The Gathering Murders

Dead men tell no tales …

By: Keith Moray

Narrated by: David McCallion

The Scottish Hebrides

The annual West Uist literary festival - The Gathering - always attracts the best in the business. But with the tiny island population suddenly doubling, the local police force is stretched to breaking point. And this year they have to deal with more than just drunken fights and rowdy behavior....

Ranald Buchanan, the local poet, is found dead, with his head brutally caved in, and Inspector Torquil McKinnon is brought in to investigate. Did Ranald trip and fall, as suggested? Or is something more sinister happening?

Before Torquil can find out more, another victim is found. The island is on lockdown. There is a serial killer in their midst. And this time the victim is someone very close to him.

Now finding justice is personal. Torquil is out for revenge. Can he solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? Or will more bodies fall victim to The Gathering Murders?

©2018 Keith Moray (P)2018 Tantor

The setting and the dialog

The narrator didn’t have a wide range of voices to offer so at times it was hard to tell who was speaking, but the Scottish accents and the Gaelic sprinkled in helped make up for it. Plenty happening in this story and the plot was convoluted enough that the answers weren’t obvious until the end.

will be gathering dust

Too many poorly developed characters thrown into a too fast spinning plot. Love the narrator, though.

Boring

Difficult to follow and flat characters. The dialects were proper but hard to understand for anyone not from Scotland., as were the references. I stopped in the 4th chapter. It was too much work following the story.

Love the entire book

The location was exotic, the people a nd accents pulled you into the story. As the first in a series , it was a great introduction. And I don't think you could have found a better narrator. On to the next book in the series!

A for effort.

I had a great time listening to this. The characters were awesome. The end was forced but satisfactory in an over-the-top, silly, B-movie way. If the author was so intent on tying up every single loose ends they could have done themselves and their audience a favour by just having fewer loose ends. That said, I wasn’t expecting a literary masterpiece and I wouldn’t hesitate spending the time to listen to another book by this writer.