Walking into the Ocean

A Peter Cammon Mystery, Book 1

By: David Whellams

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

Introducing veteran Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Peter Cammon, this novel finds Cammon journeying to the Jurassic Coast to solve a seemingly ordinary domestic crime.

At first glance, the perpetrator appears to have murdered his wife before drowning in the English Channel, but Cammon soon learns that his case is merely a sideshow. A broader series of murders has been unfolding along the cliffs, baffling the local police. Realizing that his assignment cannot be completed without figuring out the serial killings that threaten the region, the detective travels from London, Dorset, and Devon to the island of Malta, relentlessly following the overlapping threads of the two cases to their shocking climax.

The first installment in a series of three, this cliffhanger sets a chilling tone for the British sleuth's forthcoming mysteries.

©2012 David Whellams (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Mediocre thriller

The novel features yet another lead detective who's supposed to be deep and interesting, yet comes across as just the opposite: both dim and dull, except when he jumps to conclusions for no apparent reason. Further, the novel suffers from truly tedious back stories that lend nothing to the plot. Otherwise, the story is moderately interesting--enough to get one through a work-out at the gym--but that's about it.

Has the author ever been to Britain?

What did you like best about Walking into the Ocean? What did you like least?

An interesting plot, and not badly written – but I have serious doubts if the author has ever visited Britain as there are so many things wrong with the cultural references. No English housewife (the detective’s in this case) would call curtains “drapes”, the police do not employ semi-retired police detectives to handle important murder cases on a part-time basis, there are no local TV-station “affiliates” of national networks, people drink beer in pubs and not ale, a forensic blood stain expert is not a haematologist, and so on; there are many more like these. Small things, but they pile up, are unnecessary and almost bad enough to make me stop listening … I only carried on because I wanted to know “who did it”. Other irritants – nobody can tell menstrual blood stains on a wall from any other sort of blood just by looking at it, the hierarchy in the Metropolitan police (not Scotland yard – that’s just a building) is not full of Lords and Sirs and the faux-North American accent given by the reader to the Canadian character is decidedly not a Canadian accent. All very sloppy and needless when a bit of decent editing would have fixed these things.

What could David Whellams have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Got his facts right about life and policing in Britain

What three words best describe Gerard Doyle’s performance?

Adequate

Did Walking into the Ocean inspire you to do anything?

Not read anything more by this author

too much psycho-babble , hard to follow.

Has Walking into the Ocean turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I favor british mysteries..but not this one.

What aspect of Gerard Doyle’s performance would you have changed?

Mr. Doyle is a good narrator. He was the best part of this book.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Walking into the Ocean?

all the dream analyzing. Not a believable sequence of events.

First and Last, hopefully

Would you try another book from David Whellams and/or Gerard Doyle?

Mr. Doyle, absolutely; Mr. Whellams, not a chance.

Would you ever listen to anything by David Whellams again?

No

Have you listened to any of Gerard Doyle’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, he's a fine narrator./reader/performer.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Walking into the Ocean?

This book needed a strong editor with a lot of red ink. The lead character was not developed in any meaningful way. Instead he seemed to be a sexist, simple-minded git whose proclivity for secrecy was responsible for several deaths. I think the local chief of police was on the right track to insist the dolt be called back to London.