Bring Her Home is the first book in a new Irish procedural series by S. A. Dunphy. Released 3rd Sept 2021, it's 317 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is an engaging and well written crime thriller with an ensemble team of investigators who are trying to solve an abduction before time runs out for the daughter of a famous and well regarded politician. This has all the elements I really enjoy in a procedural murder mystery (with bonus serial killer element): there's a criminal psychologist/behaviorist, an intelligent slightly macho investigator, and a young female tech geek/historian with electric blue hair. The author doesn't stop there - he also juggles plot elements which include high level police politics, Irish crime bosses, academics, eco-warriors, archaeology, and more. It could've been a muddled mess with a less capable author; but here it works very well.
Admittedly, I had worked out most of the twists before the riveting climax and denouement. I was right about the overarching plot line, but had almost dreaded reading the ending because I was afraid of how much mayhem was going to happen before I turned the last page. I also liked the creepy foreshadowing for upcoming books in the series. I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next for Jessie & her colleagues.
The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 9 hours and 22 minutes and is capably narrated by Shelley Atkinson. She manages the read very well. There are both male and female characters of a range of ages and accents, and she keeps them distinct and perfectly understandable. I couldn't really hear distinct differences between regional accents for some of the characters, but it didn't affect my enjoyment overall.
Four stars for both the print and audio versions.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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