Cause to Kill

By: Blake Pierce

Narrated by: Elaine Wise

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

Homicide Detective Avery Black has been through hell. Once a top criminal defense attorney, she fell from grace when she managed to get a brilliant Harvard professor off - only to watch him kill again. She lost her husband and her daughter, and her life fell apart around her.

Trying to redeem herself, Avery has turned to the other side of the law. Working her way up the ranks, she has reached the rank of homicide detective, to the scorn of her fellow officers, who still remember what she did, and who will always hate her.

Yet even they cannot deny Avery's brilliant mind, and when a disturbing serial killer strikes fear into the heart of Boston, killing girls from elite colleges, it is Avery they turn to. It is Avery's chance to prove herself, to finally find the redemption she craves. And yet, as she is soon to find out, Avery has come up against a killer as brilliant and daring as she.

In this game of psychological cat and mouse, women are dying with mysterious clues, and the stakes could not be higher. A frantic race against time leads Avery through a series of shocking and unexpected twists - culminating in a climax that even Avery could not imagine.

©2016 Blake Pierce (P)2016 Blake Pierce

Good mystery

I listened to this book. The narrator was excellent. The plot was good and very well written. Characters well developed. Avery, the female former criminal defense lawyer turned detective, is a strong, intelligent, complicated woman. She endures the macho dislike of her fellow officers who blame her for the death of her partner in a previous case. She solves the case in spite how they treat her because she uses her mind and intelligence. I listened non-stop to the entire book beginning to end.
The author has the ability to make some of the characters so real that they made me dislike them intensely.
Good book!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Narration

The book takes place in Boston but, the characters are all British. Why? Doesn't make sense and was distracting.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Wrong Accent!

The narrator was good but she was English and everyone in the story was from the US. When the character had a "strong Boston accent" she spoke with a cockney accent. The story was great though although the "romance"/ flirting Avery Black did was kinda lame. Overall pretty good

Serial Killer vs. Flawed Cop

Avery Black, high powered attorney, turned homicide detective, is on the trail of a serial killer . . . but she is plagued by her own past, not accepted by the very team she works with . . . and questioning herself at every turn . . . yet she is dogged in her search for the killer, and her instinct as a cop is right on . . . I found it sick that she had to go visit the old man in jail to get "advice" on the case, the very one that caused her fall from grace as an attorney . . . yet in some ways, I understand, given her childhood . . . the narration is very confusing, as the setting is in Boston, yet the narrator is British . . . you just have to ignore that . . . this is a book for women . . . I don't see men getting in to the nuances of the story . . . it could be better without the profanity . . . but realistically, I'm sure that's what goes on in police precincts . . . the resolution was very good . . . harrowing . . . nail-biting good . . .

Serial killers and a smart detective

A lot happened in this murder mystery. I enjoyed reading about the disgraced female detective and how strong she really was.

Great book...but

Great book...but, a British accent from the narrator (who did it a wonderful job) was just a crazy choice for a story based in Boston!!! Although that was annoying, the story was good and what an ending!!!

Lawyer turns cop but can't leave old case behind

Decent read with decent characters. Avery had some redeeming moments but they were so interlaced with "what the hell??" moments that they balanced into something that felt more like 'troubled but lucky.' And the other detectives in book were so oddly characterized that they didn't seem real.

My biggest issue was the accent of the narrator. I felt like I was listening to a British police procedural even though the entire book was set in the US. Bizarre.

Not deserving of even 1 star

The story line is weak, with the serial killers' character and mindset even weaker from a writing point of view. Very disappointing story line and characters all round.

My main complaint however, is the narrator. She is totally annoying and the way she performs is childish and just plain horrible. The book could have been almost salvageable with decent narration.

My advice : avoid both this author and the narrator.

great gripping story, accents out of character

this was a great gripping, keep you guessing story line!! loved it!! problem for me was the heavy English accent of narrator who was using very English pronunciations for words of characters set in Boston,Ma in the USA??? it was very distracting due to how heavy an almost"cockney"accent was used!!

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Accent so off couldn't finish book

British accent for story based in Boston - through off being able to listen to the book. Disappointed.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Please don’t shout!!

This was a good story but spoilt by the narrator shouting when a slightly raised voice would have sufficed

Doesn't work for me

A decent enough story but I personally had problems with a very English narration for what is a gritty American police drama. At times I was tempted to quit the book but managed to get to the end.

Awful narration

American setting and story but very, very British narration doesn't work at all. A shame.

Cause to kill

I really didn't like the narrator of this book. Had to give up after an hour.