Spoken Bones

A DI Fenella Sallow Crime Thriller, Book 1

By: N.C. Lewis

Narrated by: Deborah Balm

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

This dark secret could finally break her…

Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. When the body of a retired artist is discovered atop the blackened embers of the town bonfire, the community is rocked to the core.

It falls to DI Fenella Sallow and her team to find out how she came to be there. In her 50s, the veteran detective inspector thought she had seen it all. But behind the curtained windows and closed doors of the idyllic Cumbria coastal setting lurks pure evil.

Fenella must confront her dark past. Haunted by the unsolved case of a missing girl, she knows it is a race against time. Can she stop this death from slipping through her fingers, too?

Before long, it becomes disturbingly clear that the killer is playing a twisted game and will do anything to conceal the terrible truth of what happened on the beach on Bonfire Night.

Set against the backdrop of beautiful coastal Cumbria, an ancient land of legend, folklore, and myth, Spoken Bones is the first book in the Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow series.

This pause-resisting crime thriller will keep you hooked until the very end. If you like police procedurals with psychologically complex characters and shocking twists, then you’ll love Spoken Bones.

Perfect for fans of L.J. Ross, J.D. Kirk, Simon McCleave, Stuart MacBride, Matt Brolly, Angela Marsons, Alex Smith, J.M. Dalgliesh, J.E. Mayhew, David J. Gatward, T.G. Reid, Jack Gatland, Robert F. Barker, and J.R. Ellis.

©2021 N.C. Lewis (P)2022 N.C. Lewis

Frustrating denouement

I liked the characters, but the book comes across to me as a somewhat promising first effort that needs maturation and a better editor. Many threads are dropped without a trace, descriptions of characters' behaviors are repetitive, and when the resolution comes, there is no explanation of how the detective figured it out. The performance kept me going but overall a waste of time.

valerie

The story has so many twists and turns,too many characters, it was struggle to keep up with all the,Characters, at times it was hard to remember the main story. Way to long,an convoluted.

Give the Poor Reader a Clue!

One of the reasons I enjoy mysteries is trying to figure out ahead of the reveal who the murderer really is. To do this, the writer must skillfully insert clues that the alert reader may observe--or not. Overly obvious clues spoil the story. But no clues at all is against the rules. Sadly, "Spoken Bones" falls into this outlaw category. There was not a single clue I could detect that in any way implicated the murderer. There were masses of clues pointing in other directions, which is fine. There was some background talk about looking into this or that, but nothing that the reader could have discerned as pointing at the murderer. That being said, the narrator did a good job and I enjoyed her dialect. The locale was well-drawn. The characters were interesting and the story hums along at a good pace. Too bad about the fatal flaw at its heart.

Thoroughly enjoyable

Getting to know DI Fennela Sallow in this first book of a series was a delightful listen.

In contrast to some of the other reviewers, I enjoyed the narration. I prefer narrators with an accent appropriate to the setting of the novel.

I am a fan of police procedural mysteries and this one is a new favorite!

Audible, please release the other five mysteries in the series!

characters

Excellent plot. couldn't figure out who did it til all was revealed. Loved the performance.

5

It is hard for me to find a realty good British
rural police proedural that I like.
This book is excellent.

Engaging, beginning to a series

The cliffhanger here is so overwhelming. It almost made me resentful, but I will probably go on to get the next in the series.

Distracting performance

I generally live Scottish mysteries but the accent in this book reading is so distracting that I could barely understand the story details. I didn’t finish it.

Not for Me

I'm sorry to say that this was one of those books that found me looking at the time remaining and hoping it was almost over. I had high hopes since I love detective stories, especially with a woman lead but the story never really took off. The entire time, the narrator sounded like someone who was on the verge of falling asleep but still trying to talk, or someone who keeps lip and mouth movements to a bare minimum while speaking, and there was very little fluctuation in tone. It was hard to differentiate between any of the characters. Ugh.

Cannot understand audio. Accent too heavy

It was an Awful experience I need someone reading without an accent. Too difficult to understand