Against the Tide: An Exciting British Crime Thriller

Inspector Ian Drake Murder Mystery Series, Book 3

By: Stephen Puleston

Narrated by: Richard Elfyn

Length: 10 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

A fisherman lies dead. A beautiful girl is strangled. Can Detective Drake uncover the secrets that connect them?

Welsh Inspector Ian Drake is back on duty, but struggles as he comes to terms with his father’s death. When a fisherman is found impaled on the sand in a small island community, Drake comes up against a wall of silence.

When a young girl is killed, Drake is stumped by the motive for her death. But with lots of money at stake with the development of a nearby nuclear power station, Drake believes there are powerful forces at work.

Images recovered from a computer suggest a more sinister motive behind the deaths, and when one of the suspects commits suicide, the pressure mounts on Drake. And how far will people go to protect their way of life and language?

Can he expose the truth and catch the killer...or killers?

Against the Tide is the third book in the dynamic Inspector Drake crime series. If you like police procedurals, clever mysteries, and gripping thrillers, then you’ll love Stephen Puleston’s unnerving whodunit.

©2014 Stephen Puleston (P)2019 Stephen Puleston

Inspector Drake fans will be thrilled

Another winning story in the Inspector Drake series. The winding plot moves at a crisp pace keeping the reader right on edge! Ian Drake’s quirks and family issues are so well woven into the story line as to create a very real and believable character. The narration is spot on! Just as one would imagine it to be! Richard Elfyn made one of my favorite litany characters come to life! Well gone Gentlemen!

I love the narration to this series.

Great story, told by a great narrator. A must listen to, or to follow along with the books.

Could be better for two reasons

The writer needs to stop the repetition. Do we really need to know every time the characters use a turn signal? “He indicates and...” before every turn. And the sudoku references just need to stop. 100 times - enough! The second reason is the narrator’s female voices sound like all the women are mentally challenged and the children - dreadful creepy voices - he should just not do voices for these characters. Really made me cringe.

Great Audio book

I was lucky enough to have gotten a free audio book code from the author. I am volunteering to leave this review. Great audio book plenty of twist and turns.

Narrator

Great Narration & he does a perfect Sean Bean Impression when he does his Northern Englishman voice. LOVE IT!

Against the Tide

Puleston is a master at describing people, places, and things; you can actually see them, feel them, and smell them. Multiple murders, eco-warriors, dirty pictures, and dysfunctional families keep you guessing until the end. I was gifted this from the author.

Another excellent book in this series

The gruesome murder of a fisherman, a young girl strangled and the construction of a new nuclear plant are at the heart of this gritty, dark story.

Inspector Drake must find what links these events while battling his own personal problems. And those are really burdening him: his father's death haunts him, his family is breaking apart and his OCD is getting worse in spite of his therapy sessions.

The plot here is, as usual, tight and involving; the writing, really good; the characters engaging and evolving in each book. It's hard to read for moments because the storyline deals with powerful people who feel that they are allowed to do whatever they want because of that power, and because we can see how much Drake is struggling with both, the case and his personal life. But there is a sliver of hope at the end that sheds some light in the obscurity :D

Richard Elfyn does a good job with the narration, although some of the kids' voices are less than nice :P

Good Mystery

I am really enjoying the Inspector Drake series. It reminds me of Monk and Midsomer Murders, with a quirky detective and interesting regional setting. This mystery included a plot line involving child abuse, while it was not graphic it was a main component of the last third of the book, which some people may find a difficult topic in a story meant for entertainment.
The narration is excellent - all of the characters have distinct voices, and the narrating voice is different than the characters speaking so you never get lost in what is happening in the story. You don't immediately realize who the killer is, and I like that the mystery unfolds without an obvious solution.
Content wise, this is just on the edge of what I'm willing to listen to with the descriptions of violence that are not gratuitous, and there is a minimal amount of cursing. I don't believe this book had any intimate scenes, in other books in this series they are all implied / fade out, which I really appreciate. If it were a movie I would expect a PG13 rating for the violence of the murders and abuse descriptions.

Great Welsh pronouncements

The narrator has no problems speaking the Welsh words. Love the series. Sometimes I get confused when the author switches scenes. Maybe it should be a new chapter or the narrator could pause a little longer. But love the series, reminds me of an English/Welsh “Monk”. Keep writing.

Learn some Welsh & solve a mystery

Note: This is Book 3 in the series but can be read as a stand alone.

Inspector Drake returns! Book 1 was great, book 2 was good, and Book 3 takes the series back to great. The story starts with a gruesome murder – a pitchfork! Yep! But there’s very few clues, at least until another body turns up (no pitchfork tho). But that murder has a lot of questions, a lot of hints of more crime going on behind the scenes. There was a lot of delicious suspense in this novel. I really enjoyed being kept on tenterhooks for certain sections of the story.

The tale also explores the personal lives of Drake and Caryn Waites. Ian Drake’s home life isn’t so homey. He is rarely home when a murder investigation has come up. His wife, who has her own career and the two kids to manage, is tired of Ian not being physically and emotionally available. In truth, these small parts were a little boring for me. I think this is because we see almost everything thru Ian’s eyes (a few short moments are told from Caryn’s point of view) and so we never really learn about Ian’s wife as a whole person. She simply comes off as cold and uncaring of what Ian is going through.

Still, I’m here for the murder mystery and enjoy Ian’s thought processes that let him track down the killer. Toss in some politicians, local concern over an incoming nuclear power plant, and a pedophile ring, you’ve got a heck of a story! I really liked concerns over preserving Welsh customs and language too because that made it very personable. Small and large actions shape our traditions, as Ian has to face that with his kids concerning whether they should be in a Welsh or English school.

All around, it kept me entertained & I look forward to more mysteries from Stephen Puleston. 4.75/5 stars.

The Narration: Richard Elfyn continues to bring these mysteries to life. His regional accents and pronunciation of proper Welsh names is very good. Each character has a distinct voice and his female voices are believable. The pacing is spot on and there were no tech issues with the recording. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Stephen Puleston. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.