Serious Crimes
Strike a Match, Book 1
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
Serious Crimes
Buy Now for £14.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Fiona Hardingham
-
By:
-
Frank Tayell
About this listen
Even after the apocalypse, crimes must be solved.
In 2019, the AIs went to war. It lasted three days, until the electromagnetic pulse from hundreds of nuclear bombs destroyed the infected circuits. Billions of people succumbed to radiation, starvation, and disease. But millions survived, and they rebuilt.
Twenty years later, a ceremony is being held to mark the first transatlantic broadcast since the Blackout. The Prime Minister of Britain and two of the Presidents of the United States will speak to an audience of nearly 10 million people. Not all are celebrating. Crime is on the rise, and power is once again a prize worth murdering for.
Ruth Deering, a new graduate from the police academy, doesn't care about ancient history or current affairs. She only joined the force to escape the smog-infested city. Those hopes are dashed when she is assigned to the Serious Crimes Unit, commanded by the disgraced Sergeant Mitchell. Her first case seems like a simple murder, but the investigation uncovers a counterfeiting ring and a conspiracy that threatens to destroy their fragile democracy.
Strike a Match is a transatlantic thriller set in a world of rationing and ruins, democracy and despotism, steam trains and smart phones. This is not the story of how the apocalypse is survived, but of what happens next.
©2016 Frank Tayell (P)2017 Frank TayellListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Serious Crimes
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- ronnie
- 27-01-20
good wee read, excellent concept
what a great concept it appears to be a very popular genre at the moment. I the lights went off could we survive, how do we police the country murder is still murder but we now have no way to test blood, or DNA.
Experienced cops are worth their weight in doughnuts
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- deafmick
- 16-12-20
Wow
I am a big fan of Frank tayell audio books got to give it 5 out of 5
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anselm
- 06-04-22
Not a bad story, but a bad telling
This book was OK. It had a plot that carried me through to the end, and a compelling detective story was in there. The writing was a little ropey at times but no worse than expected for a turn-the-handle indie author series. It did, however, have three big problems that stopped it from getting a better rating.
1) Told from the wrong point of view
This story is absolutely Mitchell's story. He's the most proactive character. So why is Ruth the POV protagonist? On several occassions, we follow Ruth into some minor encounter only to rejoin with Mitchell and find that the most interesting and significant scene has played out with him and we didn't get to see it. More than once throughout the book I found myself trying to remember when the last time was that Ruth even said something. (Which makes it especially galling when Mitchell shuts her up in Chapter 12 for supposedly asking too many questions.)
I tried to consider if the author was going for a Sherlock Holmes/Watson type thing, but that didn't really work either. For one thing, Mitchell is definitely not the eccentric, solitary figure that necessitated Conan-Doyle shifting POVs to Watson; if anything, Mitchell's a pretty simplistic figure. For another thing, Ruth is not even the Watson of the story: that would be Riley.
2) Infodumpy Worldbuilding
I liked the setting of the book, and I especially enjoyed reading about a post-apocalyptic versions of places in England I know quite well myself. But the delivery of the worldbuilding was very clunky and unnatural, and often came in the form of Mitchell waxing lyrical about the past in ways that go way beyond answering whatever question started him off. Other minor characters do the same thing from time to time, and sound bizarrely like Mitchell when they do.
It also didn't help that the years immediately following the apocalypse of this series sound like they were vastly more exciting and interesting than the events of the actual story.
3) Dumb dialogue
So many times, characters say things which seem out of place or are just nonsense.
"She has a six-year-old son. I can imagine she doesn't get much sleep." A six-year-old is not a newborn, and there's no reason to suppose he isn't in a pretty regular sleeping pattern.
"Growing up, there hadn't been much money, so Ruth had never really thought about it much." This doesn't feel right at all, it tends to be the case that people who don't have much money need to think about it more, not less!
"You can tell a lot about the people who live in a house by their front garden." Really?
"I was his supervisor. I made sure he had everything he needed: water, tea, pens, paper, what have you. If I could understand half the things he was doing, then I'd have a room like this of my own." Wait...what do you think a supervisor is?
"And you're his brother?"
"His adoptive brother. We sort of adopted each other in the early days."
OK so not his brother at all then.
Overall there just wasn't enough finesse to the writing or the story to inspire me to continue with any more books by this author.
At least the narrator does a great job.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!