Murder on Oxford Lane

By: Tony Bassett

Narrated by: Colin Mace

The peace of a Midlands village is upset when local businessman Harry Bowers doesn’t return from choir practice.

More concerned than the man’s own wife, it would seem, investigating officer Detective Sergeant Sunita Roy becomes convinced he has been done away with.

But there is no trace of the man, just a litany of evidence of an ailing marriage and a nose-diving business venture.

In charge of her first serious case, DS Roy will struggle to win the respect of her colleagues—in particular her Brummie boss, DCI Gavin Roscoe. All that whilst fighting off the intentions of an increasingly desperate suitor.

Who had it in for the budding chorister? And is Roy tough enough to break down the defences and prejudices of Middle England?

©2022 Tony Bassett (P)2022 W F Howes

Very impressive characters

So glad I found this book! Really enjoyed the plot and all of the various characters and their development. The narration was perfect.!

A really intriguing story

The narrator did an amazing job with this, and the author did just as well. I couldn't figure out who was guilty and kept suspecting everyone lol Very well written.

Engrossing story

The team solving the murder is one I look forward to getting to know better, and the narrator made them come alive. Starting the second book now.

Murder on Oxford Lane

I honestly enjoyed this book. The Characters were clearly developed and had such realistic attributes therefore easy to believe
Highly recommend this listen/read.

Enjoyed it!

Very well written, interesting plot with twists and turns, interesting and likable characters, and I also really enjoyed the narrator! Thoroughly enjoyed his style of narration, with his pleasant voice.

Depends on future stories

Solid story and the audiobook narration was quite good. This seemed like a good start to a series. It was good enough that I would listen to additional books in the series, but am not sure the story is distinctive as a standalone. I got to know some characters and am now wondering what’s to come. It’s not a cozy but cozy fans could enjoy it; it’s not totally a procedural but some fans of those would enjoy it.

The only part of the story about which I have mixed feelings is the stalking of one of the characters, Sunita. (I listened to the story so am not sure that’s the correct spelling.) I believe including this in the storyline helped the author establish that Sunita is a tough woman who can fight off an attacker (sets things up for future stories) but at the same time is quite compassionate. Fair enough.

The stalking scenario, in which the stalker is someone she had briefly dated, is entirely plausible. What bothered me was Sunita’s tendency to want to dismiss the stalking (showing up unannounced, breaking into the home, etc), when the character was clearly disturbed. Her reaction of being slow to “get” how nuts and dangerous he was also was plausible—except that she’s supposed to be this really smart police officer.

More than anything, though, she had a roommate, and the roommate seemed more concerned than Sunita. What if he hurt or even killed the roommate because she came across him, or perhaps the people he’d hired mistook her roommate for Sunita?

As things unfolded, it turned out that the stalker is married. At one point Sunita proposed going and talking to the wife. Again, it’s plausible that some people might want to do this (lots of people have bad judgement) but not a supposedly smart insightful police officer. This made it harder for me to buy into her character.

Near the end, Sunita wants to raise money for the wife once he’s jailed. It’s nice that she recognizes that the wife is a victim as well—but what about the roommate? She could have been killed, and at the very least she was distraught over this wacko coming to their home, breaking in, etc. Nowhere in the story does Sunita apologize for not taking the roommate’s concerns sufficiently seriously.

Excellent Characters and Plot

Good police procedural set in the heart of England. Sympathetic back stories for heroine and her boss, newbie with a stalker and experienced senior detective family man. Evokes sweet and tough aspects of semi-rural British contemporary life in an endearing and enduring country town near Birmingham. I confess I have a weakness for British/Indian young detectives. The who done it was classic. Very well done voice-acting as well.

Solid police procedural

The chief protagonists were given enough backstory in this start to a series to make them interesting, but not so much as to overwhelm the main plot.

I’ll be interested to see how this series progresses.

Although the narration was generally good, Roscoe sounded very much like he just flew in from Australia at many points.

Two less satisfactory points are (stop here as they are potential plot spoilers):
1. Sunita‘s nearly angelic sympathy for a very bad actor.
2. The other was the failure to charge an assailant who, in fact, contributed to a murder.

Good intro to this mystery writer

First listen to this author’s work. Interesting plot, and included characters about whom I want to learn more. Thus I look forward to more in the series. Good narration, with the exception that he would occasionally speed up suddenly. This happened several times during the book, causing me to have to back up and re-listen. But very pleasant voice. Characters did not get mixed up with one another. Recommend, and will look for more by this author.

Pleasant narrator but mediocre story

Murderer just revealed at the very end - no way for readers to determine who it was by following clues throughout-?- as there were no clues !! Will not listen to other books by this author!