Detective Sebastian Clifford, Books 1-3

A Midlands Crime Thriller Series

By: Sally Rigby

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 22 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The first three crime thrillers in the Detective Sebastian Clifford series together in a single collection for the first time.

Web of Lies, Book 1

A trail of secrets. A dangerous discovery. A deadly turn.

Police officer Sebastian Clifford never planned on becoming a private investigator. But when a scandal leads to the disbandment of his London-based special squad, he finds himself out of a job. That is until his cousin calls on him to investigate her husband's high-profile death and prove that it wasn't a suicide.

Clifford's reluctant to get involved, but the more he digs, the more evidence he finds. With his ability to remember everything he's ever seen, he's the perfect person to untangle the layers of deceit.

He meets Detective Constable Bird, an underutilized detective at Market Harborough's police force, who refuses to give him access to the records he's requested unless he allows her to help with the investigation. Clifford isn't thrilled. The last time he worked as part of a team it ended his career. But with time running out, Clifford is out of options. Together they must wade through the web of lies in the hope that they'll find the truth before it kills them.

Speak No Evil, Book 2

What happens when someone's too scared to speak?

Ex-police officer Sebastian Clifford had decided to limit his work as a private investigator, until Detective Constable Bird, aka Birdie, asks for his help.

Twelve months ago a young girl was abandoned on the streets of Market Harborough in shocking circumstances. Since then the child has barely spoken. With the police unable to trace her identity, they've given up. The social services team in charge of the case worries that the child has an intellectual disability, but Birdie and her aunt—who's fostering the little girl—disagree. They believe she's gifted and intelligent, but something bad happened and she's living in constant fear.

Clifford trusts Birdie's instinct, and together they work to find out who the girl is so she can be freed from the past. But as secrets are uncovered, the pair realize it's not just the child who's in danger...

Never Too Late, Book 3

A vicious attack. A dirty secret... and a chance for justice.

Ex-police officer Sebastian Clifford is quickly finding that life as a private investigator is never quiet. His doors have only been open a few weeks when DCI Whitney Walker approaches him to investigate the brutal attack that left her older brother, Rob, with irreversible brain damage.

For nearly twenty-five years, Rob had no memory of that night, but lately, things are coming back to him. Whitney's worried that her brother might–once again–be in danger.

Clifford knows only too well what it's like to be haunted by the past, so he agrees to help. But the deeper he digs, the more secrets he uncovers, and soon he discovers that Rob's not the only one in danger.

©2023 Sally Rigby (P)2023 Podium Audio

Love the Characters

Enjoyed the three stories! The narrator does a really good job distinguishing the characters with his voice! The main characters are great, down to earth and funny! Good read!

Wrong Title

Although Sebastian Clifford is a main and important protagonist, "Birdie" Lucinda Bird is equally as important as someone who drives the stories forward.
Rigby manages to combine the contemporary issues--sexism in public service, trafficking young women, failures of persons in high profile life, family secrets revealed--in well-constructed detective stories, which are brought to life by the narrator, Jonathan Keeble.
In fact, at the end of "Never Too Late" there is a teaser, which makes one want to read the next book asap!
This was a thoroughly enjoyable volume, in a too-short (six books) series.

Great Characters

The series ended on a cliff hanger. would like to hear the next case .

new team of characters to love

how characters compliment each other to the benefit of adding more interest to plot. How interact is a story in itself plus I'm a pet lover and Elsa brings things together

Good beginnings

Good and fun characters, stories get better with each installment.
Narrator is really good overall; gets a bit weak in the female voices, makes them seem weak at times.
Overall like the series so far.

Great audio performance. Looking forward to hearing more in this series

The stories held my attention, and the various character’s support by the actor was terrific.

Real life stories never investigated

As an avid mystery book reader Detective Sebastian Clifford was a change from the usual who done it. Interesting characters, stories and process in current world context.

Surprised

I as a mentioned was very surprised the stories were well put together and very enjoyable. Will look forward to listening to more stories by Tunis author. I found the narrator was also excellent.

Fun and easy

Loved it. I found it entertaining and enjoyable. The characters meshed and played well together.

Great character dynamic

I enjoyed the characters immensely. The dynamic between Birdy and Seb was really fun. I liked having three books in one. Because the individual books are so short, I’m not sure that it’s worth a credit, so I would love it if they could combine even two books together to make it more worthwhile. My minimum is 10 hours per credit: I’ll occasionally do 9+ hours but never 6.
The storylines in each book were engaging and had good mystery elements to them. I like Seb’s body language analysis- it helps reader see what makes him a good detective.