The Cruelest Cut

Jack Murphy Thriller Series, Book 1

By: Rick Reed

Narrated by: Eric Martin

The first victim is attacked in her home. Tied to her bed. Forced to watch every unspeakable act of cruelty - but unable to scream. The second murder is even more twisted. Signed, sealed, and delivered with a message for the police, stuffed in the victim's throat. A fractured nursery rhyme that ends with a warning: "There will be more". For detective Jack Murphy, it's more than a threat. It's a personal invitation to play. And no one plays rougher than Jack. Especially when the killer's pawns are the people he loves.

©2011 Rick Reed (P)2017 Tantor

Doesn’t come close...

After listening to all of John Sanford‘s Prey series and JD Robb’s In Death series, Rick Reed doesn’t come close! The first half of the book is full of jumbled murder scenes and Jack Murphy finally wins in the end… Of course!

A Story Worthy of.....

This story is definitely worthy of being categorized as a "thriller". It is suspenseful and rather graphic in its description of murder, blood, and gore. It also has a rather intriguing psychological thriller aspect and an interesting twist regarding one of the characters.
It's one of the best discoveries in the psychological thriller genres I've found in the Audible Plus Catalog so far. The narrator performs with excellence and I thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters from beginning to end. I think this has to be my newest favorite series.

My only disappointment is that books #1 and #2 are the only books in the Jack Murphy series that have been formatted to audiobooks or rather the only books that Audible has to offer in the series at this time. I really hope Audible can offer the remaining books in the series soon because I would certainly be interested in listening to all of them.

To sum up my review... IMHO, it was a gem of a discovery and rates 5-Stars all the way!

Twisty plot and real people!

The characters make you want to cheer or smack them. The level of ego is often what separates true leadership from assholes in power. A true leader always places others before him or herself. Great story. Disturbing villian and interesting use of nursery rhymes.

great book!!

loved this book. I'm from Evansville and made it feel so real. great book for people from Evansville

excellent!

great story, great flow. narrator awesome! suspenseful, strong characters. couldn't put it down. 5 stars!

Excellent excellent excellent

I didn’t want it to end. Loved the story and the narration was fantastic, by Eric Martin. Ya gotta listen

Great crime thriller

I loved this story but be fair warned. This book is violent and could be triggering to some. The narrator did a good job but I wish his voices were different...all the characters sounded the same.

How bad the story is

Nothing to like about story.wasted 10 hrs of my life. Characters are abysmal. Humor is poorly created and didn’t fit in with story . I won’t read another book by this author.

Predictable

The plot follows the predictable line. The police department is struggling with strive at the top level. Of course, a serial killer makes the town his play area. Machinations in the police department began to use lack of progress in solving that case as a mean to demote the chief and fired the top detective.

After the brief victory of the deputy chief, (called Double Dick) and mayor, their conspiracy begins to unravel and the killings escalates.

There is the unscrupulous new reporter that will do anything, including sexual congress, to get a story and unfortunately becomes part of the story.

Our hero, Jack, who is traumatized by a recent raid and divorce, is the typical hot head who insults everyone but gets the job done. He has the affable partner who smooths his edges and keep them both employed. The two women in Jack’s life are his ex-wife and her friend. The women are friends and everyone is happy… or are they?

Eddie and Bobby are our diabolical killers, they were abused as children, and leaves nursery rhymes as clues. Their killings are savage, manic and for the most part well planned. For the savvy mystery reader, the relationship with the brothers is obvious if you notice the author’s usage of certain pronouns.

The police procedures are poorly executed. One of the first things a team does is to look at paroles to find someone who would have a grudge against Jack. The give that 5 minutes of talk but never do it.

The databases are not connected with other agencies so finger prints and DAN samples could not be matched. The listeners endure hours of listening time while the team is lamenting about the lack of progress and clues.

While there are all these inconsistencies it was an enjoyable read. Jack Murphy is the typical male detective; handsome, a disregard for authority, can get jobs done with his unorthodox methods, has the forever best partner; who understands him best, women to love but never in love, or the women he loves is unavailable, there will always be a gruesome murder that enrages him and sets him off Helter Skelter. The Jack Murphy's stories are too predictable for my credits.

Stupid

The plot is way too complicated for the villains portrayed. They could accomplish their intent soooooooo much easier, and they're just not smart enough to work the way the story says they do.

Bit of a good ol' boy storyline too. Women are basically decoration or a way for the tough guy hero to show how good hearted he is... blah blah blah.

Gave up at 2.5 hours