The Gathering Murders: Dead Men Tell No Tales...

Inspector Torquil McKinnon Series, Book 1

De: Keith Moray

Narrado por: David McCallion

The Scottish Hebrides

The annual West Uist literary festival - The Gathering - always attracts the best in the business. But with the tiny island population suddenly doubling, the local police force is stretched to breaking point. And this year they have to deal with more than just drunken fights and rowdy behavior....

Ranald Buchanan, the local poet, is found dead, with his head brutally caved in, and Inspector Torquil McKinnon is brought in to investigate. Did Ranald trip and fall, as suggested? Or is something more sinister happening?

Before Torquil can find out more, another victim is found. The island is on lockdown. There is a serial killer in their midst. And this time the victim is someone very close to him.

Now finding justice is personal. Torquil is out for revenge. Can he solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? Or will more bodies fall victim to The Gathering Murders?

©2018 Keith Moray (P)2018 Tantor

The setting and the dialog

The narrator didn’t have a wide range of voices to offer so at times it was hard to tell who was speaking, but the Scottish accents and the Gaelic sprinkled in helped make up for it. Plenty happening in this story and the plot was convoluted enough that the answers weren’t obvious until the end.

will be gathering dust

Too many poorly developed characters thrown into a too fast spinning plot. Love the narrator, though.

Love the entire book

The location was exotic, the people a nd accents pulled you into the story. As the first in a series , it was a great introduction. And I don't think you could have found a better narrator. On to the next book in the series!

Boring

Difficult to follow and flat characters. The dialects were proper but hard to understand for anyone not from Scotland., as were the references. I stopped in the 4th chapter. It was too much work following the story.

A for effort.

I had a great time listening to this. The characters were awesome. The end was forced but satisfactory in an over-the-top, silly, B-movie way. If the author was so intent on tying up every single loose ends they could have done themselves and their audience a favour by just having fewer loose ends. That said, I wasn’t expecting a literary masterpiece and I wouldn’t hesitate spending the time to listen to another book by this writer.

Haven’t quite decided...

I liked that while I knew the culprit I was looking for in one way, I didn’t know who that actually was at the time frame of the story. I also really enjoyed many of the characters.

But, some of the connections of characters to one another were a bit contrived.

Also, the more we learned about the lead character’s love interest, the more horrible she sounded. Somehow we were supposed to like her anyway and not think less of the lead for not seeing her as the user she was.

May continue with the series. Haven’t quite decided.

Too Short!

Too long. for the author to get to the heart of the story!
And then the book was just too short! I didn't feel like I got my money's worth. Very disappointing book.

Good story hampered by poor audio editing

This was an intriguing story with interesting characters.

However, whoever edited the audiobook did a poor job, leaving in long pauses between groups of words that made sentences drag on and on. Speeding up the narration only made it worse because the narrator speaks in a high tenor tone.

I’ll continue this series by reading the books.

This story needs a makeover

As one reviewer said undeveloped characters and the main character is so uninteresting, wimpy and foolish. if the writer was trying to portray sensitivity he failed. The narrator had a fabulous accent but spoke so slowly and the story was lost in all the annoying bits. Thanks goodness one can speed up the book.

Interesting approach to an island life mystery

I don't care to repeat plots that are revealed in reviews. This is a G rated series, you can listen to it in the car with family present. Island life fascinates me, this series is not in the class of Ann Cleeves,. but there is room for growth and the characters are refreshing. I am listening to the second book and enjoying it. It took me a few chapters to get used to David McCallion's Scottish accent, he is very good once you get the hang of it.