Old Sins Cast Long Shadows: A John Handful Mystery cover art

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows: A John Handful Mystery

The John Handful Mysteries, Book 7

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Old Sins Cast Long Shadows: A John Handful Mystery

By: Andrew Hixson
Narrated by: David Bufton
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About this listen

Lady Casterton is found strangled in her bedroom shortly after seven when her housekeeper went to discover why her employer had not appeared for dinner. From an examination of the body, it was clear that she had been killed a little after six at the very earliest.

Suspicion naturally fell onto her nephew, her inheritor, with whom relations had been strained in recent weeks.

He would have looked like a prime suspect were it not for the testimony of the housekeeper. But then the nephew turns up dead in a locked room. The question for John Handful is who murdered the murderer?

©2020 Andrew Hixson (P)2020 Andrew Hixson Mystery Traditional Detectives
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Narrator: David Bufton
Unfortunately this narration doesn’t flow smoothly making it a bit jerky and somewhat monotone, sadly I often found myself drifting away from the story.
The story itself is quite interesting though, plenty of clues with a few twists, nothing too taxing but I suspect it makes a better read than listening to it.
4 stars for the story, 3 stars for the narration.

Old sins cast long shadows

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I enjoyed this book. I like puzzles and working out mysteries so a murder committed in a locked room was a good book for me. I did struggle a bit with the story line because I couldn't always work out which character was talking and the story does jump around with the telling of old cases but on the whole it was a good old fashioned English mystery. There was plenty of suspects and the author goes to great length to describe places (not always sure why we needed to know about the weather), so it was easy to picture the story as it unfolds. I have listen to book 6 and now 7 and each story is complete with a beginning and an end, this means you don't need to have listen or read the other books in the series to enjoy but I might go back to he begining to find out what I have missed.
John Handful a private detective is called in unofficial to help the police on a baffling case. Lady Casterton is found strangled in her bedroom after receiving a visit from her nephew. But with the cook stating that he had left before the murder and no body else entered the police are stumped. With the old lady making an appointment with her lawyer regarding her will and the nephew heard to have been arguing with her the police are certain he committed the murder but unable to prove it. Just as John is zeroing in on the killer the nephew is also killed. Is it the same killer? And if so why? Is it the abused wife but why would she kill his aunt? Is it her brother? Again he had reason to kill his brother in law but not the aunt? What about the girlfriend? Or the man arguing with him? John must work out the reason behind the killing if he wants to solve the murder.
The narrator was okay but I found his voice all began to sound the same and I struggled to tell them apart.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Locked in

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Book seven in the John Handful mysteries series, but fully stand alone.
The cover of this book is interestingly old fashioned but with a modern twist, and so, too, is the story within. John Handful is a PI who succeeds where the local police force cannot, this time solving a double killing in the Casterton family. Told in the first person by Handful himself, the clues are all laid out for the reader to solve, if they can, before the final revelation. The writing is good and, at times, atmospheric, including an excellent chapter (15) as Handful walks through the forest, arriving at his converted bathhouse cabin, with a description of the interior. The one roomed building with installed arched widow , whitewashed walls and sixties style Scandinavian furniture is especially memorable as, just six chapters later, poor editing had this same description repeated, word for word, again.

David Bafton, the narrator, helps to give life to each individual protagonist with separate and appropriate voicings but, especially initially, is less fluent with his reading of the actual text. He is a little hesitant, with some pronounced and inappropriate pauses, giving a jerky feel to his reading, as in "The blackness nurtured (pause) a sense of claustrophobia." Possibly this was an attempt to further get into the character of Handful, but if so it failed to do more than irritate. Fortunately, this gerrymandered after the initial chapters.

Despite the reservations mentionedabove, this was an enjoyable book, intriguing whilst remaining light and an easy read, one I would recommend as an interesting filled for those times needing something relaxing but absorbing. My thanks to the rights holder of Old Sins Cast Long Shadows, who, at my request freely gifted me with a complimentary copy. I will definitely be reading further John Handful mysteries in the future.

"One misdirection after another."

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