No Ordinary Killing: An Ingo Finch Mystery Book 1

By: Jeff Dawson

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

An extraordinary historical crime thriller, perfect for listeners of Philip Kerr, M.J. Carter and Abir Mukherjee.

1899, South Africa: As the Boer War rages, Captain Ingo Finch of the Royal Army Medical Corps pieces together casualties at the front. Later, recovering in Cape Town, he is woken by local police. A British officer has been murdered, and an RAMC signature is required for the post-mortem. Shocked by the identity of the victim, the bizarre nature of the crime and what appears a too-convenient resolution, Finch turns detective. He is soon thrust into a perilous maze of espionage and murder.

©2018 Jeff Dawson (P)2021 W F Howes

Critic reviews

"Dawson has produced a strong thriller with something to say.... An intriguing mix of John Buchan style adventuring and well researched period detail, full of superstition, mistrust and political intrigue.... A very strong debut." (Sarah Ward, author of the Richard Prince thrillers)

Solid Military Mystery

I found No Ordinary Killing in the Audible Plus catalog and grabbed it because I enjoy Jeffery Keeble's narration. I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed the novel as well. It's a well written and compelling military mystery that takes place in 1899 South Africa.
Highly recommended.

Pity about the narration

This novel started off very promisingly, the setting of the Boer War conflict was well described and historical details accurate. However the usually excellent narrator Jonathan Keeble unfortunately decided to attempt South African accents about two hours into the book. These are difficult for a non-native to achieve, and ultimately I couldn't bear to listen any more. There were mispronunciations as well, for example 'veld' should be pronounced 'felt'. There are many excellent South African narrators, for example Saul Reichlin, and I wish Audible would use them for books with South African settings. This is a frequently cited criticism as Audible readers' reviews of these books show.

I liked it but...

I truly enjoyed the writing style of the author and the narrator. both were quite enjoyable. however, the story at times was annoying and at the end I had difficulty connecting characters. Almost as if they were newly introduced, I could not place them and identify where they fit in the story.