Title: The Dead
Author: Howard Linskey
Genre: Crime
Source: Library (audiobook)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

David Blake is a Newcastle gangster with a lot on his plate. He’s been accused of murdering a policeman’s daughter; his accountant has been arrested for murder and is refusing to give him the codes for his bank account; Serbian gangsters are trying to take over his Glasgow operation; and a Russian Oligarch wants to use his drug supply line to launch a terrorist attack. It’s all too much. For him and for me.

To say I struggled with this book is an understatement. It started off well and I was initially drawn in but before I knew it there was one plot too many for me to follow. I couldn’t remember who was who, what they were doing or why. And the narration, which I’d quite liked at the beginning because it was a Geordie accent so fit perfectly, started to grate. It was a bit too monotone for me.

The fact that the story is told in the first person didn’t help things either. It felt like nearly every sentence started with “I” and I quickly got bored with what David thought and said. It made all the other characters feel flat as everything was seen through his eyes.

Needless to say, all the plot lines finally converge and there is a cunning plan to resolve everything nicely, leaving David free to fight another day…which I’m assuming he will as this is the third in a series. I haven’t read the others and, unfortunately, I don’t think I will.

About the audiobook

Narrator: David Nellist
Release Date: 1st October, 2014
Duration: 9 hrs 36 secs