Breathe cover art

Breathe

a killer lurks in the worst fog London has ever known

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Breathe

By: Dominick Donald
Narrated by: Martyn Ellis
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About this listen

London, 1952. Dick Bourton is not like the other probationer policemen in Notting Hill. He's older, having fought in Europe and then Korea. And he's no Londoner, being from Cotswold farming stock. Then there's Anna, the exotically beautiful White Russian fiancée he has brought back to these drab streets and empty bombsites. She may as well come from a different planet.

The new copper also has a mind of his own. After an older colleague is shot by a small-time gangster they are chasing in a pea-souper fog, something nags at Bourton's memory. He begins to make connections which his superiors don't want to see, linking a whole series of deaths and the fogs that stop the city in its tracks.

Desperate to prove himself and his theories, Bourton fails to notice the fear which his mysterious bride is doing her best to conceal - and overcome.

Soon both Anna and Bourton are taking dangerous paths into the worst fog London has ever known....

©2018 Dominick Donald (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Crime Thrillers Historical Fiction Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction England

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Critic reviews

The combination of thriller plot with pervasive moral uncertainty reminded me at times of le Carre. Historically fascinating, too. All in all, this is one of the finest debuts I've read for a while. (Andrew Taylor, author of Ashes of London)
Remarkably accomplished . . . the most appealing, original protagonist I've read for some time . . . Donald's depiction of the city's thickening gloom is splendidly evocative . . . A very impressive debut' (Alison Flood)
All stars
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A book I think I might have preferred to have read, still a good listen though

An enjoyable variation on the theme

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Absolutely loved this. Creates the atmosphere of the early 1950's so well you can feel it. The intertwining of a real serial killer and a fictional murderer is inspired.
Hope there will be more from this author.

Breathe

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If you like your narrator to sound just like an Alan Bennet impersonation then this is a book you will enjoy. The various characters, especially the females were hilarious but I don’t think that was intentional. Book is also too long. Boris Starling did a much better job.

Glad that’s over.

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At the start, this bears close resemblance to Laura Wilson's hero, set in the same timeframe, with a similar backstory (and not a few references to her characters). But the story develops and takes a different turn to 'A Capital Crime.'
It's a blow by blow account , which does become a bit tedious and long winded . The narration is excellent. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and hope the author has a return planned for Anna and Richard.

Coincidence?

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This book is so well written and read that I listened to it through the night. Couldn’t stop wondering what was going to happen to Dick Bourton and his mysterious and beautiful Anna. The atmosphere of drab 50’s London in the Great Smog, with a serial killer perhaps just an arm’s length away is captured brilliantly.
Can’t wait for a sequel.

Amazing performance of an excellent debut thriller

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This is a great book, and a superb performance. Evokes the dinginess and attitudes of post war London excellently.

Brilliant

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A long but absorbing listen full of interesting characters and events, although I'm never keen on real/well-known people's motives and actions being fictionalised in order to advance a novel's plot ... an amazing narration with some unusual quirks that really enhanced the storytelling, e.g., telephone conversations that actually sounded like telephone conversations ... fascinating insights into life in the UK after WW2 (and the Korean War) and into the obstacles faced by stateless people ... this Audio book was so good that I will definitely listen to it again.

Wow ...

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very well researched caught the feel of the fifties very well well worth the listen

unusual but very interesting

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Donald's clearly extensive research about London in the smog years makes this a truly evocative and gripping novel. The commonplace persona of mass murdererer Christie is reanimated brilliantly. I was unconvinced by the final chapter, however. And Martyn Ellis dramatises this perfectly.

Compelling story and narration

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Donald is a good writer who can capture atmosphere and weave a plot.

But he needed an editor here who was ready to cut the book quite savagely to a more manageable length.

less would have been (much) more

a good book that could have been a great one

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