4.25⭐️

Boyle and Keneally #1

🎧audiobook version the narrators soft Irish lilt is easy on the ears. The narrator does a decent job with the male voices, my least fav voice is the main characters. I think the narrator adds interest to the story, I think my score might be a little lower for the print version.

A new author to me. The novel is
set in a small town in Ireland.
Jessie Boyle is an applied social psychologist and criminal behavioural analyst ( profiler) who previously worked for the Met but resigned after a brutal case. She returns to Ireland where she is pulled into a high profile case by an old friend.
The daughter of Ireland’s ex prime minister has been kidnapped and the police are taunted by the killer they have til Samhain (Halloween) to save her. A new team is formed with Detective Seamus Keneally and Terri Keogh who is a genealogist. Historical and folklore themes are explored. I like the team dynamics, the characters are likeable. I especially like the timid Terri, her back story is so sad.

Ireland’s only serial killer claims to have information which connects this case to historical cases, but he only wants to communicate with Jessie.

There’s always lots going on, so it keeps a good level of interest and pace. We learn of Jessie’s back story and her long standing friendship with Dawn the Commissioner of the Irish police. I guessed who the killer was, but it didn’t spoil the book for me.

The continual use of …..said to denote who the owner of the dialogue, is annoying especially on the audio version, and old school.

I loved this book.
We are given a snippet of book 2 which I’m really looking forward to.

"You're the one lways telling me to shut up." -From Dancing with the Dead

3 stars

This thriller does a fantastic job of laying out the setting. Descriptive writing with a wide range of characters help tell several storylines. Each chapter starts with quote from a real killer, throwing you out of the story a little despite it being interesting. My biggest problem was with the dialogue. It had a lot of forced humor that usually fell flat, and made it seem almost juvenile. I wish there were a bigger focus on Jessie, I thought they were the strongest and most interesting character. It is fast paced, with a bit of Irish mythology woven into the tale which makes it a quick read.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This new to me author wrote a brilliantly complex, engrossing mystery thriller. And the choice of using Shelley Atkinson for the narrator was a perfect fit. She brought another layer to this that had me feeling like I was there with them. I just didn’t want to stop listening until the end. I needed everyone to leave me alone with this great story. She created realistic, well-developed characters and wrote with incredible details. The way the events unfolded kept me on the edge of my seat and I’m very excited about this series.
I highly recommend this audiobook if you love true crime. I would love to see this made into a movie. It was good and you need to read it.
Thanks Bookouture via Netgalley.

Thank you Bookouture Audio for this amazing audio book!

Dancing with the Dead with such a fabulous book!
Dunphy knows how to hook the reader and keep them turning the pages.
The story itself was intriguing and fast paced.
I really enjoyed these characters Detective Seamus Keneally and criminal behaviourist Jessie Boyle.....
How these two worked together. Their characters were great.
The writing is fantastic. S.A. has a new fan here!
Looking forward for book two!

Thanks again for the opportunity to read this great start to a new series!