The Innocent and the Dead

DI Jack Knox, Book 1

By: Robert McNeill

Narrated by: David Monteath

One woman found dead. Another kidnapped. Two cases. One overworked Scottish detective. The Innocent and the Dead is the first in the DI Jack Knox series and comes with the prequel story 'Labyrinth'.

DI Jack Knox is called in to investigate a high-profile case. A local distiller’s daughter has gone missing, and when he receives a ransom note, his fears that it is a kidnapping are confirmed. Knox decides to take a serious risk to capture the abductors, but the stakes could not be higher. The father is wealthy and well-connected. If Knox’s gamble goes wrong, he’ll have hell to pay.

Meanwhile in the prequel story, 'Labyrinth', the body of an attractive young woman is found in woodland on Edinburgh’s iconic Calton Hill. Knox will have to cut through the lies of the people who knew her in order to establish a motive and collar the killer.

©2019 Robert B. McNeill (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd

Bleh!

Very basic. The characters nor the story line are well defined. It's as if it were written by a high-schooler.

The Innocent and the Dead

I loved the quick turn around of the detective work! The narrator was good and easy to understand.

No bad but...

Please, start using words besides "said". I liked the story, but "he said", "she said" in nearly every sentence drove me nuts.

worst dialogue

"Coital glow?" Can any modern authors not ridicule religion? Sounds like the screenwrite of a bad TV show. Forensics are very suspect.

Undeveloped characters

Plot lines ok but a little too tidy. Characters have no depth, but OF COURSE the middle aged lead male character has a girlfriend 20 years younger. What is it with male police procedural writers that their middle aged lead male characters usually have girlfriends 15 to 20 years younger? Argh!