Spoken Bones cover art

Spoken Bones

A DI Fenella Sallow Crime Thriller, Book 1

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Spoken Bones

By: N.C. Lewis
Narrated by: Deborah Balm
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About this listen

This dark secret could finally break her…

Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. When the body of a retired artist is discovered atop the blackened embers of the town bonfire, the community is rocked to the core.

It falls to DI Fenella Sallow and her team to find out how she came to be there. In her 50s, the veteran detective inspector thought she had seen it all. But behind the curtained windows and closed doors of the idyllic Cumbria coastal setting lurks pure evil.

Fenella must confront her dark past. Haunted by the unsolved case of a missing girl, she knows it is a race against time. Can she stop this death from slipping through her fingers, too?

Before long, it becomes disturbingly clear that the killer is playing a twisted game and will do anything to conceal the terrible truth of what happened on the beach on Bonfire Night.

Set against the backdrop of beautiful coastal Cumbria, an ancient land of legend, folklore, and myth, Spoken Bones is the first book in the Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow series.

This pause-resisting crime thriller will keep you hooked until the very end. If you like police procedurals with psychologically complex characters and shocking twists, then you’ll love Spoken Bones.

Perfect for fans of L.J. Ross, J.D. Kirk, Simon McCleave, Stuart MacBride, Matt Brolly, Angela Marsons, Alex Smith, J.M. Dalgliesh, J.E. Mayhew, David J. Gatward, T.G. Reid, Jack Gatland, Robert F. Barker, and J.R. Ellis.

©2021 N.C. Lewis (P)2025 N.C. Lewis
Crime Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Thriller Exciting

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All stars
Most relevant
Ive seen other terrific reviews but I found this book a struggle. For a huge part it’s just character after character but I didn’t feel drawn into their lives. By the time the only twist does happen, I had lost all interest and just wanted to finish it. I wouldn’t recommend this book, sorry

A struggle

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Whilst I can see that this may be a good detective series, I’m afraid I won’t be listening to another one as I found the narration style quite irritating. I found the different accents of the characters to be quite weak. There was one character in the book who was supposed to have a Glaswegian accent, but it was spoken with an Irish accent. I found the whole tone to be very monotonous. to my mind almost every character in the book sounded bored.

Narration annoyed me

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I wish I had read the reviews before wasting a credit on this reading.
A more skilled narrator would have made this a much better story. It was hard to differentiate between the characters and the accents were dreadful.
Finished it two days ago and now can’t even remember who dun it!

Poor narration

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Read very slowly had to speed it up a bit. However loved the accent of the reader.

Clever twist

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loved the characters and the intriguing plot with a twist at each turn. I didn't guess who'd done it but it hung together really well

a surprise around each turn

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