The Unclaimed Victim

By: D. M. Pulley

Narrated by: Carly Robins

Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 1938, at the height of the Great Depression, a madman hunts his victims through the hobo jungles of Cleveland, terrorizing the city. Ethel Harding, a prostitute struggling to survive both the cold streets and the Torso Killer, takes refuge with a devout missionary sect - only to find that its righteous facade conceals the darkest of secrets.

Sixty years later, the police find the butchered body of Alfred Wiley in the woods. But before his daughter, Kris, can even identify the remains, things he never told her begin to surface one by one - a mysterious private eye who'd been tracking him, an eerie website devoted to the unsolved "Torso" murders, missing archives, stolen books, and an abandoned Bible factory harboring vagrants. The more she learns about her father's obsession with the Torso Killer, the more Alfred's death appears to be related, pulling Kris further into Cleveland's hellish past.

Living decades apart, Ethel and Kris must unravel the truth behind the city's most notorious serial killer...or die trying.

©2017 D.M. Pulley (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Could not put this down...

This story begins with Kris Wiley being called by her father's best friend. He's a police officer and he needs her to come to the station. Her father had been missing for four days and now they think he's been found. They want her to identify a tattoo on her father's shoulder. She can't identify the body because the police won't show it to her. All thats left of him is his body, his head, hands and one leg are missing.
When she goes to her father's house she finds things that don't belong to him. Strange library books like Torso Killer and books about zombies. When she takes them to the library she finds they were checked out three years ago and to an address right down the road from her own rental.
The book flips between 1999 and 1938 when similar murders occurred. If you read Wayne's review he gives some very interesting details on these murders that I was unaware of.
This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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Uniquely talented historical mystery author!

She is a structural engineer by education and training, but is now a full time author of historical mysteries set in and around Cleveland Ohio. The Unclaimed Victim is her third novel. The first, The Dead Key, remains one of my favorite novels of 2015. The subject is an abandoned bank building and the story of a young engineer and what she finds there. The second, The Buried Book, is the story of a young boy looking for his mother. Both easily earned 5 stars. The Unclaimed Victim is another winner. The story moves constantly between Cleveland of the 1930s and Cleveland (and a nearby town) of 1999. The 1930s portions are about the Cleveland Torso Murderer who removed victims heads and limbs and posed their torsos. The Torso Murderer was real; he killed at least 12 people, 5 women and 7 men, only four of whom were identified. He was also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. The 12 Cleveland murders occurred between 1935 and 1938 inclusive. Some believe he killed at least 13 others in other cities between the late 1920s and 1950. The Torso Murderer was never identified or captured.

In 1999 torso of a man turns up near Cleveland. It appears based on a tattoo to be the dad of 19 year old Cleveland State University student Kris Wiley, the protagonist of the story. Anything more risks revealing the plot, so I'll stop there. Audible classifies this novel's genre as suspense mystery/thriller while I believe it is more aptly classified as historical mystery/thriller.

Narration is excellent, but it is not as good as either of the author's first two audio novels.

Skip if you are picky about narration

The most important thing to me in an audiobook is the quality of the narration. A story can be ruined by an untalented narrator or unprofessional production. I will not listen to another book by Robins. In addition, I think you probably should like historical books as the author tends to incorporate history into all of her books thus far. I’m sorry to say I cannot recommend this audiobook. A printed version might be better. I can however, highly recommend listening to D.M. Pulley’s other book called the Dead Key. Do yourself a favor and skip this book and listen to Dead Key instead, especially, if historicals are not your thing!

Erratic volume.

Narrator needs to listen to her own narration to realise how annoying her varying volume and overly dramatic narration irritates the eardrums.

STUNNING AUTHOR

I can't say enough about D.M. Pulley. She is definitely one of the most talented writers of the 21st century. The Unclaimed Victim is her 3rd novel in several years, and, like 2 her 2 previous novels, she cleverly weaves a single story between 2 time periods. Evelyn is a lady of the night in 1932; Kris is a daughter with a recently murdered father in 2000s. The stories are related, but in the meantime it's easy to get (happily) lost among the clever, sonorous writing. Please read her books. They are amazing.

Poor Narration

I wanted to like this story but didn't because of the narration only. The female narrator spoke either way too loud or way too soft throughout the whole book. It was very frustrating adjusting my volume button instead of just enjoying listening to a great author. I also didn't like the way she used western twang for most of the characters who were local Cleveland, Ohio natives. I was very confused. Basically, unless you are in a closed room with no background noise pass on the audible and just read the book. FYI The Dead Key is excellent...I wish they would've used the narrator Emily Sutton-Smith instead of Carly Robbins for this book!

Nope

Don’t waste your time. The narrator is horrible. I couldn’t get past chapter 3 is was so bad.

Great read

My third outstanding read/listen from author D.M. Pulley. Extremely well-written and enjoyable. 428 pages & 12 hours & 55 minutes of listening enjoyment! I'm already looking at other books in this series! Narrator Carly Robins adds greatly to the listening enjoyment! I'll be reading more from this author just as soon as the books are written. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

Well Written Mystery

I am a fan of D.M. Pulley's books. She writes a good mystery with lots of twists and turns so it's not predictable. This story is no exception. The female protagonist in this story refuses to believe her father is dead and laying in the morgue. She won't sign off on the death certificate claiming his body. She instead decides to try to find where her father is and who is actually laying in the morgue. Each answered question she finds leads to more questions. I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

BRILLIANT MODERN WRITER

Love, love love this author for crazy clever writiing. Happy to report that there are 3 she has written. Please. buy. now.