The Murderer's Son (Jackman and Evans, #2)

by Joy Ellis

[zooloo1983]

Well, this is my first foray into a Joy Ellis book and I meet Jackman and Evans. I picked this one to listen too mainly because a certain Mr Richard Armitage narrating it, who was I refuse.

The Murderer’s Son was an interesting book, Daniel Kinder hands himself in to the police station stating he has killed someone and that he is the son of a vicious and nasty murderess. Jackman and Evans do not quite believe his story and set up to try and prove it wrong, but things go awry. Although they have the “murderer” in jail, another murder has been committed and now starts the clock ticking.

It was interesting to see how this story would unfold; not often do you get a story where the so-called murderer hands themselves in willingly. This does make you think straightaway, are they murderer or is it a big hoax to distract everyone from a bigger plan? Or maybe I have read too many crime books?! I liked the dynamic with Jackman and Evans, there is no romance, only a slight of one-sided feelings from Jackman and that was touched upon so breezily you could miss it. I do hope we don’t have the will they or won’t they, as I do think it could ruin these two, especially as Evans is still grieving for her husband.

However I did find Daniel’s story so intriguing, is he who he says he is? What secrets are being kept from us and him? Why doesn’t he remember his life before he was 5 years old? But then to be fair, I don’t really remember my life before 5 years old. I loved listening to the secrets slow unfurl, and when we got to the shocking conclusion my heart did go out for Daniel in the end.

I loved how the parallels to the past were used a lot in this case. You have the elusive and murderous Francois Thayer, who Daniel believes to a stage of obsessiveness is his mother. You see the loose threads of her killer spree running so close to the present day you wonder if it is the same killer. Is Daniel copying the past?

The other link to the past is for DS Marie Evans, a man from her past has turned up, in the form of Guy Preston, someone who Evans has worked with in the past, to the extent where she saved his life from a serial killer. With Guy, there is something not quite right for him, he has a bit of a Stockholm syndrome and sees more to his “friendship” with Evans than there is.

Whilst we have the duo on the hunt for the “real” murderer we have a subplot which I really enjoyed and wanted more exposure involved Zane Pruitt and Kevin Stoner. I have to say Stoner was my favourite character (ok Orac is a very close second) in the book and what he endured at the hands of Pruitt made me so angry! I hope he gets more book time; you see Stoner goes from hiding who is, to accepting who he is, I do love me a bit of character growth like that!

Not going to lie, although I did enjoy this book. I was completely distracted by Richard Armitage narrating it. I thought the accents and the voices he put on were good (and I did have to chuckle at his female voices) and even him just talking normally, but it was distracting. I found I was listening more to the sound of his voice at times and not the storyline! There are 2 other narrators that do this to me, so I did find I missed bits and need to concentrate a lot more when listening but this is just me! Aside from that his narration worked for me, it has made me want to keep on listening to the series.

This is a strong start to the series for me and I am interested in seeing how the team develops and grow in the future, so much so I already have the next book lined up on audible to listen to…once I have finished my review.