Winter's Return (Guy Winter Mysteries Book 4)

By: James Philip

Narrated by: Melanie Fraser

Winter's Return is the fourth full length Guy Winter mystery. It is set in England in the Second World War in the third month of the devastating night Blitz which followed the defeat of the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. In Winter's Return Guy Winter returns to London, a city at once reeling under the relentless nightly bombardment, yet oddly growing ever more accustomed to the ongoing nightmare. Shunned and unwanted by Scotland Yard the Mystery Man – a sobriquet earned long before the war because he was the man the Yard turned to solve the mysteries no other man could resolve – is assigned to S Division in Hampstead. However, his exile is short-lived. Within days he and his faithful sergeant, George Ransom, are heading for the English Midlands, where on a country estate a few miles south of Coventry, Helen Chase, the nation's most famous actress has been grievously wounded in an apparent orgy of mindless violence that has claimed several other lives in the most bizarre gruesome of circumstances. Little does Guy Winter suspect that no matter how far he travels from London the ghostly echo of the Whitechapel Murders of 1888, the machinations of his former MI5 associates and the extraordinary revelations of an exotic German spy captured six weeks before in Scotland, will eventually catch up with him. But before he must confront one fate, he must confront other demons in the fires consuming Coventry, the ‘city of spires'. PLEASE BE AWARE – CLIFF-HANGER ENDING! * * * The Guy Winter Mysteries are:- Prologue: Winter's Pearl Book 1: Winter's War Book 2: Winter's Revenge Book 3: Winter's Exile Book 4: Winter's Return Book 5: Winter's Spy (Available in 2016)©2015-2065 James P. Coldham writing as JAMES PHILIP (P)2017 James P. Coldham writing as JAMES PHILIP

Doesn't disappoint

Sitting down to listen to James Philip's Winter series is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket with a good cup of coffee at your side. You settle in for a very pleasant afternoon. He writes in a style that harkens back to Bronte and Austen, moving leisurely along, setting the stage of the book slowly.

This story indeed starts out slowly. Winter and his family have returned from his honeymoon and settled back into London with the war, obviously, still raging. Guy Winters and George Ransom are still recovering from their wounds sustained in the last book, and are on light duty, when, finally, a crime is committed about halfway through the book. The author spends a lot of time setting up sub-plots and intrigues that we, the reader, hope will eventually come together coherently. The crime, which takes place in Coventry, seems at the centre of the other sub-plots.

This novel seems to end way too soon and really should have a warning .... To Be Continued. It ends on a cliffhanger, and while I suspected something was going to happen, wasn't expecting the ending given. I was left wondering why the author ended the book here, since all the other books in the series had the crime solved by the end of the book. Why not make the book longer?

Despite the cliffhanger ending, I did enjoy the book. I find Melanie Fraser to have a great voice for narration .... the cup of coffee, to the book's blanket .... and look forward to the next book to finish this case.

Secrets, murder and intrigue

Set in war time Britain this entertaining story weaves a great murder mystery that’s scattered with interesting historical facts and really gives the feel of the blitz. Somewhat slow in the beginning; spies, lovers, secrets, intrigue and brutal murders soon heats things up. You don’t need to have read the prior books to enjoy this story but it would make some of the interweaving story threads easier to understand. The narrator does an excellent job; her BBC British accent is accurate and fits the characters and time period well. She gives individual voices to the characters and really brings the story to life. I enjoyed this story (even though there is a cliffhanger at the end) and will look forward to finding out what happens.

Interesting WWII Serial Mystery

Winter’s Return by James Philip is the 4th book in the Guy Winter series featuring the Scotland Yard detective during WWII. Think of this series as the book equivalent of an episode of the television show “24”. Both are espionage thrillers, with episodes occasionally ending in cliff hangers. Winter’s Exile is set primarily in the English Midlands near Coventry, where Guy and his right-hand man George Ransom investigate a mass murder and attempted murder of England’s most famous actress.

Melanie Fraser did an outstanding job narrating this audiobook as she did the prior books in the series. Simply put, Melanie’s reading was very enjoyable and entertaining. She provides distinct and consistent voices for each character, and changes the tempo in all the right places.

An Old Time Coppers Tale

I found the early part of this book difficult to get into, but persevere it is worth it and later on you find that all that early stuff is important to the story.
This is the first Guy Winter mystery I've read, this is a series and I wish I'd read the previous books, but it reads well as a stand alone.
Good steady pace, strong well developed characters and a really good story line or I should say lines because there is more than one going on in this book.
Different from modern detectives - because we've forgot how long it took too check the fingerprints of a suspect, or any record system (manually without computers).
Beautiful narration, with wonderful English accents.
A good read.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Another great performance by Melanie Fraser

Note: I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

I've been listening to this series from book one and I didn't get off to the best start with it, having not felt a real connection to the characters and getting a bit lost with regard to the plot and the various character relationships. However, it has grown on me quite a bit, in large part, I believe, due to Melanie Fraser's performance. She has such a realness to her characterizations of the different people involved that you feel as if you've quite literally been plopped into the middle of 1940s England.

Surprisingly though, imo, this book wasn't as engaging as the previous book was. The series was slowly getting better for me with each installment but this one felt like one of the earlier books, at least with regard to how much I liked the storyline (it felt a little disconnected and the ending was a bit anti-climactic) and the MC. Guy Winter isn't a character I can easily peg. I always feel a bit of distance there with him - he's not someone I can connect to as well as I'd like. And because of his behavior in this book, I'm finding myself feeling more than a little peeved toward him as a character. I hope he doesn't end up misbehaving in the next book like how we're given hints that he might. That would not be cool at all and I'd probably find myself ultimately rooting against him. Which isn't how I want to feel about the MC in a series I've grown to enjoy.

Great Read

Winter's Return: Guy Winter Mysteries (Book 4) was a good read by James Philip. This book is set in England during the Second World War. Guy Winter returns to London and is shunned and unwanted. He and his sergeant, George Ransom, head to the English Midlands. The nation’s most famous actress has been wounded in mindless violence that claimed many other lives. I enjoyed reading this book and cant wait to read more by the author.

Still Just as Good as Book Three

Winter's Return was an action-packed addition to this series. I love having a story to listen to with familiar, likeable characters. This has it all. The historical setting really gives you the feel of being there. And yes, as the blurb said, on to the next in the series. I look forward to it.

I really like the writing style of James Philip. I especially like the narration by Melanie Fraser. She's by far one of the best and one of my favorites. She has great voice inflections and I love listening to her. I like that she's read the series.

I was gifted this audiobook and have voluntarily left this review.

Best in this series so far

The war and the mysteries keeps going. I Think this is the best so far in the series. The narration is great as in the earlier books.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.