The Cottage cover art

The Cottage

A McLaren Mystery

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The Cottage

By: Jo A. Hiestand
Narrated by: Callum Hale
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About this listen

Former police detective Michael McLaren is at the home of his lady friend, Melanie. The house is sold, the removal van is booked. All that is left is to help her pack her belongings for her move to his village. But the laborious task is interrupted when one of Melanie’s neighbors asks McLaren to investigate the circumstances of her parents’ murders.

McLaren’s reluctance to take it on and abandon Melanie appears to be solved when his best mate, Jamie, steps in to help with the packing. It’s not the easy investigation McLaren was hoping for, however. Sightings of Mordred and a ghost, and a burglary at the local Tudor Hall complicate the murder inquiries.

What had seemed to McLaren a perfect remedy with Jamie close at hand now disintegrates into a horrendous mistake. And McLaren questions if the investigation is really worth it, especially when he puts the people he cares about most in danger.

©2023 Jo A. Hiestand (P)2024 Jo A. Hiestand Mystery Private Investigators Crime Murder

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All stars
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Listener received this title free

Gripping plot, engaging characters & amazing narration.

I am voluntarily reviewing a complimentary copy I received from the author.

Gripping

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Listener received this title free

I received a free code in exchange for an honest review.

Michael McLaren a former police detective is helping his girlfriend Melanie pack her house ready for her move to the midlands.

But he is soon distracted and then persuaded to help investigate the mysterious murder of her friends parents. His investigation takes him deep into the villages history and folk lore and nearly costs him dearly.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the narration was perfect for Mike. I will certainly listen to more of Mike Mclaren.

My first Mclaren mystery

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Listener received this title free

I do love just escaping into an audible book by these two - the author and narrator. Both do such a special job and it works so well You feel part of the family and disappear into their universe. I had listened to this out of order so this filled in a lot of the blanks on later books. Such a great series I can really see it being an ITV or streaming series it just has that vibe

What a great series

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Listener received this title free

Format: audiobook
Narrator: Callum Hale

I think this is about the 18th book in this series so there’s plenty to binge read.
McLaren is an ex detective that seems to specialise in cold cases.
A good mystery read with some good characters, I particularly liked Barry, an innocent that mixes fantasy into his life due to a brain injury, a happy character that always made me smile.
I’ll happily pick up more books in this series.

I really liked the narrator’s voice and delivery, he suited this story well.

The cottage

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Listener received this title free

A good plot, if somewhat convoluted, but it didn't really grab me, I felt there was too much introspection and self-analysis from the main characters which slowed the action down rather a lot. I think the book could do with a thorough editing with vigorous use of the red pencil. A few odd errors as well - I never did find out the cause of death of the victims. Maybe I missed it, but it was never referred to in the text that I heard. You would expect an experienced detective to ask what the causes of death were in the first few interviews with police, witnesses etc, but no..
The narration was ok, but one thing really bugged me. The two detectives are from the East Midlands, but have the weirdest accents, mainly to do with pronouncing the letter O. The accents seem to be a cross between 'northern' british and 'southern' british with the southern received pronunciation O being inserted into a northern accent, and I'm afraid the result doesn't work, for me anyway. I guess most listeners wouldn't hear this, but as I was born and raised in the East Midlands, it really jars. It is a tricky one to get right. The northern accents were fine, and I particularly liked the old batty guy. Oh, and a stash of valuables is called a cache as in cash, not cashe as in cashet.

A reasonable detective mystery

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