Murder Month - Little Boy Blue

Second audiobook for the month of Murder May! I warned you guys on Twitter I was trying to work hard on this for the past few months! And because of this, I must thank Leanne from Midas PR for giving me this audiobook (via Audible) for review.

In this, the fifth DI Helen Grace series, DI Helen Grace and her team are called to investigate a murder at a BDSM club. It's obvious that this was't a sex game gone wrong. But when the victim is revealed to Helen, the case becomes too close to home and, hiding her connection to the victim, Helen must try and keep her head to investigate this case.

But with in-fighting between two of her officers, a boss that might have an unhealthy obsession with her, and a killer who seems to be one step ahead, can Helen solve this case? Or will this be her fall from grace?

Like I said in the previous paragraph, this is the fifth book in the series. A fact I didn't know this I was a good way into the story. And while you can read this as a standalone up to a point, this book does have connections to the previous books in the series so you might want to go back and start with Eeny Meeny and work your way through.

This story is a weird beast. There were elements of this I liked and elements I had serious problems with.

Let's start with the positives. This book was fast paced and moved at a good speed. The chapters are short - very James Patterson - and this felt like something was happening, even when you were going "Why are we reading about this?", even though you suspected that this was going to effect the ending of the book. It had a level of grit and it showed that the author worked hard to get details right and I haven't read a book that tackled BDSM before (it's always touched upon in some crime books I have read/watched but never tackled properly).

The negatives I will try and keep equally brief. I didn't like most of the characters and their attitudes. Most I felt didn't feel "right" and those that were, I felt were pure backstabbers - not something I felt would represent the Police in a respectable light. For example, there was one character who tried to do something to another (who fought back!). Later, out of pettiness, the first character decides to do something that could and will destroy the other character, and I found this unforgivable.

There were times I fear the story became predictable and if you are a seasoned crime reader, you might suspect where the plot might be going.

Also, I wasn't the biggest fan of the reader in this story. I'm not sure why - nothing wrong with Elizabeth Bower's reading. But I seem to prefer her when she was reading faster-paced scenes. When the pace slowed, I lost connection with the story.

But my main issue was that this book is a two-parter. The continuation of this story arc will go into the next book - Hide and Seek (out this coming September) - and I feel that this is a very cheap trick. Why wasn't these two stories written as one longer novel? And with the way this book ended, I can't see any way the author can undo the damage he's caused to his characters. I fear he might have boxed himself into a corner...

But, like I said before, I dived into this without knowing this was the fifth book in the series so I might be missing a trick that the author has pulled off in previous books...

If you are a fan of MJ Arlidge or the other DI Helen Grace books, you will devour this. Not come across this author before (barring Six Degrees of Assassination), I would say go back to the series start with Eeny Meenie and take it from there. But be warned, this series will not be everyone's cup of tea nor is it for the faint-hearted.

GoodRead - Six Degrees of Assassination: An Audible Drama

I was meant to listen to this and get this reviewed quite close to the release date which was a fortnight-ish ago. When Felicity at Midas PR asked if I wanted to listen to this, I jumped at it. It sounded interesting and gripping. Plus, it starred Andrew Scott and Freema Agyeman and I LOVE THEM!!! But I thought I would get it done quicker than I have, but due to the joy of my place of work wanting me to do overtime so my listening time was cut in half and it was this weekend when I blitzed through it

On one day in July, ten years after the horrible events of 7/7, the new Prime Minster visits a charity in East London. The coalition is becoming a distant memory, the economy is on the mend and the country is looking to the future with John Campbell being the leader of the country. Until a man comes out of the crowd and shoots the Prime Minister...

MI5 has to find out who this man is and why he did it. Alex Cartwright (Andrew Scott), MI5 Chief Counter Terrorism Officer, must find the truth. With his trusted second-in-command, Ellen Townsend (Freema Agyeman), Cartwright must look for the truth as clues seem to point to characters all over the world. But with the country in a state of shock, John Campbell's political party beginning to fight over who will lead them and the United Kingdom and MI5 find out that whoever ordered the hit has covered their tracks very well indeed, will they catch the mastermind behind it? And how close to home will the truth be?

This audiobook has a feel of the early series of Spooks, where I was on the edge of my seat. There never felt like a dull moment as the story jumped between MI5 (trying to find out who shot the Prime Minster and why) and Campbell's political party (which goes through shock before the backstabbing began on who should take John's place).

The acting in this was strong and, barring one or two actors, the cast was great and the writing to this was just as strong (though there was one or two times when a character would swear [yes, there is swear words in this] and it felt odd, as if the actor saying the word wasn't sure how their character would say it...).

My only nag with this was the subplot with Alex Cartwright's marriage problems, which (when we started) I felt was a bit pointless and we had seen it in pratically every crime show/book/etc. But then it got important in the middle of the story, although I sense some people would wonder, if the whole subplot of Cartwright's marriage wasn't written in, would it have effort the overall story? I doubt it, but it added to the drama.

Another problem I think most of you guys might have (but I didn't) is the music. I have seen on Audible that some people felt that, at places, it got very loud. I never thought that myself, but it's one of those things.

I can see this being turned into a mini-series for TV (BBC One or ITV, mainly) and I hope Audible Studios continues to work with M J Arlidge as I think these characters could have another outing...