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Spilled Blood

Inspector Drake Mysteries Box Set, Book 1-3

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Spilled Blood

By: Stephen Puleston
Narrated by: Richard Elfyn
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About this listen

Every murder has a motive, every killer leaves a trace. Thankfully Detective Inspector Ian Drake is on the case.

Spilled Blood: The first three mysteries in the Ian Drake series in one great value box set.

Songs for the Dead: Ian Drake barely manages to keep his OCD under control. So after two fellow police officers are brutally murdered on an isolated mountain route, the pressure to solve the case threatens to make him crack. Drake is taunted by the killer with lyrics from famous songs and his head pounds at the thought of more victims marching to their doom. Can he catch the sociopathic felon before he loses his sanity… or his life?

Worse than Dead: When a ferry arrives in port Detective Drake knows a killer is on board. Unable to trace the killer after the ship berths he fears the worse. Tension mounts when two more members of the crew are killed. And links to a well-known criminal family make the inquiry even more demanding. Can he catch the killer and avert more deaths?

Against the Tide: A fisherman lies dead. A beautiful girl is strangled. Can Detective Drake uncover the secrets that connect them? He struggles with a wall of silence from the rural community. Drake believes there are powerful forces at work. Can he expose the truth and catch the killer… or killers?

Spilled Blood: Inspector Drake Series Books 1-3 of contains the first three books in this dynamic series. If you like engaging mysteries full of twists and turn and believable characters, then you’ll love Stephen Puleston’s unputdownable box set.

©2012, 2013, 2014 Puleston Publishing Limited (P)2018 Puleston Publishing Limited Crime Fiction Mystery Private Investigators Crime Emotionally Gripping Exciting Detective

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If you like police procedurals then this is the box set for you. You get three books that follow on from each other but everything gets nicely wrapped in each book, so you can read straight through or have a break between each, either choice works. The cases are very different from each other but follows Ian Drake and his team as he tries to solve the cases before the next murder. Drake is an unusual characters and has a few quirks, think along the lines of the tv show Monk, that take some getting use to. The stories mostly focus on the murder investigations but you do also get some home life drama from the investigating team members. Each book contains a lot of suspects and has a lot going on. It was unusual to be set in Wales and there was some Welsh words and places mentioned but not enough to confuse any non speaking Welsh people, like me.

Songs for the Dead book one
I think this was my favourite out of the three books. I had worked out who the killer was but with the killer taunting the police with song lyrics it was an unusual case. I wasn't sure if the stories were going to be for me because the first murders were quite violent and gory but I soon got swept up in the case.
When two police officers are killed while out of patrol Ian Drake and his team are called in to investigate. Sony lyrics are discovered and it up to Drake to work out what the killer is trying to tell them. When another body is discovered with different song lyrics the fear is the killer isn't finished and they might be chasing a serial killer. Can they stop the killer before the next body is discovered.
The method of death is unusual and the only clues they have are the songs but the killer makes it personal and drags Drakes's family in to the case, can Drake crack the case of will it crack him?

Worse than Dead: book two.
I think this was my least favourite only because there was a lot of characters and I struggled to keep them all straight. This book revolved around a drug ring and Drake coming to terms with his father's cancer diagnosis.
In this case Ian Drake and his team will have to find there sea legs when a man is killed on the ferry. A small suspect pool of just the people trapped on the ferry should make it a simple case but it is anything but simple. With pressure from the higher ups to release the ferry Drake and his team hardly have time to take down names, let alone look for clues or a missing laptop. When another person connected to the ferry is killed, the case is blown wide open with the discover of a connection to a flying club and drugs. Can Drake find the killer and he there for his family?

Against the Tide: book three
I was glad we didn't have to go through the death of his father, as I get emotional at the best of times but the drama for Drake isn't over. He also has to deal with historic child abuse too in this book.
When a fisherman is killed Drake and his team get the call. The fisherman had land that developers wanted and it was causing a lot of animosity in the village but when a teenage girl is killed he has to rethink the case and find the connection between them. Was the deaths over the land or something more sinister?

It was the same narrator for all three books. Which was good as he did a good job of providing some interesting voices.
I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Lots of murders to investigate

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