Holy Island

The DCI Ryan Mysteries, Book 1

By: LJ Ross

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Detective Chief Inspector Ryan retreats to Holy Island seeking sanctuary when he is forced to take sabbatical leave from his duties as a homicide detective. A few days before Christmas, his peace is shattered, and he is thrust back into the murky world of murder when a young woman is found dead amongst the ancient ruins of the nearby priory.

When former local girl Dr. Anna Taylor arrives back on the island as a police consultant, old memories swim to the surface, making her confront her difficult past. She and Ryan struggle to work together to hunt a killer who hides in plain sight while pagan ritual and small-town politics muddy the waters of their investigation.

Murder and mystery are peppered with a sprinkling of romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit set on the spectacular Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne, cut off from the English mainland by a tidal causeway.

©2015 L J Ross (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

" Holy Island is a blockbuster." ( Daily Express)

Long drawn out story. Okay narration.

Geez this book was long. Seemed to last forever before anything at all was resolved. A lot of words and descriptions filling the pages for sure.

The story line and plot was okay. Not the best, not the worst. I felt like so many things were being randomly thrown in to the story to make up the page count.

Crazy religious ritual psycho killers for sure. There was a little romance in the story between Ryan and Anna, but it seemed forced and not very genuine. There is no descriptive sex just the attraction and them waking up together. So if your'e worried about that don't be.

There is lots of dialogue, so there is that. I like lots of dialogue.

I don't think I will continue on with this series, the epilogue was basically this story just with different characters. The last line says "The cycle began again",

As for the narration, it was okay. I liked his reading voice and the voice for the main character Ryan, but the female voice needs work. It was an okay narration at best.

GOOD STORY - FABULOUS NARRATOR

Would you consider the audio edition of Holy Island to be better than the print version?

GOOD STORY AND GOOD CHARACTERS

What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I COULD LISTEN TO JONATHAN KEEBLE READ THE PHONE BOOK!!!

Any additional comments?

Holy Barbara Cartland

Ugh. This very soapy. Poorly developed characters and evil high priests. Unless harlequin novels are your preferred genre, of course.

A bit disappointing

After listening to the prequel this fell a bit flat for me. The story was okay, though a little ‘easy and cliche’ The writing is decent, but the characters feel a little thin. I really didn’t enjoy the forced romance in there. It felt off and not natural at all.

Written like a romance novel...

Disappointed. Had hoped for a British detective series similar to Peter Grainger’s excellent DC Smith novels. This reads more like a romance novel.
“His eyes screamed intelligence.”
“He plundered her mouth.”
Embarrassing.
I gave up on it. Sorry I wasted a credit.