The Body in the Dales

A Yorkshire Murder Mystery, Book 1

By: J. R. Ellis

Narrated by: Michael Page

Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

An unpopular victim. An impossible crime. A murderer on the loose.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Body in Jingling Pot, this edition of The Body in the Dales includes editorial revisions.

A body is discovered deep in a cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales. Leading the investigation into the mysterious death are experienced DCI Jim Oldroyd and his partner DS Carter, a newcomer from London.

The deceased is Dave Atkins, well known throughout the village but not well liked. While there is no shortage of suspects, the details of the crime leave Oldroyd and Carter stumped. How did Atkins’s body end up in such a remote section of the cave? When someone with vital information turns up dead, it becomes clear that whoever is behind the murders will stop at nothing to conceal their tracks.

Oldroyd and his team try to uncover the truth, but every answer unearths a new set of questions. And as secrets and lies are exposed within the close-knit community, the mystery becomes deeper, darker and more complex than the caves below.

©2017, 2018 J. R. Ellis (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Fresh approach; great narration

I enjoyed this book enough to have ordered the 2nd in the series and plan to pre-order book three.

Author does splendid job developing the lead characters with quick efficiency. Narrator was superb.

This was a fun police procedural that introduces you to the limestone caves of Yorkshire. Police team is likeable and
collateral characters interesting.

Highly recommended,

Marvelous

This a wonderful novel. The mystery is intriguing. The characters are authentic. The plot moves at a good pace. The narration is excellent. I really enjoyed this mystery. These books would make a great tv series.

A trip to The dales

Loved the descriptions and character development. No serial killers, psychopaths or unreliable narrators. Just a good old fashioned mystery with lots of clues as well as some dead ends.

Painful, unfortunately

Wow I didn’t like this book. I could not finish it. The narration was grating, actually painful, even when I played it from the speaker, not earphones. The narrator used loud, gravelly, gargling sounds. I tried, but I realized I was dreading those voices! And the writing was just bad. Every point was explained to the reader, as we are assumed to be unable to determine what a clue means for ourselves. I had such high hopes and am disappointed.

Glad I found this series

Nice British mystery. Classic style, can be heard by all ages, nothing offensive. Interesting characters, already purchased the next two.

I hope the series improves

This was interesting enough. I have been reading a lot of UK country copper stories. The story was good but I felt the character of Andy Carter was very undeveloped. The DI was probably the best developed of all the cast of characters.

Andy's budding romance seemed to sprout up overnight. That seemed odd.

The descriptions of the potholes and the cave explorers were very interesting.

The narrator of the audiobook did a good job with the Yorkshire accents (at least to my uneducated ear) but he needs to work on his female voices.

I'll keep reading. First books in a series aren't always the best.

A Bit Overdone

An interesting setting and a good narrator. However, the author seemed to think it was necessary to carefully explain the motivations, feelings and back story of every character - instead of letting the dialogue and action speak for itself.

Good novel with great narration!

I'm a fan of the work of narrator Michael Page. It is amazing that a man with such a deep voice can do a nice job with the voices of female characters.

I'm also a fan of the "on the Fens" series of by Joy Ellis. THE BODY IN THE DALES, first novel of the series, deals with crime in the far north of England in county Yorkshire. The author is JR Ellis. Later novels in this Yorkshire Murder Mystery series are more highly rated than this one. The topic of this novel is the caves of Yorkshire and a murdered man found there. It is a good police procedural. I plan to listen to at least one more novel in this modern detective series.

Well at least it was free...

I got this one from Amazon Unlimited, so at least I am not out the credit.

This was terrible. The narration was a hot mess. Character voices were inconsistent and so similar it was hard to track who was talking. The heavily accented voices were labored and very difficult to understand.

The writing was pedestrian. It wasn't, story-wise, the worst mystery I've ever encountered, but that is about the best I can say about it. The characters are flat and too many stereotypes. The plot was run of the mill.

Painful

This book has more cliches than I have every had to deal with in one novel. The character descriptions and actions constantly contradict one another. Much too painful to finish..................