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Title: Only the Dead
Author: Malcolm Hollingdrake
Narrator: Nicholas Camm
Format: Unabridged
Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-05-17
Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks
Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 4 votes
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Modern Detective
Publisher's Summary:
Meet DCI Cyril Bennett, a ladies' man with a passion for efficiency. His partner, DS David Owen, is naïve and untidy but keen. Together they make a formidable pair.
When two dead infants are found at a teacher training college, Bennett and Owen are given the case. At the same time, a killer is on the loose staging attacks using sulphur mustard. Bennett and Owen must work together to bring to justice a killer with revenge on his mind.
Critic Reviews:
"Totally riveting and...thought provoking." (Sarah Nardy, Bytheletterbookreviews)
"Beautifully written, this debut novel is a masterclass in tension. This is a perfect thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat." (Betsy Reavley)
Members Reviews:
A tad confusing
It was confusing at times with all the new characters popping up, and the two disconnected storylines. Hopefully this author will improve with experience.
Only The Dead is refreshingly different
This was my introduction to author Malcolm Hollingdrake and his wonderful police characters. DCI Cyril Bennett and his law-enforcement sidekick David Owen create a fun give-and-take for readers because their personalities are so different.
Only The Dead grabbed me from the beginning. Without spoiling, just know that the predator has his seemingly-justifiable reasons for seeking out specific vicitms, and his method of getting even with them is unlike anything I've previously encountered.
Hollingdrake offers several historical references to World War I, which help explain the present circumstances in the book without slowing down the story. Those references were much appreciated and shows the author did some research before setting fingers to laptop.
I'd highly recommend this book and look forward to reading his other works.
Needs editing
This book could become interesting with some heavy editing. There were some portions, such as the criminal digging up leftover WWII shells, that were novel. However, the book was very difficult to read.
There were commas used in places where I usually do not see them, and commas missing where there should be. There were excessive exclamation marks. Even though it is a book, characters spoke their thoughts out loud rather than keeping them in their head. Some quote marks were missing, and at least once quotes from two people talking were in the same paragraph.
Additional editing could have helped the flow. There are two prime story lines, and the viewpoint jumps between multiple people. One of the story lines is not resolved fully except for the reader. Some continuity issues occur, where a character is in his office piling papers then suddenly turning on the light at home in the same paragraph.
To me, as someone bothered by reading that is harder to decipher, the story got lost in the muddle.
Captivating and thrilling detective
There are the poppies still, a token of remembrance for those who have fallen in the line of duty in WWI on Flandersâ fields. What made the war even more horrible, if possible, was when the trenches were assaulted by an until then unknown and hidden enemy, the vicious mustard gas.
What is the connection with Detective Chief Inspector Cyril Bennett of the Harrogate Police? He struggles with the case on his desk: that of two bodies of young children, buried around the â70âs.
