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The Family Man

DCI John Drake Book 1

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The Family Man

By: M. R. Armitage
Narrated by: Graham Mack
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Another family dead.

The mother broken, but alive.

It's happening again. But how?

The Family Man died twenty years ago, cheating DCI John Drake of the chance to bring him to justice. But when a mother is found with her entire family brutally murdered at an isolated house in Yorkshire, the grim discovery bears all the hallmarks of the dead serial killer’s work.

Haunted by what he’d witnessed during the original investigation, Drake knows his experience makes him the obvious choice to head the specialist team investigating these latest killings. But as the deaths move ever closer to home and the killer taunts him with sly reminders of the earlier murders, Drake’s forced to contemplate the unthinkable:

Are these latest murders the work of a copycat? Or twenty years ago, did Drake make the biggest mistake of his career?

©2023 M. R. Armitage (P)2025 M. R. Armitage Crime Crime Thrillers International Mystery & Crime Murder Mystery Police Procedurals Psychological Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives
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The book started off pretty weak, then suddenly became really good and genuinely interesting. Unfortunately, once the killings started happening again, it completely fell apart for me.

I honestly couldn’t tell whether the author was trying to show how incompetent the main detective was, or whether we were still supposed to take him seriously. So many killings happen in the same place, in the same town, with the same motive. What serial killer would keep doing that and not expect the police to connect the dots?

And then, of course, the detective ends up getting caught himself in the most predictable way possible. Wow. Who could have seen that coming?

There was a really good book in the middle of this, which makes the ending even more disappointing.

almost got really really good. almost

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This book kept me gripped all the way through. Intriguing storyline, many characters, situations, never knowing whom too trust and keeping you guessing who the culprit may be throughout.

Kept me gripped

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A new author for me in, so always feels a little risky when you start a new book and author. Graham Mack as a narrator is a firm favourite of mine, so that really helped me to settle in.
The plot is a little convoluted particularly towards the end, and a little gorey too but not over the top.
police leads are interesting and clearly going to develop further over time. This one was a included as a freebie in my Audible Plan, but I would pay money for it, and I shall buy the next in the series.

Promising start to the series.

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What a frightful disappointment….the voice of the narrator is simply unbearable…shockingly dreary, nasal, just awful. Been a member for 19 years but never had to stop listening due to the terrible narration.

Couldn’t continue to listen to the droning narrator

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