The Facts of Life and Death

By: Belinda Bauer

Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast

On the beaches and cliffs of North Devon, lone women have become victims in a terrifying game where only one player knows the rules - and, when those rules change, the new game is murder. But that madman on the loose feels very far from the crumbling, seaside home of 10-year-old Ruby Trick. Instead of living in fear of him, she lives in fear of school bullies, the dark forest crowding her house into the sea, and the threat of her parents' divorce. So when she decides to help her father catch the killer, it seems like a good way to keep her father close - that is, as long as the killer doesn't catch her first....

©2017 Belinda Bauer (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

A disappointment from an outstanding author

I never got past the premise that a sane mother would allow her husband to take their 10 year-old daughter out on a school night looking for a murderer. The only saving grace for me was Calvin and his backstory.

Unique take on a familiar theme

The story is a murder mystery, much of which is narrated through the mind of a 10-year-old girl. The author does a strong, believable job of portraying the young girl's perceptions and thoughts. This adds to the tension, vulnerability, and conflict. The young girl behaved and spoke in a believable way in her situations adding a strong sense of realism to the story. For me, the twist was predictable but entertaining nonetheless. Some of the different storylines didn't seem to tie in together very well at the end, but I found them entertaining. The author did a great job with cadence, inflection, and different voices. At no point did I think the story was being narrated but rather unfolding, which is a compliment to the author and narrator.

Nobody does characters like Belinda Bauer

She has created her own world in North Devon, with recurring characters that feel like real people. I have read most of her books so far and even though they include murder, there are parts that are LOL funny. This book was different from her others in that I had a pretty good idea who the bad guy was at an early stage, but since it had so much more going for it than who did it, that wasn’t a problem. In this book, our young protagonist’s discovery of a murderer happens as she is transitioning from a child to an adolescent. Without fully understanding, she is exposed to societal attitudes towards female crime victims and women in general, which only makes her own impending collision with womanhood that much more frightening. It’s a great book, and the voice actor does a great job as well. I highly recommend.

Interesting

I like this author - newly discovered. Net positive listening experience and the narrator is amazing! The little girl voice is so spot on.
I do have a particular gripe: the author clearly doesn’t know much about “junkies”, as she’s happy to refer to addicts in every book of her’s I’ve read so far, and as someone who’s worked in the field of addiction and recovery I find the stereotypes and degrading language kind of tiresome. I’m not someone who gets hung up on labels and political correctness but it’s funny when you see people brazenly throwing derogatory language around, targeting human beings who have an uphill battle to fight (eg heroin addicts), it just seems kind of cheap.
Disappointing maybe. Anyway other than that, great stuff!