The Seventh Victim

By: Michael Wood

Narrated by: Joanne Froggatt, Mathew Horne

On Sunday, February 3rd 1990, seven-year-old Danny Redpath disappeared from his home. Four months later, his body was found in the nearby forest, washed clean of all evidence. Over time, more bodies were discovered; more families devastated forever.

Apprehended while attempting to abduct another child, Jonathan Egan-Walsh was charged with the murders of thirteen boys. Convicted on all counts, he received life in prison and went unrepentant, still refusing to reveal the whereabouts of one of his victims, Zachery Marshall.

Twenty-five years later, Zachery’s mother Diane is still searching for his body. When Jonathan dies in custody, she realises she will never know its location – until she receives a letter he left in his cell, in which he admits he was guilty of all the crimes of which he was accused, except the murder of her son.

Diane tracks down the woman in charge of the case at the time, former DI Caroline Turner, and together with Jonathan’s biographer Alex Frost they start to investigate. Could this be the killer’s final twist of the knife – or is he telling the truth at long last? Sooner or later, this secret buried and undisturbed for a quarter of a century will come to light.

©2020 Michael Wood (P)2020 Audible Studios

Good, if a little predictable

I liked this story and enjoyed listening to it. Unfortunately the reader does use the wrong character name in a few sections which isn't great and I guesses the ending a bit early.

interesting

good story line.
draws you in and might surprise you!
not too much gore, more mystery and not a lot of bad language (bonus for me!)

Seriously? Why the good reviews?

I couldn't tell one character from another... man from woman because the narrator didn't change her voice even a little. She also sounded rushed.
The premise of the story was also highly improbable. A retired cop and author of the book about this serial killer get together and try to find who killed missing victim #7 because the killer insists on his deathbed it wasn't him. Where for me it goes off the rails, is when we realize the killer is distantly related which explains the clothes the police found in his house with the other victims. Uhm, flimsy explaination. There are so many trite remarks and silly plot holes not to mention dialogue. It's weird to have a high soft voice as a man too. The first part explanting there mothers grief is very good. The search for the real killer is predictable and amateurish. The rave reviews shock me now that I'm in it. I'll finish but I'm skipping to the end. To be honest it's a bit of a mess.

loved this book so much

enjoyed this book so much... will read this again..... you will not regret the credit. All Michael Woods books are great..

Great crime story.

Between the storyline and the narrator's, it was hard to pause the book and it kept me guessing about the ending all the way through.

Chilling

Chilling, creepy & Suspenseful. This was a great story with a surprising ending.; The very end. Excellent narration by Joanne Froggat per usual.

Excellent book

This was such a well written and narrated book. The ending was a great twist!

Thank Goodness it’s Over!

How does this novel have 4.5 Stars?!!!!!

And how do novels (I use that term lightly here) like this one even get published? First of all, it’s evident this author just made up this story without doing any research or having the novel reviewed by an expert in the police force or the ranks of journalists. Then secondly, as I often ask, “where are the editors?” I continue to be surprised that such sloppy work manages to get published. And I have now purchased this novel via Audible. I feel like I’m an enabler to someone who should definitely not be a writer.

There are three major issues with this novel:

(1) It’s full of mistakes. Here are just a few examples:

~ It’s made clear that the murderer’s mother died when he was very young and yet at some point in the book, there’s a reference to “he only had his grandmother and mother”.

~In another scene, one of the main characters says something to the effect of “you don’t understand. You’re happily retired and I don’t want that for myself”. The husband replies with different options so she doesn’t need to be retired, but can focus on what he considers more positive activities to which she replies “you don’t understand. It’s about justice!” Say what? No wonder the husband doesn’t understand, right?

~The most egregious error is when Diane is having dinner with her ex-husband, Nick, and the narrator is reflecting on how she sees herself and says something to the effect of “Caroline wasn’t happy with her body”.  So the author doesn’t remember this character’s name?”

There are many more. The above are just a few examples.

(2) In addition to the above, there’s what I call “continuity of character”. What I mean by that is, does the character essentially behave consistently through the novel? The answer in this novel is “no”. There is no consistent theme to any of the characters (save Alex). It’s difficult to get a sense of who they are at their core because there is no core.

(3) Then there’s the “who would do that” factor? I’m getting more and more frustrated by characters being written to behave in a way that no one would. Like would you call the DI who is on maternity leave when you found something? And heavily pregnant, would she run out to the scene? And furthermore, would a DI and her team run into the house to look for evidence? Or would they, perhaps, verify it there was an owner to ensure they could proceed without a search warrant to ensure they were compliant with police and legal procedures. So much inanity!

(4) Last, but not least, the reason I felt like taking a leap of faith on this author (in addition to the inconceivable
rating) was that Joanne Froggatt was the narrator. I’m a fan both from Downton Abbey as well as other novels she’s read. I think this one was a throw-away for her. There was so little range that sometimes I couldn’t catch who was talking. That was pretty disappointing.

Outside of a compelling prologue and epilogue, there’s nothing of value here.