Angels Bleed

By: Max Hardy

Narrated by: Alex More

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

24 hours....

A remote country house.

A dead body in a blood-spattered drawing room.

A six-foot square container next to the body.

24 hours....

A padded cell.

A single chair bolted to the floor.

A woman bound hand and foot to the chair.

DI Saul has just 24 hours to find out who the killer of the body is.

24 hours to work out how the woman in the cell is linked with the murder.

24 hours in which at every turn, his own life seems to be inextricably linked with the events that unfold.

24 hours before the container in the room explodes....

Warning: Adult content and sexually explicit material.

©2015 Max Hardy (P)2015 Max Hardy

This one was a shocker!

This one was a shocker!

Angels Bleed is the first book in a trilogy. All three are available in print, but Angels Bleed is the only one on audio at the moment.

D.I. John Saul is sent to a murder scene in a secluded country house. It turns out to be a set-up. An unknown caller gives Saul 24 hours to present the murderer of the body displayed. If he doesn’t, a box wired to explode in 24 hours, will kill the unknown person contained in that box. Twisted, right? It gets more complicated. Rebecca Angus has already confessed to the evil murder and is incarcerated in a psychiatric facility.

In alternating chapters, Rebecca’s horrifying story is gradually revealed from her point of view while D.I. John Saul races against the clock to uncover the truth. Saul is a complex character, and his personal life is a mess. But it’s going to get a whole lot worse.

Angels Bleed is a well executed crime / psychological thriller with excellent, well developed characters. It has lots of twists and turns and keeps you guessing all the way through. The ending was totally unexpected. It left me with more questions than answers though, and I am now desperately waiting for the audio release of Her Moons Denouement, book 2 in the series.

A word of warning: this is the sort of book that you have to go into with an open mind and a willingness to suspend disbelief.

It is sexually explicit containing scenes of voyeurism and sadomasochism. However, the scenes are all relevant to the story. Reading/Listening to a lot of thrillers and also erotic romances, I am not easily flustered. But there were a couple of scenes here that were stomach churning. If you can cope with the extremely dark side of human nature, however, then this is a great thriller. The author also publishes poetry, and that was apparent in his lyrical descriptions.

The narration was ok. It took me a while to get into it because it was difficult to tell the characters apart. I had to really focus on who was saying what. For Rebecca’s part especially, I would have liked a more female sounding voice. But I know that’s a personal preference, as some listeners like narrators who don’t act but just narrate. Alex More has a crystal clear Scottish tone that was easy to understand and pleasant to listen to. His pace was excellent. There were no issues with the production.

Not for the fainthearted, but well worthwhile if you enjoy dark, gritty and fast paced and if you can cope with some sordid scenes.

Audiobook provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Tense Psychological Thriller

Where does Angels Bleed rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Probably near the lower end, but considering that I've only ever listened to pretty good audiobooks that''s still pretty good.

What other book might you compare Angels Bleed to and why?

Nothing really comes to mind, I took a trip outside my normal genres and was entertained by don't have much in the way to compare it with.

What three words best describe Alex More’s performance?

I can't do that. He has a pleasing Scottish accent and did a good job with the material, but what kept it from being fantastic is that he lacked varying tones to differentiate the characters. I would love to hear him do some other work.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There were a few moments when I involuntarily shuddered because of what was going on, but never really felt particularly moved.

Any additional comments?

I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I would recommend it to people with strong constitutions that are into the kind of messed-up mind games that humans create. Interested in seeing later work by both the narrator and the writer.

Profound Confusing Disturbing Sadistic Game

Wow!! This is a very profound, confusing disturbing tale of a killer sadistic game.

This is not a causal listen and demands close attention as it is confusing as to what is exactly happening and who is telling the story. It is basically a sadistic game with lives at stake.

After finishing the book I am still reeling going over what had really happened in the book, replaying a few parts over again to ensure that I got it down correctly.

There are graphic sex scenes as well as violence and emotional/physiological abuse. The investigating detective as well as the kidnapped psychiatric patient is no more than a pawn or game piece for the game playing villain(s).

This book is by no means a simple who done it or a high octane action packed thriller, it is profound, complex and disturbing.

If you want a truly different, unique, complex psychological thriller then do listen to this book.

On the downside besides the book being confusing and hard to follow the accent is a bit thick and I had to sometimes replay parts. Also I feel that book could of really benefited from a multi-voice narration as it would of had made it easier to know what character was speaking.

It is not that the narrator was poor, he was good. It's just that this book is so complex that an universal easy to understand narrator may of been better. Also the narrator didn't have much of a voice or accent change between various characters, which also added to the confusion. I do however think that the narrator was a good voice for the major character.


“I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot come”