Gallows Court

Rachel Savernake, Book 1

By: Martin Edwards

Narrated by: Sheila Mitchell

Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

London, 1930. A headless corpse; an apparent suicide in a locked room; a man burned alive during an illusionist's show in front of thousands of people. Scotland Yard is baffled by the sequence of ghastly murders unfolding across the city, and at the centre of it all is mysterious heiress Rachel Savernake. Daughter of a grand judge, Rachel is as glamorous as she is elusive. 

Jacob Flint, a tenacious young journalist eager to cover the gruesome crimes, is drawn into Rachel's glittering world of wealth and power. But as the body count continues to rise, Jacob is convinced Rachel is harbouring a dark secret, and he soon becomes part of a dangerous game that could leave him dancing at the end of the hangman's rope if he pursues the truth.

©2018 Martin Edwards (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd

Light Noir

I’m glad I listened. It’s not a perfect story nor is the narrator ideal, but it’s a cut above many others.

Mr. Edwards creates a mystery that’s a mix reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Josephine Tey. The suspension is a little drawn out, but a pleasant twist occurs just before it reaches tedium level. The drawn out pace does create a feeling of predictability in the character development, but the cast is many and varied which helps ease the repetition. The narrator performs decently, but listeners should definitely sample the work before buying because one or two portrayals could be annoying to some.

I would recommend this book to a hardboiled/noir fan who wants a lighter read or a cozy mystery fan looking for a little edge.

It was ok

Not sure if it was the narration, if the story was too long, but my mind wandered and I didn't care to go back an pick up what I missed. Probably would buy the next in the series if it was offered in an audible sale, otherwise HO HUM.,

COULDN'T GET INTO IT

Somewhat irritating narration. Couldn't find the storyline. Uninvolving narrative. Tried a few times but gave up.

Slow and Weird

Story pace too slow, narrator too slow and not good at voices, story turns into a bunch of nonsense. Characters inconsistently drawn.

Not really as billed

This was billed and reviewed as a kind of Christie, Sayers Golden age detective fiction. It really isn't. It falls into the trap that so many modern authors do when trying to write a book set in and of the time, but spend too much time describing things no author writing at the time would do. In most cases needlessly.

Also, I didn't really like any of the characters in it. The main character spends a lot of his time pondering things and worrying, the main female character is deliberately mysterious to the point of being annoying.

It does have a twist that was unexpected, but still, it felt like a slog to get to the end.

Brilliant!

A wonderfully complicated pair of plots unravel through a compelling narrative. The first of, so far, two Flint/Savernake stories. Very dark - not one for fans of cosy crime!

Complicated plot

Excessively complicated plot which left me struggling to finish the story. The narration was poor so the characters ( of which there are lots) never came to life.
Not enjoyed at all.

Enjoyed the story but...

...the narration lets it down. So many characters and so hard to distinguish between them.