The Raven

By: Blair Howard

Narrated by: Tom Lennon

Length: 7 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

A brutal murder. A condemned assassin with days left to live.

No one could figure out exactly why Sandra McDowell had to die.

What was her connection to the Raven, an aging hit man 20 years on death row with only days left to live?

Clues are plentiful, but all are dead ends.

The Raven is a mind-bending mystery thriller, a twister of a tale that will keep you up listening long into the night. You can’t hear just one!

Join Harry Starke as he tries to unravel the nightmare world of...The Raven.

©2019 Blair Howard (P)2019 Blair Howard

Loved it

I am very impressed with how well the author kept you guessing and kept you wanting to hear more. The narrator did a fantastic job of bring the characters and world to life. I was given a free copy of the audio in return for an unbiased review.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A real cliff-hanger!

Well-written, lots of suspects to keep you guessing and a new addition to our cast of sleuths.

Tom Lennon brings the characters to life with his great narrating.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

It started to rain!

Sandra McDowell, diving home in the dark after attending a school.board meeting, is brutally battered to death on the hard shoulder after being rear ended by a truck. The fear present in these opening paragraphs is visceral, almost tactile, the sort of unprovoked attack that terrifies any driver on an unpopular road alone at niight. But Sandra was much loved, generous with her charity donations and the wife of a judge. So was this a planned attack, one of revenge directed against an earlier unpopular verdict given by her husband. The execution of a Russian assassin, sentenced to death twenty years before by Jim McDowell, was scheduled to take place in a few days time in nearby Nashville, and it was noticed that three of his old friends had come to stay in Chattanooga.
With the judge being a close friend of Harry's father, the recently formed Harry Starke Private investigations agency is asked to find out who killed Jim McDowell's wife.

These early Starke novels are fascinating, getting to know the already seasoned police detective, turned private eye, and his friends and work colleagues, from the beginnings of the agency. And a new member is going to be added to the existing staff: another former cop, Rob Ryan. As always, characterisation of the main protagonists is good, they are complex personalities, not simple black and white. And the punches are not pulled, either: they must hurt. The story itself is, as always in the Starke novels, complex and twisting, Harry trying to use his intuition to determine what is true, not always accurately. There is an earthy reality to these characters despite the often crazy, deathly situations into which they propel themselves with such enthousiasm. Further assisting the development of them all, and of Harry in particular, is the excellent narration by Tom Lennon, who provides the voice of Starke, telling the story in first person. His reading holds exactly the right amount of languid, sardonic observation: he truly becomes Harry as well as giving good voicing to all of the other protagonists. A good performance, pleasing on the ear and further enhancing the story.

My thanks to the rights holder of The Raven, who, at my request via Audiobook Boom, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy. I enjoyed it immensely and note, with pleasure, that a new book, third in this series, is due for publication in December. Hopefully, it will also appear in audio soon, also.
For readers who enjoy fast action, detective thrillers, with convoluted plots, neat descriptive phrases, and well developed characters that still have a semblance of reality, this book is highly recommended

This Truly Is A Fantastic aAtion/Mystery Thriller

The Raven truly lives up to the description of being a "mind-bending mystery thriller, a twister of a tale that will keep you up listening long into the night"

This is another in the series of Harry Starke books which as usual is brilliantly written by Blair Howard and wonderfully narrated by Tom Lennon.
I can't wait to listen to more of Harry's adventures.
I was given a free copy of the audio in return for an unbiased review.