The Dee Valley Killings

A Snowdonia Murder Mystery, Book 3 (A DI Ruth Hunter Crime Thriller)

By: Simon McCleave

Narrated by: Deryn Edwards

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A twisted serial killer. A deadly game of cat and mouse. Can DI Ruth Hunter catch a crazed psychopath who seems intent on destroying her life?

DI Ruth Hunter hopes that settling in Snowdonia will melt away the grief of a missing partner. Burying herself in her work, she senses that her current missing persons case isn't all that it seems. When a man's body turns up torn to pieces, Ruth realizes that she is now tracking a deadly serial killer. Working with her fiercely patriotic Welsh partner, DI Hunter soon has a prime suspect in her sights - although he seems to always be one step ahead of them. When the killer begins to claim a personal connection to her, Ruth fears a grisly end to her and her family.

The Dee Valley Killings is the third book in the acclaimed DI Ruth Hunter Crime Thriller series. If you like dark, psychologically complex characters and a gripping roller coaster of a plot, then this book is for you.

©2020 Simon McCleave (P)2020 Simon McCleave

Trigger warnings needed for animal cruelty and abuse !!!

Please include warnings when there is animal cruelty and abuse!!!! This writer apparently makes that a staple of his works and it’s a casual cruelty that adds nothing to the story previously I managed to get through one boom with multiple instances of fast forwarding with yet another book with more of the same I’m done.

Disappointing and Hard to Believe

The first two books in the series were really good, which is why I continued with this one. Unfortunately, this one is full of story elements that are really hard to buy. While these books are fiction, they have to be believable enough for the reader to buy in. This one is full of stupid rookie mistakes and absurd assumptions these police officers are making in groups. There are first year police officers who would not make such ridiculous mistakes. It just seems like the drama of the story it was forced by inserting these elements. Too bad.

What a let down!

Why does this happen with certain successful book series? The author suddenly seems pressed to produce more books quickly at the cost of quality. This 3rd installment of the DI Ruth Hunter series is a serious and painful let down from the first two books. Nobody on planet earth suddenly becomes this stupid! Was it for dramatic effect? Was it to anger the listener? Whatever the case, the characters in this installment suddenly become idiots, devoid of common sense yet alone solid police training and experience. While the main characters lost neurons, the villain was super-human and defied belief. He was ridiculous and not believable.. Parts of the story really seemed to drag on and on, more than once I found myself yelling for it to be over already! The last 90 minutes or so sped up quickly, but the story was over the top - not believable and also annoyingly sentimental in parts. It was such a let down after the first two books, which were well-written and enjoyable. This one was just terrible!

On the plus side, the narrator is wonderful. I loved the accents and her tone is perfect for the audiobook genre. I still like the characters and want to know what happens next, but if the next installments of this series are this poorly written, I will save my credits. You have been warned!