Bad to the Bone

DI Bliss, Book 1

By: Tony J. Forder

Narrated by: Greg Wagland

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

A skeletal body is unearthed in a wooded area of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. DI James Bliss, together with DC Penny Chandler, investigates the case and discovers that the young female victim had been relocated from her original burial site. A witness is convinced that a young female was struck by a vehicle back in the summer of 1990 and that police attended the scene. However, no record exists of either the accident or the reported victim.

As the case develops, two retired police officers are murdered. The two are linked with others who were on duty at the time a road accident was reported. As Bliss and Chandler delve deeper into the investigation, they start to question whether senior officers may have been involved in the murder of the young women who was buried in the woods. As each link in the chain is put under duress, so is Bliss, who clashes with superiors and the media. When his team receives targeted warnings, Bliss will need to decide whether to drop the case or to pursue those responsible.

Will Bliss walk away in order to keep his career intact, or will he fight no matter what the cost? And is it possible the killer is much closer than they imagined?

©2017 Tony Forder (P)2018 W. F. Howes Ltd

Not a fantastic first book, but pretty good.

I'll be honest, not impressed by the first book in the series. It's slow, boring, and the story gets unpleasant with dirty cops (a topic of fiction I despise). It picks up from about half way and becomes pretty good, but the first half is very slow going to the point where I nearly abandoned it.

I feel I should mention that the characters are well done - solid and believable, and Bliss has a detailed enough 'tragic backstory' to flesh him out very well, without harping on about it.

I usually hate criticizing a reader, but he does the story no favours, he made the whole thing seem far more boring than it actually was. A more animated reader would have significantly improved my opinion of the book.

I see the reviews are better on the rest of the books and I would consider reading another one. Overall, I found this first book a bit of a weak offering, and the audiobook to be diminished by a very bland reader.

completely unexpected ending

Very good story with a great mystery. The story is completely different. You really get to know the characters. This writer keeps us wanting, the next pages. You get to know the human inside the police, and the humanity in us all. Totally unexpected ending. I recommend this book.

I really tried to like it...

I wanted to give this author a chance. I wanted to see it through with the narrator. I did listen to the very end, but I didn't enjoy the story or the narration.

This reader treated every comma as a full stop, and it was extremely jarring to follow. There was very nearly no differentiation between characters, so trying to keep them straight was virtually impossible.

The story was unbelievably predictable, and the supposed back stories for the main characters were ridiculously contrived. A cop whose child was kidnapped and still missing in a foreign country?? Another who was a swinger whose spouse was murdered by a spurned lover??

I'm just not a fan.

New author

New author for me , great characters. Plot was just different enough to be fresh.Reminds me of the Peter Grainger mysteries

Good Listen

Keeps you hanging on for a twisting ride. Each turn ties a twisted knot of suspense.

Unable to get to sleep? This narrator can fix that!

Some of my collage professors had more animation in their lectures than this gentleman. He reads well but no tone or rhythm variation. Hard to not drift off ...

Not worth the credit

I think the story might have been interesting but there was so much description of and evaluation of every woman character in the first 10 chapters I just couldn’t get through it.

Narrator does not differentiate between speakers.

Me biggest problem with this book was figuring out who was speaking. The narrator uses the same tone for every character in conversation, whether it be man, woman or child. The story was decent but the reading dulled it.

It’s was going well

Until a sudden amazing revelation which seemed so out of the blue half way through the book. I see a previous review said the same so won’t duplicate but do agree. I lost respect for the main character for being dumb a couple of times.

Narration was typical of the English (I am English) bobby (cop) persona. Methodical and bit monotonous. But the narrator did a good job with his characters. Not my favorite book and was kind of glad when it stopped.

A delightful mystery

I was unexpectedly enthralled. The book flowed with ease. Character development superb. As with any good book, I was a bit sad when it came to the end.