jim Oldroyd and his partner DS Carter, a newcomer from London.

The deceased is Dave Atkins, well known throughout the village but not well liked. While there is no shortage of suspects, the details of the crime leave Oldroyd and Carter stumped. How did Atkins’s body end up in such a remote section of the cave? When someone with vital information turns up dead, it becomes clear that whoever is behind the murders will stop at nothing to conceal their tracks.

Oldroyd and his team try to uncover the truth, but every answer unearths a new set of questions. And as secrets and lies are exposed within the close-knit community, the mystery becomes deeper, darker and more complex than the caves below.

©2017, 2018 J. R. Ellis (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

What listeners say about The Body in the Dales

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Review From Yorkshire

This is a classic murder story in Agatha Christie style and follows the usual storyline. Never the less even though it was predictable the story works.
However the writing lacks sophistication. Sentences are often clunky and need rewriting and the sudden insert of swearing and crude language from time to time is stark and out of place with this gentle stroll through the Dales.
Finally as a Yorkshire girl, some of the accents were too board and pronunciation just wrong. It was often difficult to tell one character from another. The incomer from London often has a local accent!

So who would enjoy this? Not your maiden aunt or your young daughter. Not the office girl wanting a bit of action. Probably not any man. So perhaps a female middle aged murder mystery fan who can stand a bit of crudity.

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Rubbish accent

It might have been better to get someone who could actually do a Yorkshire accent!
Cringeworthy

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Hilariously bad

This is a funny audiobook, although I don’t think it’s meant to be. Not only is this typical of the Joy Ellis potboiler genre but the narration is screamingly funny, especially the Craven character. A very silly story with some very poor implied judgements about the reader’s level of intelligence.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Listen to sample before buying

I didn’t like the narrator but the story was ok
Don’t think I will get the next book

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

It wor passable

The narration is dreadful. Aside from the teller's inability to imitate a Yorkshire accent (n'er mind dialect, like) -- and pronouncing the town of Keighley "Keeley" is a mortal sin in us parts -- he renders every male voice in a rasping asperate state that sounds lyrengetic; and every female one sounds like a camp drag queen. I will never again entertain Mr Page as a narrator.

This isn't bad for a first novel. It's an entertaining crime mystery with scant originality. My enjoyment was enhanced by my own love of the Harrogate area and the dales; were it not for that, I doubt I would have made it to the end, though.

I believe J R Ellis shows promise and I will seek out his future work. I'll opt for the Kindle versions in future.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

What a terrible narrator!

This was a lesson in checking my library against the narrators name before buying. I have bought a few read by this performer and struggled my way through all of them....this was a step too far.

As a Lancastrian I felt deeply for anyone from Yorkshire having to listen to the appalling Yorkshire accents affected by this narrator. The doom laden delivery (making "would you like a cup tea" sound like the reading of a death warrant) and the ridiculous attempt at Yorkshire dialects (there are more than one!!) completely ruined this book.

It's time that Audible considered allowing subscribers to have 3 "returns" in a year. It would compensate for the producers of some books failing to tell their performers that they are not up to the job! I should add that I am not often moved to post a review but have done so twice in as many weeks. Both reviews have centred on the same issue - terrible narration and accents.

Oh and.....even the best of narration could not have rescued this book from being average at best.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Storyline spoilt by poor performance.

As a Yorkshire woman I was very disappointedly by this presentation.
The storyline of this book is good but several glaring inaccuracies put me off right from the start. Harrogate is not and has never been in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It has always been policed by North Yorkshire Police not West Yorkshire. The readers reading of dialect is appalling and all the characters speak with the same gravelly voice. I have listened to many Audible presentations but this is the worst one yet.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

appaling narration

Dated stereotypes and really irritating narration. One dimensional characters lacking credibility. I struggle to comprehend how works like this get published.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Okish

Found the narrator confusing. THE yorkshire detective had a sort of growl, eventually everyone had it even the London sergeant. and girlfriend it irritated me.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I’m not a child

Having been told by the author through the Yorkshire detective in the story that the people who go down potholes are pot-holers and the new detective from the South being patronised and spoken to as if of limited intelligence and by default the listener and then the description at some length of skimming of a stone, I found my desire to listen to any more disappearing. I’m an adult and I’m capable of understanding quite difficult concepts. Returned the book

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3 people found this helpful