Return to Evil

A DCI Harry McNeil Crime Thriller, Book 1

By: John Carson

Narrated by: Angus King

A woman is found in a local cemetery, crushed to death under a gravestone. A production company is there, filming the remake of a classic sci-fi TV show on the grounds, making the investigation more difficult for DCI Harry McNeil.

It's his first day in charge of the cold case unit in Edinburgh. After spending four years in Professional Standards, he has little choice but to take the promotion. The Crown Office decides which cold cases should be reviewed, and this time, they've decided the murder of a teenage girl from 20 years ago should be reopened. A girl who was murdered by somebody pushing a gravestone on top of her....

The case gets more complicated when they find out who the latest victim is. Suddenly there are no shortage of suspects. As the filming continues, so does the killing. And McNeil wonders, has a killer been murdering for 20 years? Or is this case completely unconnected? With Frank Miller's help, he's going to find out...the hard way....

©2019 John Carson (P)2022 John Carson

The saga begins

I am drawn in by the banter between Harry and Alex. Angus King has to be the best narrator ever. I am hooked. I just keep rereading book one waiting for the release of the next book. I am waiting for book 17 to be released.

Wrapped up too quickly but great short one

Should have been a couple more hours to develop more at the end but was a good short story

I am willing to give this series a second look

I just hope Harry turns out to be a more stand-up guy than he seems here. The pluses are Scottish location and Angus King, even though the voices for the women were almost identical. Early days I guess.

Angus King

I bought this on a recent sale because I love Angus King and am addicted to the JD Kirk series and hoped this might be a nice listen while I await his next release. Its not in the same league, however.

This story is the first in a series so a lot of ground work must be laid down. However, so many characters are in this story that I frequently needed to re listen to sections to be clear who was whom...Cold Case detectives, Current case detectives, movie artists. It was confusing at times. Adding rank, first names, last names and my head was spinning. There is potential here, but Ill need it in the Plus catalog to try book 2.

Chosen because of the reader

Love Angus King’s narration so I searched for books with his voice. He gets top marks and the author has great potential but seemed to suddenly wrap up the end with characters who just spilled the beans with very little prompting. Needed a bit more development there.

Excellent narration of a good story

A great start to a new series for me. Just too short.

As usual, Angus King’s reading of the story is brilliant!

Excellent read

I cannot wait for book 2 .Excellent crime story suprise ending .Angus King always delivers

Too short

Just when I was finally figuring out who all the characters were, it ended super abruptly. It almost felt like the author ran out of storyline. Disappointing.

Loved this book

I will be looking for more in the series. Alex was one of my favorite characters can’t wait for more character development

Way too many characters

I had a hard time keeping up with the different characters. There were so many (and one of them had a fake name for crying out loud). Of course being new to the series I had to keep up with all the detectives which was quite a feat in its own but seriously. There was too much to this story and it ping-ponged all over. I couldn’t keep up and I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks. Love the narrator as always.