Holy Island

The DCI Ryan Mysteries, Book 1

De: LJ Ross

Narrado por: Jonathan Keeble

Detective Chief Inspector Ryan retreats to Holy Island seeking sanctuary when he is forced to take sabbatical leave from his duties as a homicide detective. A few days before Christmas, his peace is shattered, and he is thrust back into the murky world of murder when a young woman is found dead amongst the ancient ruins of the nearby priory.

When former local girl Dr. Anna Taylor arrives back on the island as a police consultant, old memories swim to the surface, making her confront her difficult past. She and Ryan struggle to work together to hunt a killer who hides in plain sight while pagan ritual and small-town politics muddy the waters of their investigation.

Murder and mystery are peppered with a sprinkling of romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit set on the spectacular Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne, cut off from the English mainland by a tidal causeway.

©2015 L J Ross (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

" Holy Island is a blockbuster." ( Daily Express)

A mixed bag

Although this was too misogynistic for my taste I actually listened to it all to find out who the culprit was. The mystery part was a good enough story, but the love interest was very unbelievable and detracted for me.

A Promising Series

I enjoyed this book enough that I plan to read the next entry in the series.

DCI Ryan is a complex, fascinating character. The mystery was well plotted and the revelation of the villains was a surprise. The location was unique. I live in the United States. Before reading this book I wasn't aware that Holy Island is a real place. I spent some time on the Internet learning about it. The author does an good job of describing look and feel the location.

The narration was OK. I listened on five year old Kindle Fire. I experienced some problems with the sound- specifically a slight whistling sound, primarily when words with an "s" sound were spoken. This could be the recording or my device. I was able to eliminate the whistling by slowing down the speed. I haven't noticed this problem on any other audio book.

I look forward to the next entry in the series.

Written like a romance novel...

Disappointed. Had hoped for a British detective series similar to Peter Grainger’s excellent DC Smith novels. This reads more like a romance novel.
“His eyes screamed intelligence.”
“He plundered her mouth.”
Embarrassing.
I gave up on it. Sorry I wasted a credit.

good not great

I've read better but this book is a good start of a series looking forward to book 2

Amazing Read!!!

Fantastic book!!! So many unexpected twists, and an ending that left me stunned! Already into book 2! And I cannot express just how good Jonathan Keeble is…probably my favorite narrator.

Long drawn out story. Okay narration.

Geez this book was long. Seemed to last forever before anything at all was resolved. A lot of words and descriptions filling the pages for sure.

The story line and plot was okay. Not the best, not the worst. I felt like so many things were being randomly thrown in to the story to make up the page count.

Crazy religious ritual psycho killers for sure. There was a little romance in the story between Ryan and Anna, but it seemed forced and not very genuine. There is no descriptive sex just the attraction and them waking up together. So if your'e worried about that don't be.

There is lots of dialogue, so there is that. I like lots of dialogue.

I don't think I will continue on with this series, the epilogue was basically this story just with different characters. The last line says "The cycle began again",

As for the narration, it was okay. I liked his reading voice and the voice for the main character Ryan, but the female voice needs work. It was an okay narration at best.

GOOD STORY - FABULOUS NARRATOR

Would you consider the audio edition of Holy Island to be better than the print version?

GOOD STORY AND GOOD CHARACTERS

What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I COULD LISTEN TO JONATHAN KEEBLE READ THE PHONE BOOK!!!

Any additional comments?

Holy Barbara Cartland

Ugh. This very soapy. Poorly developed characters and evil high priests. Unless harlequin novels are your preferred genre, of course.

A bit disappointing

After listening to the prequel this fell a bit flat for me. The story was okay, though a little ‘easy and cliche’ The writing is decent, but the characters feel a little thin. I really didn’t enjoy the forced romance in there. It felt off and not natural at all.

A nicely twisted mystery

DCI Ryan is on a not entirely voluntary three-month sabbatical from the police force, due to the horrific ending of the last serial killer case he investigated. He's spending this sabbatical on Lindisfarne, a.k.a. "Holy Island." Ryan is living very quietly, but the total population of the island is somewhere around 200, so he's gotten to know, at least slightly, a good proportion of that population.

So one morning, when one of the local women, out walking her dog in the early morning, stumbles upon a dead body, with no police force on the island, she goes directly to DCI Ryan.

Ryan acts immediately to protect the crime scene, get the one local doctor to do a preliminary examination of the dead body, and successfully lobbies his boss to get his sabbatical revoked and put him in charge of the case. Because the dead young woman, Lucy Matheson, was killed sometime during the five hours of the night when Lindisfarne was completely cut off from the mainland, the pool of potential suspects is limited to the local residents. That's a mixed blessing, because it means that at least initially, Ryan can't rule out anyone capable of being of use in the investigation. That includes the tiny Coast Guard force that are otherwise the first responders to anything on-island that needs police-like action.

It's worse that Lucy's death looks like a ritual killing.

As Ryan pulls together a team from his off-island colleagues, and starts serious investigation, he discovers a web of secrets, private scandal, pagan religious activity of varying degrees of seriousness, and complicated relationships that will make this about as difficult as it can be.

And then a second body is found, another woman, killed in a similar ritual way..

Ryan is facing another serial killer.

This is a nicely complex tale, with characters who have real depth and substance. And there's a twist at the end, after you are sure you know the whole thing, that really took me by surprise, and sets up some interesting possibilities for future books in the series.

Recommended.

I bought this book.