The Fairest of Them

Rae Hatting Mysteries, Book 1

By: Heather Osborne

Narrated by: Flora Plumb

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

The Rae Hatting Mysteries are written from two perspectives: Special Agent Luke Thompson and Special Agent Rae Hatting.

Once upon a time, there was a murder....

Rae Hatting returns in her first, full-length novel, The Fairest of Them.

Detective Luke Thompson is a hero cop with a string of solved serial killer cases under his belt. He comes to California, thinking he can disappear quietly into the forests, isolated from the rest of the world. His expertise is called upon to help with a mysterious serial killer dumping bodies dressed like fairy tale characters in the woods outside of Mendocino County. With the help of a profiler, Luke finally gets the break he needs, as well as finding romance for himself. Tragedy strikes, and Luke is left despondent, unable to carry on as a detective. Can a fiery redhead from the FBI help him out of the slump?

Determined to leave the life of solving unsolvable homicides behind, Special Agent Rae Hatting tries to settle into a normal life with her adopted daughter, Grace. However, her reputation precedes her, and Rae finds herself back in the fray, called upon to help solve a series of gruesome fairytale-style murders in California. Her only obstacle is Detective Luke Thompson. Broody, stubborn, and an all-around pain in the ass, the pair must work together before another victim ends up never finding their happily ever after.

©2015 Heather Osborne (P)2016 Heather Osborne

I love Heather Osborne's books

I loved the story as Heather is a great author! The narrator, not so much. She had a whiney voice and it just sounded bad. Other than that it was great!

LOVED THIS STORY

THE FAIREST OF THEM is the first book in the Rae Hatting series. I believe they will need to be read in the order of release. Unfortunately for me, there are two prequels that I have not read/listened to and I am beyond curious about their stories! This did not prevent me from following this story; I just want to know what happened to these characters before this time in their lives.

I loved the unique MO of the killer and the twists and turns of the investigation. There were some practices that I found to be odd procedurally, but I’ve never been in law enforcement myself, so maybe I’m misinformed – there’s also the old cry of “literary license” when the author chooses to color outside of the lines, right?

I cried, laughed, hoped, held my breath, swore, and screamed… all while driving 70mph down the highway on my way to and from work. Yep, I was that crazy woman. It’s a wonderful way to eat up the miles and make the commute a lot less harrowing for me and consequently for those around me, believe it or not.

I loved this story and I would love to read more of this series.

Note: while I was given this book as a gifted audiobook copy, my opinions are my own and are given freely.


Title: THE FAIREST OF THEM
Series: Rae Hatting Mysteries #1
Narrated by: Flora Plumb
Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
Category /Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Recommended for: 18+ due to sexual content
Listenability: NSFW
Received from: Heather Osborne (as an Audible gifted copy)

Entertaining murder mystery

Any additional comments?

This is a quick, entertaining listen, which is exactly what I went looking for. Having read the book, I decided to try the audible. (Usually, I do that the other way around!). The narrator truly captured both Luke and Rae, and I enjoyed hearing the story come to life.

An intense hunt for a serial killer

Luke Thompson is a police detective who solved a string of serial killer cases, and then sought a more peaceful life as a detective with the police in Mendocino County, California.

Unfortunately, after a deceptive lull, he finds himself hunting a serial killer again, someone who dresses his victims as figures from fairy tales. He also finds love, in the person of an FBI profiler

Then tragedy strikes too close to home.

Luke is thrown into a tailspin, but the serial killer is still at work.

Rae Hatting, an FBI agent who is done, she thinks, with homicide investigations, is called back in for this one. She's got a double task, finding the killer, and pulling Thompson out of his funk.

It's a complicated story, with complicated characters. Everyone has a thornier background than you initially suspect. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, but both the Mendocino police and the FBI are shown as made up of people who at their core are dedicated to protecting the public and doing their jobs. It's ultimately positive without being syrupy. I'm not sure I was really up for a serial killer story when I started reading this, but in the end I'm glad I read it, and will probably read more from Osborne.

Recommended.

I think I bought this book, but this is one of those occasions when I honestly don't really remember.

Adolescent romance poorly written--stay away

This is a terrible book. The writing is so cliched and the characters so unbelievable that it is not worth even the 6 hours to listen to.

There is almost as much romance in the book as detective work and it sounds like it was written by a 13 year old boy. Phrases like "he couldn't stop looking at her butt" and "he was distracted by her rear-end" keep cropping up.

The detective sections are unconvincing. For example, the main character keeps flipping the safety on his Glock on and off--Glocks don't have external safeties. The plot involves an out of the game detective who is dragged back into a case because an FBI profiler believes that only he can solve it, etc. It's all very cliched.

The performance is very difficult to listen to. The narrator sounds like that aunt you have who smokes too much and drinks too much. It's hard to tell if she's a poor narrator or just hopelessly lost with the bad writing.

No way to recommend this book to anyone. Not a good mystery, not a good procedural, not a funny or lighthearted take, not a pleasant performance.