Mâtowak

Woman Who Cries

By: Joylene Nowell Butler

Narrated by: James Newcomb

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The follow-up to Broken but Not Dead, an IPPY Award silver medalist.

A murder enveloped in pain and mystery....

When Canada's retired minister of national defense, Leland Warner, is murdered in his home, the case is handed to Corporal Danny Killian, an aboriginal man tortured by his wife's unsolved murder.

The suspect, 60-year-old Sally Warner, still grieves for the loss of her two sons, dead in a suicide/murder 18 months earlier. Confused and damaged, she sees in Corporal Killian a friend sympathetic to her grief and suffering and wants more than anything to trust him.

Danny finds himself with a difficult choice - indict his prime suspect, the dead minister's horribly abused wife or find a way to protect her and risk demotion. Or worse, transfer away from the scene of his wife's murder and the guilt that haunts him....

©2016 Joylene Nowell Butler (P)2017 Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.

This story is a no-fluff police procedural.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. Because I listened to the audio book, I feel a separate assessment is needed for each the story and the presentation. Also, since I’m reviewing this products months after my initial experience, some of my thoughts may no longer be relevant.

The story- Well, I was a bit bummed to realize there was a first part to the story of the main character. If I had realized that, I would have read the first book before listening to this one. With that said, the way the author wrote this book, the reader didn’t need to read the first book to follow what’s happening in this one (it would have simply been nice background information into one character).

This story beckons to the days of the Dragnet TV show, for anyone who actually remembers that. It was already in its second syndication when I watched it on late-night TV. This story is a no-fluff police procedural that moves slow, but constantly pulls at your subconscious. The writer has a way of leaving clues or questions in the air, unspoken, that the reader feels compelled to solve or answer thus pushing them to read or listen more.

The main character brings with him two subplots that offer the reader a bit of reprieve from the case at hand. It is a case of murder with political intrigue and family drama that slowly unfolds. Our hero detective, Danny, is stressed to find the killer of a political leader no one really misses while dealing with his desire to solve a possible serial killer case and cope with the unsolved murder of his wife. Being the only native officer around doesn’t help matters either.

I love the layers of this story. It’s a reflection of reality. It shows how time doesn’t stop when someone dies. People don’t get to take a break just because they are tired or even deserving. This is a hard, harsh, and cold world, and we must keep moving forward. This is a sad and solemn story, but it’s not without its glimmers of hope.

The presentation- I enjoyed the presentation, but there were some flaws in the production. I think Newcome did a wonderful job using voice, tone, and inflection to distinguish characters and set the mood of each scene. There’s nothing inherently feminine about his voice, but he’s good. You never doubt who speaking even when bouncing back and forth between male and female characters in the same conversation.

There were a few times when a transition might have been needed but the scene wasn’t cut properly, thus causing an unnatural pause in the text or dialog. It only happened once or twice and this didn’t ruin my experience, but I do remember it. Also, there were one or two times when the actor’s cough wasn’t properly cut out of the recording.

Overall, the story was a 5, the presentation a 3.5-4, and so I give this audio book a 4. Highly recommended to fans of crime dramas.

I won a digital download of this audio book from Dancing Lemur Press, which has in no way affected my review of this product.