It's always personal

Jan Pearce transferred to Manchester police force after her life came under threat working in London. She had remade her life there, in the countryside outside of the city, a fairly remote cottage with friendly neighbours, a dog and the space to indulge her passion for loud music and cooking. But her carefully rebuilt tranquility disappears when a little one year old girl is kidnapped and she goes public in her attempts to bring her home.

Written in the first person, the reader is able to follow all of Jan's reasoning about the case as well as her fears both for herself and the tiny child, as well as the past which is now rapidly catching up with her. Laura Brydon, the narrator, takes on the personality of Jan, synching her reading with the character's emotions, which adds to the picture constantly building of the solitary police woman. It is a good performance with other protagonists also given clearly defined voices as the story proceedes. This is a tale to engage the reader's empathy and does have a real life situational feel as more is discovered about the taking of the toddler.

My thanks to the rights holder of What I Left Behind, who, at my request freely gifted me with a complimentary copy via Audiobook Boom. This book is the introduction to a short DI Jan Pearce crime series and i have already added the second story, Random Acts of Unkindness to my to be read pile. Recommended to all enjoying British police procedurals, with humanity, twists and passion.

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A must listen for this Genre

Love this authors books. The story is great and such a great narrator too. Now can't wait listen to the next one.

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Bare with it - I’m reading the next one already

At first the narrator’s accents seemed too harsh and it almost put me off. I lived in Manchester for 5 years and I didn’t find them totally convincing, too exaggerated. But I think she must settle into the reading, or I just got involved in the story and they stopped bothering me.
I often read crime fiction and though this wasn’t outstanding it was a good story which I enjoyed listening to. And I will be listening to the other two books in the series.

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Left me with goosebumps

Gripping and full of suspense! Turn after turn unwinding the mystery. It took some fine listening to get used to the accent but it fit so well and it was very enjoyable.

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1 person found this helpful

Great storyline

I Enjoyed this audio book very much
Hopefully they will be more audio books
Must read on your list

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A very good listen

Once I got used to the accents, I couldn’t stop listening. A crime book with many twists and turns.

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Not the most enthralling listen

This one is very possibly like marmite, love or loathe, I listened all the way through and was pleased with the ending but I cannot say that I enjoyed it very much, I was bored much of the time as Jan dwelt on her past life, her old flat, her old car, things BEFORE .... it was interesting at first but grew immensely tiresome after the fourth hour or so. Nothing is ever straight forward in this story, there is always half an hour of mulling, musing and self doubt before anything is achieved which is not what people expect from a police procedural, which is exactly what this is at the end of the day. It does improve towards the end of the book though so I recommend following through with it all.

Upshot is that Jan spends too much time dwelling on things, yes, she has great insights, becuse she is a 'trained profiler' but the reader, or, in this case, the listener, does not need to be privy to her every tiny thought. The story was ok though which is shame, it could have been brilliant without all the waffle.

Laura Brydon does a great job with the narration.

I recieved a free review copy in exchange for my honest review, which is what I have given above.

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Excellent storyline

Really enjoyable. Police procedures were interesting and emotional. The story was well written and very easy to listen to and follow.

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Really,?

The reader did her best with a really unlikeable and unlikely hero. Having worked in fields that cross over in areas of the world being portrayed I felt there was a lack credible research ... this is the first negative review I have given - writing a book is a lot of work but this needed whole lot more.... sorry Ms Ward !

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