The Low Road

The McLaren Mysteries, Book 16

By: Jo A. Hiestand

Narrated by: Callum Hale

Former police detective Michael McLaren arrives in Scotland, ready to immerse himself in the fun of the Highland Games and to enjoy a holiday with Melanie. But the old saying of plans oft going awry rears its ugly head: Simon Shaw, a member of McLaren's folk group, dies. Murdered a year to the day following his uncle's death.

McLaren is determined to find out who killed Simon. Needing justice for his friend is only half of his incentive. He also needs to appease his guilt for suggesting the group sing there in the first place.

As McLaren becomes immersed in the investigation, he wonders if the two deaths are linked, or have to do with the family or their clan. Perhaps Simon's former wife killed him, bent on revenge more powerful than mere divorce. Or was the killing tied to an old hunt for diamonds? After all, diamonds aren't only a girl's best friend. Sometimes they birth greed and murder. And entrap the innocent.

©2022 Jo A Hiestand (P)2023 Jo A Hiestand

You'll want to listen to this one!

Story Impressions –

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend but in the heart of Scotland, they also lead to murder. In the latest McLaren mystery, we get to travel to Scotland in time for the Highland Games. I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. The mystery flows at a great pace with intricate descriptive narration. As the list of suspects grew, I was gripped. The ending wrapped everything up nicely. If you love mysteries, you’ll want to listen to this one.


Narrator’s overall voice –

Callum Hale is one of the best narrators I’ve heard and trust me, I’ve heard plenty. His voice creates the descriptions needed to follow the story.


Does the narrator fit the characters?

Callum uses different dialects for each character which is beneficial while listening. Callum also invokes emotion while reading.


Narrator’s reading style –

Callum’s reading style is the perfect tempo, allowing the listener to be fully immersed in the mystery.


Narrator’s impact on reading experience –

Callum makes this an enjoyable listen. Everything from his pacing to the intonation in his voice to the recreation of the characters to the emotive effect on the listener all combine to make this a great performance.


Narrator’s pacing –

Callum’s pacing is lingering in parts, quick in others, on pace with the natural ebbs and flows of the story.


Audiobook flow –

The flow of the audiobook is right in line with the pace of the story.


What makes this audiobook unique –

A solid performance by Callum. He becomes McLaren and Jamie plus all the other characters.


Would I recommend this audiobook –

Yes. Fans of British mysteries will enjoy this one.


My Rating: 5 stars

Fantastic!!!

Intense, gripping , compelling, , and so much more that I didn't want it to end. . I found the beginning of this very entertaining, , and a good warm up to what's coming. . But, I do have an odd sense of humor. I was mesmerized by this storyline. I was hypnotized by it and the narrator, while it drew me in and held my rapt attention. Each book gets more involved that the last. Finding answers and clues. rescues, it all was so impressive . I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest opinion. The narrator did an excellent job bringing the characters and story to life. His accents had me enthralled . I highly recommend this book.

Bravo!

All of the McLaren novels are deep, complex, historical, magical and now the romance just undid me. I do not know what I expected but first as an author, the story is brilliant. Just breathtaking, intriguing, legendary and it hit upon so many emotional marks! I was either laughing, crying, tight with suspense or awed by the resourcefulness and cohesiveness as the layers of the story built up in suspense. And if there is love - real love, can there be forgiveness as well despite the mists on the moors, ghostly bagpipers and perhaps a mermaid or two? Mystical, Magical, Motive, Murder and does history tell us the same things over and over again? Then I should read and listen to this book once or twice more. Once more to enjoy the words and word-weaving and listen again and again for the excitement, for the hushed confessions, for whispered plans, for jolly highland game comradely, for elderly wisdom and for simple fools who make grand mistakes.

Callum Hale. Again Brilliant. Perfect. His narration, including voices for individual characters enthralled me, as he changed voices between gender, age, even between Scots Brogue and Irish lilt! This amazed me as he stayed true to form throughout the entire work. His pace engaged me immediately. His instincts for tone and inflection was spot on. Many times I felt I was in the cottage with a cup of tea or a scotch participating as a character myself. It was that warm and inviting nature of his voice which carried a reader from the part of a reading enthusiast to feeling as being a part of the story. Sort of a thinning of the veil, eh? In a totally different way than I have experienced before. Bravo to Jo Hieland and Callum Hale. I do not let go of my five stars so easily, but these two creative collaborators earned this!

Outstanding story!

The Low Road is book 16 in the McLaren mysteries series by Jo A Hiestand. Michael McLaren travels to Scotland’s Highland Games with Melanie for a holiday and a gig with his folk group. When one of the group gets murdered, McLaren is angry and blaming himself, but is hell-bent on finding the killer. I enjoy this series and this book revealed a lot of Michael’s background and complex personality. There is a bit of history, mystery, romance, magic and emotion in this wonderful book. The narration by the talented Callum Hale is perfect. He creates unique voices for all the characters that are age and gender appropriate as well as the correct accent and inflections. The performance adds to the enjoyment of the story. I highly recommend this book and series. I received a free audiobook code for my honest review.

Engrossing

This was another engrossing mystery in the McLaren series that had me mesmerized from beginning to end. This time Mike is drawn into feeling obligated to solve the murder of one of his band mates and possibly solve a connection to his friend’s uncle’s death a year earlier. As usual there were some edge of your seat moments as well as some good giggles. Callum Hale is a masterful narrator and always does such an extraordinary job, making it such a pleasure to listen to anything he records. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and look forward to the next book in the series.

like watching a good British mystery on tv...

In this 16th book of the McLaren series, McLaren and his lady friend, Melanie, travel to Scotland for the Highland Games. McLaren’s folk group, Woodstock Town, is going to sing at the Games. Melanie and McLaren are to stay with his family, and before the games are into full swing, McLaren loses someone he cares about very much. Finding what could possibly be behind the killing could endanger everyone.

I’ve tried to give you a simple picture of how many characters might be involved in this narration, the band members, McLaren’s family, McLaren’s “soon to be” significant other, members from the Games, etc. Somehow this narrator, Callum Hale, seems to be able to distinguish them all with only a slight inflection of his voice.

As he began to help me know the characters, I could picture them. That “visual” becomes very important when I listen to an audiobook. I tend to lose my concentration unless I can have a sort of scene drawn in my mind. I have to be entertained. Often, narrators seem to drone on and basically put me to sleep.

This narrator’s ability for distinguishing characters and painting descriptions with his voice seems to create the picture I need. How a single person, a narrator, is able to do this is beyond me. There are no fake voices, no silly sounding characters. Each character has his or her own personality. It’s as if the narrator feels the characters as much as I do. I think there are two contributing factors that make this all happen, a very good narrator reading a very good book.

Slow Book

I've read a couple of other books by this author that I like very much, but this on was very slow. Also the MC is extremely emotional in this Story and seems to not want to deal with this cold case. Narrator was slow and stilted and that went along with how the story progressed.