Why We Die

Zoe Boehm, Book 3

By: Mick Herron

Narrated by: Alix Dunmore

From the author of Slow Horses and soon to be an Original Series from Apple TV+ starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson.

The road to hell is paved with all sorts of intentions, as Oxford private investigator Zoë Boehm discovers when a straightforward jewelry store robbery turns out to be anything but.

When Zoë Boehm agrees to track down the gang who knocked over Sweeney’s jewelry shop, she’s just hoping to break even in time for tax season. She certainly doesn’t expect to wind up in a coffin. But she’s about to become entangled with a strange collection of characters, starting with suicidal Tim Whitby, who’s dedicating what’s left of his life to protecting the pretty, battered Katrina Blake from her late husband’s sociopathic brothers, Arkle and Trent.

Unfortunately for Zoë, Arkle has a crossbow, Tim has nothing left to lose, and even Katrina has her secrets. And death, like taxes, can’t be avoided forever.

©2015 Mick Herron (P)2025 Recorded Books

Interesting characters

Loved the story and characters. Great twist in the end. The author tends to ramble and there’s a lot of self reflection going on.

Great Pace

This story kept me listening as it continued to switch viewpoints and changed just at the good parts! Great characters!

Terrific Performance by Alix Dunmore

The usual somewhat convoluted Mick Herron storytelling that brings Zoe into contact with what appears to be a random group of characters. It does drag on at points. The books big 'surprise', also, is obvious to anyone who has read a thriller before, so perhaps the reader feeling the looming, tragic inevitabilty of one character's fate early on was intentional. There were plenty of clues. In any case, Alix Dunmore delivers a superb performance, rendering every character with his or her own voice.

Convoluted

I have been a Mick Herron fan for a long time, loving the Slough House series in print, audiobooks and in the television series. So I decided to listen to his Zoe Boehm series. I enjoyed the first two installments, but I felt this one lost track of whatever the plot was supposed to be. During much of the middle of it, I kept wondering--who are these people and what happened to Zoe? There was a lot of intricate interplay among numerous bizarre characters, but I couldn't keep them straight and didn't understand their relevance. When I finally got to the end, I felt the whole middle part could have been skipped. On the plus side, the regular narrator for these books is really good.

I could not listen to the file. It skipped constantly

Downloaded 3x. No change. The file is bad. Don’t buy it. I’m disappointed in this title. Poor qa at audible is to blame.