The Body in the Dales

A Yorkshire Murder Mystery, Book 1

By: J. R. Ellis

Narrated by: Michael Page

An unpopular victim. An impossible crime. A murderer on the loose.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Body in Jingling Pot, this edition of The Body in the Dales includes editorial revisions.

A body is discovered deep in a cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales. Leading the investigation into the mysterious death are experienced DCI Jim Oldroyd and his partner DS Carter, a newcomer from London.

The deceased is Dave Atkins, well known throughout the village but not well liked. While there is no shortage of suspects, the details of the crime leave Oldroyd and Carter stumped. How did Atkins’s body end up in such a remote section of the cave? When someone with vital information turns up dead, it becomes clear that whoever is behind the murders will stop at nothing to conceal their tracks.

Oldroyd and his team try to uncover the truth, but every answer unearths a new set of questions. And as secrets and lies are exposed within the close-knit community, the mystery becomes deeper, darker and more complex than the caves below.

©2017, 2018 J. R. Ellis (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

This audiobook is among my favorites.

I really like the main characters, and I love the writing. I especially appreciate all the research that went into this book. I enjoyed Michael Page's performance. I will definitely buy another audiobook by J.R. Ellis.

A fine performance of an intriguing mystery

When the body of a notorious womanizer is found in a pothole in Yorkshire, DCI Jim Oldroyd is called in with his team to investigate, including his new sargeant from London, Carter. The developing relationships between Carter and Oldroyd along with other members of the team were enjoyable to read, and the mystery itself, highlighted by descriptions of caving and the risks involved, was a pleasure to follow. However, I must say that the real joy of this listen rested with the narrator, Michael Page, whose characterizations were fantastic and engaging. Highly recommended.

Crabs your attention

Came across this book while browsing mystery murders. Brilliant and makes the story drags you along like you're there.

Unprofessional behavior?

Great story, well presented. Author did well developing the main characters. The downfall for me was the police officer new to that town, gets quickly into, and out of bed with a coworker and then is pursued by the woman he has been working with every day. No development of the relationships before heading for the bedroom. Tacky!

Terrific

Excellent read & I got a wonderful education in cave exploration. Also insights into human psyche.

loved the dialect

Thoroughly enjoyed the narration, the dialect s, and the historical caving bits. Beginning Book 2 tonight!

Somewhat decent, somewhat uneven, aggravating narrator

Others have synopsized the book so I’ll skip that. When writing about the central mystery, the author did a good job of creating the mystery, including introducing a myriad of potential candidates. The history of the area was very interesting as well, causing me to look up additional history and images of Yorkshire, caves, dales and fells. The author was strong when writing about the area and the people generally. The main con was the narrator. His men all sounded either extremely gruff or with this odd, sniveling whiny voice that was incredibly distracting. His female characters were really, really bad. It was very difficult to push through the narration to the end of the book. At the same time, I did appreciate the work the narrator put in for his performance. But I just found it incredibly grating. The second con was the female characters generally, but more specifically the relationship between Stef and Andy. Their relationship was simply not believable. Apparently knowing a new work colleague for 2-3 days is sufficient to yearn for a relationship and any female who didn’t immediately take to Andy Carter was “frigid” and “cold.” The female characters were more caricatures. They were not well developed and the supposed romance did not ring true. Finally Andy’s phone conversations with an old friend did not add anything to the plot. So the book was good from a factual perspective in terms of providing interesting information about an area, and into this environment the author inserted a somewhat decent mystery albeit with some holes (plot holes and pot holes both-pun intended). If he’s going to attempt to portray women and relationships in the future he’ll need some work in those areas. I would not be interested in reading or listening to another one of these books or this narrator.

Story was good - voice actor was distracting

Hard to focus on the story flow because the narration was distracting
Changing voices for different characters was not consistent and ended up being confusing

Nice plot

Characters were well formed plot was interesting will read 2nd installment in the book series

The actual plot is lost in too much talk.

I read the first book in this series and listened to the second. In both, the actual plot is lost in too much reflective talk . In the audio book the accent is ok, just doesn’t need to get bogged down in a slow gravelly tone. Sounds like the narrator should clear his throat.