Murder in the Dark

An Ishmael Jones Mystery

By: Simon R. Green

Narrated by: Gildart Jackson

Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

The sudden appearance of a sinister black hole in the English countryside leads to a baffling murder investigation for Ishmael Jones.

"The past is England's dreaming, and not all of it sleeps soundly...."

Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny have been despatched to assist a group of scientists who are investigating a mysterious black hole which has appeared on a Somerset hillside. Could it really be a doorway to another dimension, an opening into another world?

When one of the scientists disappears into the hole - with fatal consequences - Ishmael must prove whether it was an accident - or murder. But with no clues, no witnesses, and no apparent motive, he has little to go on. Is there an alien predator at large, or is an all-too-human killer responsible? Only one thing is certain: if Ishmael does not uncover the truth in time, more deaths will follow.

©2018 Simon R. Green (P)2020 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Wonderful

Great plot! Love these sci fi mysteries. The plots are intriguing . In every book more of Ismael’s origins are revealed.

An exciting dark story!

Loved the narrator. He aced all the characters and made you want to know him more. The story is dark but has subtle moments where you hear a little romantic notes.

Gildart Jackson's performance draws you in.

I've listened to all released titles in the Ishmael Jones series and I've listened to them more than once. I wasn't sure why I was so drawn to these books. The plots for each are basically the same; Ismael Jones often misses obvious clues or fails to act when even a human would; and, the continuity is sometimes a little wonky. However, the dialogue is reminiscent of that between Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man movie series - watch a black and white movie) and the characters are engaging. Most importantly, Gildart Jackson's performance draws you in and you're trapped. If you've ever listened to anything narrated by Jim Dale, you will have some understanding. His characters are strong, but more so his voice is like a cozy evening in front of the fire with a tumbler of very fine bourbon. Give it a listen. I think you'll be hooked.

A unique detectiv story

I read the first few of this series on paper back and I was hooked. The characters of Ismael Jones and Penny Belcort are so likable and full of quirky humor. I decided to try the audiobooks and Gildart Jackson does a superb job of voicing the characters. I tried some of Simon Green's other series but they just fell flat for me. However, he really hit it right with the Ismael Jones series. Ismael is an operative for "The Organization" that investigates mysteries that are weird, supernatural and alien. He is an alien who crash landed on Earth in 1963 and was converted to a human though he still retains his "alien senses" & never ages. It is an intriguing mix of different genres and Simon Green makes it all come together very well. In this book, Ishmael and Penny must investigate a mysterious hole that has appeared in the rural countryside of England. It has lots of great twists and turns and bizarre ,incomprehensible murders. I highly recommend this series because it is mysterious and something more.

Still love you, Ish. But this one...

Update:
Oh, y’all. I feel like a dunce. I found this series because of the narrator, Gildart Jackson (who is magical, as always). And all the time I was whining that, yes, there were interesting concepts and compelling characters but overall it was pretty lightweight and loosey-goosey about the plot holes blah blah blah... all that time, I had no idea who this author was and what else he had written and GO, my friends, GO and look, for such TREATS await you!

I SAID GO!
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Original review:

I love these characters, and I’d happily listen to Gildart Jackson read the phone book. So I’ll keep going with the series.

And this did have an interesting concept, with a good twist ending. The problem was the storyline. The characters cycle on the same handful of topics over and over....
“Why don’t we just leave?”
“Because if we leave, we won’t get credit for the work.”
(Two chapters later...)
“But really, why aren’t we leaving?”
“Because if we leave we won’t get credit for the work.”
(Two chapters later...)
“Say, what if we all leave...”

It started to feel like a bad production of “No Exit”. But whatever — Ishmael Jones and Penny are their delightful selves, and the story furthers the meta-plot. Just let it wash over you and don’t think too hard.

unpredictable

I love this series the story is always good and the narrator is absolutely phenomenal

Good murder book.

Let say the unknow out their is whar you think and you find it was alway in front you,then it is never their.

Awful accents

Sounds like a middle schooler tried using accents. Not much happens. Repeat the same events and conversations 5 or 6 times.

Good beginning, but....

It's a bit unfair of me to leave a review because I did not finish the book. In fact, I don't think I made it past the third chapter. I was a bit turned off by the performance, but that's not to say the performance was bad in any way. It just wasn't my thing and I didn't care for some of the characters' voices.

Speaking of the characters, the alleged scientists we meet at the start of the story do not in any way act or speak like scientists. It's just so frustrating to listen to them. I realized very quickly that if the characters were that bad, I just wasn't going to enjoy the book. To make it worse, not only do they not sound like scientists, they go over the same topic over and over and over and over again. At some point I was thinking, "Okay, I get it. Please do or say something that moves the story forward!"

It's really too bad. The first bit was my introduction to Ishmael Jones and I really enjoyed that, but the wheels came off quickly after that.

My least favorite

This book was my least favorite in this series. There was little suspense, and the peripheral characters were extremely annoying.