Cherry Mischievous: police procedural

Monday 26 August 2024

BEST SERVED COLD

Best Served Cold by David J. Gatward
Book 2 in the DCI Harry Grimm series
Narrated by Aubrey Parsons
Genre: crime fiction
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Best Served Cold:

When a tragic farm accident turns out to be foul play, DCI Harry Grimm finds himself up against a murderer years in the making and out for revenge.

With the local community in self-imposed lock down, and the body count quickly climbing, Harry and his team are in a race against time to stop a killer as invisible as they are brutally effective.

But with some threatening to take the law into their own hands, and the wounds of his own past once again starting to bleed, DCI Harry Grimm is about to take a trip into Hell.

Source: Info in the "About Best Served Cold" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55341705-best-served-cold on 10/08/2023.

Buy Link(s):

David's Gallery

My Thoughts:

I was kinda apprehensive going into this book. Book 1, Grimm Up North, had "stupid" elements in it and I was hoping with great sincerity that there wouldn't be any "stupid" in this and further books in this series. Glad to say it wasn't too bad. Wasn't bad at all!

I find that this is not the fastest book to read. Finding myself having to trudge for the first three quarters of the book before interest picks up. But interest do pick up!

Aubrey Parsons is being his usual wonderful self! Reading this book with style!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3
Pace = (7 hrs and 17 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The DCI Harry Grimm Series:

Meet The Author

About David J. Gatward:

David J. Gatward grew up in Wensleydale and is the award-winning author of the DCI Harry Grimm crime novels. He has also written numerous books for children, teenagers and young adults.

The Narrator

About Aubrey Parsons:

Professional voice over artist and singer for over 20 years. Based in the UK, I have a very neutral British accent. However, I can mimic most UK & Irish accents along with General American and various U.S. regional accents. In addition to voiceover work I am a professional singer.

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Sunday 21 April 2024

TAKEN TO THE HILLS

Taken To The Hills by S J Richards
Book 1 in the Luke Sackville Crime Thrillers series
Narrated by Aubrey Parsons
Genre: crime fiction
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Taken To The Hills:

Abductions and murder are not what ex-DCI Luke Sackville expected when he left the police after tragedy struck his family.

Luke’s return to the workplace was meant to be a soft landing but when a woman vanishes after being accused of taking bribes, he is assigned a disparate team and tasked with tracking her down.

Their search becomes more urgent when her disappearance is linked to the death of a second woman. When a third goes missing the hunt becomes a race against time. Luke’s return to work presents him with the most challenging case of his career as the murder victims mount.

Source: Info in the "About Taken To The Hills" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/159533729-taken-to-the-hills on 24/10/2023.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

Promising start to a new-to-me series!

Luke's world is chuck full of bad guys! If I say anymore it would be spoilery-ish. So, I'll stop there. I am definitely a fan of this series now!

This is my first S J Richards book and I would definitely look out for more works by this author.

Interesting perspective for a story from a, sort of, outside point of view. Luke is no longer police. So that is an added challenge to his investigation. He no longer have access to things he usually had as police and he has to get used to that.

I'm an old Aubrey Parsons fan. So, of course, his narration was wonderful!!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (7 hrs and 30 mins listening time)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Luke Sackville Crime Thrillers Series:

Meet The Author

About S J Richards:

Let's get one thing straight: my name's Steve. I've never been called 'SJ' but Steve Richards is a political writer hence the pen name.

I was born in Bath and have lived at various times on an irregular clockwise circle around England. After university in Manchester my wife and I settled in Macclesfield before moving to Bedfordshire then a few years ago back to Somerset. We now live in Croscombe, a lovely village just outside Wells, with our 2 sprightly cocker spaniels.

I've always loved writing but have only really had the time to indulge myself since taking early retirement. My daughter is a brilliant author (I'm not biased of course) which is both an inspiration and - because she's so good - a challenge. After a few experiments, and a couple of completed but unsatisfactory and never published novels, I decided to write a crime fiction series as it's one of the genres I most enjoy.

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The Narrator

About Aubrey Parsons:

Professional voice over artist and singer for over 20 years. Based in the UK, I have a very neutral British accent. However, I can mimic most UK & Irish accents along with General American and various U.S. regional accents. In addition to voiceover work I am a professional singer.