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The Black Country

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The Black Country

By: Alex Grecian
Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
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About this listen

When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal-mining village - and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird's nest - the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad. But Inspector Day and Sergeant Hammersmith have no idea what they're about to get into, and the more they investigate, the more they realise they may never be allowed to leave.

©2013 Alex Grecian (P)2013 W F Howes Ltd Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Will keep you riveted from page one" (Jeffery Deaver)
"Outstanding. If Charles Dickens isn't somewhere clapping his hands for this, Wilkie Collins surely is." ( New York Times Book Review)
All stars
Most relevant  
Alex grecian is in a league of his own, absolutely fantastic story. I love the whole 19th century theme, and for an American to capture Victorian England so perfectly, is amazingly impressive. well done to Carrington for narrating this so well to.

absolutely loved it.

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Another great story by Alex Grecian. I was concerned by the change of authors, but I needn’t of worried! Nigel Carrington was actually even better!!
There isn’t as much gore as I expected, given the previous reviews...just skip by a couple of minutes when they mention the word “maggot” and you’ll skip the bad bits, it’s only in a couple of places. The characters are really forming now and I’m off to download the third book, to hear more of their stories :-)

Another great story

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Any additional comments?

I hate this idiot's guide to reviewing! I much prefer to read people's thoughts without the stupid question/response weird format. So I'm going to ignore audible's idea of reviews for idiot's and write what I think! Despite the reviews, both quite negative, I liked the first book so I decided to ignore them and down loaded this. So what was it like? Quite good, the first book had two murder stories running side by side and this has only the one. So it's less intricate but I like the main characters and additional characters. I guessed "who done the ugly deed" well before it was revealed but that isn't necessarily a big deal to me. So not quite as good as the first book but nearly and I will definitely listen to it more than once.

good listen

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I enjoyed this book from start to finish and I am looking forward to the next one

Very enjoyable

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I really enjoyed Alex Grecian's first book about Day and Hammersmith's adventures in the Murder Squad in London. This second book took them out of London and into Victorian West Midlands trying to solve the mystery of a missing mother, father and son. It was never explained why it was necessary to transport police officers from London to the Midlands to look for the missing family. Sadly this set the theme for the whole novel.

Confusing, overcomplicated and overlong. Nevertheless, I got to the end of the novel and understood all, eventually. I loved the first novel, it was brilliant. I persevered with the second novel and got there eventually and if it wasn't worth it I wouldn't have bothered. I will buy the third novel, it hasn't yet put me off and I still love the characterisation of Day and Hammersmith and the other people who habitate these books.

Overlong and confusing

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A good story...read very well...although was a little disappointed as the story didn't grip me as much as The Yard... We didn't get to know the characters as we did before. I didn't feel quite so engaged by the new characters and the old ones didn't grow in character either..Also, the previous narrator was so totally excellent, that he is a tough act to follow.. I'd got used to his portrayal of the characters voices and was a tad disappointed to find they had changed.

Good

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The book gives a strange feeling - the plot builds, arising expectations but the result is very predictable and does not comply at all with the expectations and suvgestions initially built by the story. The story is well told, gives colorful picture of place of action (sometimes overly detailed and livid) but the aftertaste of the book is empty. It feels that the end of the story was forcedly made up and written.

Dissappointment

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What would have made The Black Country better?

Nothing, its an interesting story but dwells on violence. The writer seems to have a preoccupation with maggots.

Has The Black Country put you off other books in this genre?

Yes anything from this writer

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He didn't

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Interesting story

Ugly & Violent

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