THE DEVIL'S CLAW: A JENNIFER DOREY MYSTERY by Lara Dearman



Published in 2018 by Blackstone Audio
Read by Fiona Hardingham and Ralph Lister
Duration: 10 hours, 3 minutes
Unabridged

Jennifer Dorey is a reporter on the small island of Guernsey in the English Channel. It is very close to France and, in a lot of ways, it is a unique mixture of cultures. Dorey is not like a lot of people in this little insular island society - she has left the island and been a successful reporter in London, but she has returned to the island to start over due to some horrible, mysterious event.
Everything is going well on Guernsey until a young woman is found drowned. At first it seems like a suicide, but Dorey starts to ask questions and everyone except one police officer who is about to retire thinks that she should just leave well enough alone...

 This is a moody work, much influenced by both the fairly recent and the ancient history of the island. It works in a lot of local landmarks like the "fairy ring" which has the aura of an ancient landmark but is really fairly modern. 

 This is the first book in what is anticipated to be a series so it does a fair amount of "world building", which slows down this first story quite a bit, but it will pay off in future books. Speaking of future books, I will be on the look out for more Jennifer Dorey books. 

 The audiobook was read by two readers. Fiona Hardingham read the chapters that were primarily about female characters, Ralph Lister read the chapters primarily about male characters. It was an interesting choice, but I think it worked quite well. 

 I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Devil's Claw by Lara Dearman. 

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