Tag: LJ Ross

Heavenfield by L.J. Ross

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment

Heavenfield (DCI Ryan Mysteries, #3)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: DCI Ryan Mysteries #3
Publication Date: 3/4/16
Number of Pages: 266

I have definitely become a fan of this series. I came to it late – with the sixteenth book – but I enjoyed that one so much that I’ve been reading the earlier books. I’m skipping all around in the series, so I can assure you that you can read each book as a standalone. The characters are consistent from book-to-book, and references are made to happenings in previous books, but you don’t have to have read those books in order to enjoy the book you are reading. The books are basically police procedurals, but the crimes are definitely of the sensational variety – as in cults, psychotic murderers, etc.

I listened to the audiobook version and enjoyed the narration. I like the narrator’s smooth voice, but all of his accents – English, Irish, Scottish, etc. all seemed to sound the same. He also used guttural voices to accentuate the accents and I didn’t feel that helped at all. His delivery was well-paced.

The heinous cult, The Circle, is back and strange things are happening. The Circle has tentacles in every profession and walk of life – at every level. You never know if the person with whom you are speaking is a member of The Circle or not. That means Ryan and his team have to tread very carefully and keep everything tightly contained within their single team. Heaven only knows how many members of CID are also members of The Circle. They are pretty sure of one, Detective Chief Superintendent Arthur Gregson, but does it go even higher than him?

DCI Ryan is on administrative leave after the events of the last case. DCS Gregson is bound and determined to see Ryan lose his job over these trumped-up charges. Can he do it? Ryan’s hearing will come up soon, but in the meantime, he’s totally sidelined. When Ryan is discovered at the scene of a murder, with blood on his hands, he becomes the chief suspect in that as well. Well – he’s DCS Gregson’s chief suspect – Ryan’s team knows he isn’t guilty.

When more murders happen, and Gregson himself is attacked, things really get busy. It will take Ryan and all of his team’s best efforts – with the help of Dr. Anna Taylor – to finally put an end to The Circle and all of the misery associated with it.

The ending was exciting and all of the explanations wrapped up the loose ends. I thoroughly enjoyed the read.

The Shrine by LJ Ross

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment

The Shrine (DCI Ryan Mysteries, #16)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: DCI Ryan Mysteries #16
Publication Date: 5/10/20
Number of Pages: 236

OMGoodness – I have found a wonderful new-to-me author and mystery series. I came into the series at the sixteenth book, but I fully intend to go back and start at the beginning because I enjoyed this one so much. I loved the characters; I loved the setting; I loved the mystery; I loved the writing style, and I can’t believe I’m just discovering them.

I used the Whispersync feature with this book, so I listened to the audio of some of it and read some of it. I liked the narrator’s voice as it was very smooth and flowed nicely. However, he didn’t seem to have a very wide range for voices – the females sounded like males with high voices and the male characters just sounded kind of raspy rather than distinctive. That said, I still enjoyed the listen – just not as much as I would have if there were a wider voice range.

Detective Chief Inspector Maxwell Finley-Ryan and his wife, Dr. Anna Taylor-Ryan are happily awaiting the arrival of their first child. As Ryan muses, “For all the tragedies he’d known, Ryan considered himself a lucky man and never more so than the day he’d found Anna—the other, better half of himself.” Now, they are bringing a child into the world.

Never do they expect two tragedies to befall them – almost at the same moment. Are they related, or are they just coincidences? Detective Chief Inspector Joan Tebbutt is brutally gunned down right at her front door. “She heard the motorbike before she saw it and, when she did, there was no time to react. The first shot penetrated the side of her neck and, as the pathologist would later remark, she might have survived that.” At almost that exact same time, Rose is gravely injured in a bombing at Durham Cathedral. “In addition to the head trauma, your wife has several broken bones in her right arm and ankle. She’s also suffering from moderately severe smoke inhalation.” With two of their own dead and injured, DCI Ryan’s team will leave no stone unturned – there will be no hole deep enough to hide, nor any corner far enough away to hide these despicable criminals. The team will find them and see that they are punished – fully – under the law.

The best way to handle both cases is to divide and conquer, so the team divides up and each part takes a different case. Their leads lead them all over the place – from terrorists, to fraud, to vendettas, to – well, you name it and there is some of it in the story.

While we see who the murderer is, we don’t see the mastermind in the wind-up of this story. I assume the next book will see more of his/her machinations and then, maybe his final punishment. So, it isn’t exactly a cliffhanger, but we don’t get a total wrap-up of the story either.

I definitely enjoyed this read and cannot wait to get started on the first fifteen that I missed.