A gripping tale of wrongdoing, revenge & nastiness

This is the fourth in Ms Gardiner's series featuring Jo Beckett, and, as with the other three, this is a gripping tale of wrongdoing and nastiness. There was a plot glitch (to my mind) mid way through when someone turns up somewhere they just don't have time to get to that pulled me out of the story, and given that most of the main storyline takes place at night in the wilderness, people seem to find each other with great ease, but other than those minor gripes, the plot runs tightly to an exciting finale. I groaned when the neighbour and his monkey who've been in every book so far reappeared, although he's no longer the slightly comic turn as he was initially, and there wasn't enough of the fine Amy Tan this time!
There's a touch too much casual death - there was one in particular that bothered me. I felt it needn't have happened - the victim could have been dealt with another way, and the final body count is quite high.
This is well read by the same narrator as the previous three, and she's settled into her characters well, even if she does tend to "do" men a touch gruffly. There's a conversation early on between Jo and the reporter Evan when I had no idea who was talking, or if one was mean to be a man. However, as I've found with the other books, my ear settled in and I stopped having any problems. It's possible that if I'd been reading that particular bit I'd have been going back to count the A said, B said, A said... to keep track.
So, worth the listen, well read, and a series I keep going with.

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