Acquired Audiobook By: I started to listen to audiobooks in [2016] as a way to offset my readings of print books whilst noting there was a rumour about how audiobooks could help curb chronic migraines as you are switching up how your reading rather than allowing only one format to be your bookish choice. As I found colouring and knitting agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I have embarked on a new chapter of my reading life where I spend time outside of print editions of the stories I love reading and exchange them for audio versions. Through hosting for the Audiobookworm I’ve expanded my knowledge of authors who are producing audio versions of their stories whilst finding podcasters who are sharing their bookish lives through pods (ie. AudioShelf and Talking Audiobooks; see my sidebar). Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue whilst making purchase requests for audio CDs. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I am hoping to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year starting in 2018.
I jumped at the chance to become a part of the sixth audiobook tour featuring the #KayHunter series by Rachel Amphlett so quickly, I had overlooked a critical piece of the blog tour: the copies for review on this tour were not going to be provided through Audible! Having an extra credit I hadn’t had the chance to use I purchased my own copy of “Gone to Ground” rather than being provided with a complimentary copy of the story. Thereby, I am choosing to participate on the audiobook tour, sharing my ruminations with my readers for my own edification but also, as a continuation of a reader’s love for a dramatic crime serial. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
What held me in the throes of “Call to Arms” and why I was itching for the next novel:
One of the things I enjoy most about Ms Amphlett’s style of detective novels is how she gives you a seemingly one dimensional plot point and expounds upon it to encompass more layers of intrigue than you would originally feel could be pinned to a situation which by all fronts, appeared to be routine or having nothing more serious than the surface details of what was noted or observed. This is what I love about the series, because even as your keeping your toes at there ready to hear something which will be need to be re-pulled forward further inside the installment – you don’t always know which details are most pertinent to remember and which ones might not be as keenly important in the end.
This installment turnt back to the situational bantering between Kay and her colleagues – where we get to be observing their work hours closely – the funny bit is how they like to work off each other – they each compliment the other quite well, but due to the long hours and the winding ways in which a case can unnerve the detectives, they have to re-group themselves somehow and humour is one of the best equalisers! When they weren’t rubbing my funny-bone, I enjoyed listening to how they worked out their theories – each of them making suggestions and following where the evidence and interviews were yielding them to head next in an attempt to resolve the case at long last!
Kay Hunter follows her instincts to pursue a case she knew in her heart was important to solve – however, she never would have suspected how close it would come to affecting her relationship with Sharpe nor of how the case itself would become insidious in regards to the callus nature of someone who could only be referred to as self-conceited past the point of reason! Adam definitely understands his wife to such a degree it’s heart-warming whereas Kay sometimes struggles with the confidence of embracing her truer nature as a cop. She seems to be seeking approval at different intervals to where her internal sense of self falters against the tides of where her job takes her in a neverending battle for personal sanity.
Amphlett keeps us grounded on the personal journey of Kay Hunter – through all facets of her life, from what she’s feeling, thinking and how she sorts through every choice she makes both personally and professionally. One kind thing for her is having a husband (Adam) who not only believes in his wife but allows her the leeway she needs to make hard choices at times where an easier route might have been his preference. He also encourages her to do things she at first might feel she wants to recoil from accepting – such as her recent temporary elevation in status. Adam has a calming sense of knowing just what to say to help Kay settle her thoughts – all of this is part of the foundation of the series I have loved watching built. As Amphlett doesn’t sacrifice Kay’s personal life for the profession – it’s a healthy way of seeing how detectives must decide how to live a well-balanced life, without allowing the job to supersede their own humanity. All of which is vocalised by the impressively brilliant narrator Alison Campbell who immerses us directly into the heart of Kay!
-quoted from my review of Call to Arms
At the time I had finished listening to Call to Arms – I almost felt I needed to take a proper break from listening to the next installment. Each story in the series becomes increasingly difficult to listen to due to the increasing Suspense Ms Amphlett knits into the background of the stories. Not to mention the crimes themselves are on the upper edge of what I can handle listening to as they are rather difficult to read on that note.
I hadn’t foreseen another blog tour this year, as I was so dearly thankful to be a part of the first five novels which went on blog tours – finding out Gone to Ground was available to listen to after Summer, felt rather fitting – as this would be the story-line which was fully removed from the anguish Kay had gone through at work and the grief she had shared with Adam. I was definitely keen on seeing where the story would continue to shift forward and how Kay would handle moving forward after such a strong sea of adversity which had sought to undo her sanity.
When I first read the premise, however, I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to be able to get into the story itself as it is a rather gruesome plotting. The only thing I was holding onto is the fact that Ms Campbell’s narration in combination with Ms Amphlett’s muse – might be the best partnership to where I could handle a story-line like this one as otherwise, had it been another series altogether I simply would have bypassed it.
I also knew, having heard the five books prior to this sixth one – Amphlett spends a lot of time developing her characters, of inserting her readers & listeners into the background of her world – giving us a proper threading of what is going on in the lives of her lead and supporting characters whilst their fully committed to solving the case at hand. It is due to this structure of how she pulls us back into the Kay Hunter series, I had a strong feeling I could get through this installment, as I knew the main focus points were not on the crimes but rather on the people who solve them.
Gone to Ground
Subtitle: A Detective Kay Hunter novel
by Rachel Amphlett
Source: Audible | Subscription
Narrator: Alison Campbell
While attending a crime scene on the outskirts of Maidstone, DI Kay Hunter makes a shocking discovery.
The victim has been brutally cut to pieces, his identity unknown.
When more body parts start turning up in the Kentish countryside, Kay realises the disturbing truth – a serial killer is at large and must be stopped at all costs.
With no motive for the murders and a killer who has gone undetected until now, Kay and her team of detectives must work fast to calm a terrified local population and a scornful media.
When a third victim is found, her investigation grows even more complicated.
As she begins to expose a dark underbelly to the county town, Kay and her team are pulled into a web of jealousy and intrigue that, if left unchecked, will soon claim another life.
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B07F7FHYTT
Also by this author: Scared to Death, Will to Live, One to Watch, Hell to Pay, Call to Arms, Author Inteview: Rachel Amphlett (Gone to Ground), Bridge to Burn, Cradle to Grave, Turn To Dust
Also in this series: Scared to Death, Will to Live, One to Watch, Hell to Pay, Call to Arms, Bridge to Burn, Cradle to Grave, Turn To Dust
Published by Saxon Publishing
on 8th July, 2018
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 6 hours, 36 minutes (unabridged)
Published by: Saxon Publishing
Order of the Kay Hunter Detective series:
Scared to Death | Book One (see also Review)
Will to Live | Book Two (see also Review)
One to Watch | Book Three (see also Review)
Hell to Pay | Book Four (see also Review)
Call to Arms | Book Five (see also Review)
Gone to Ground | Book Six
About Rachel Amphlett
Before turning to writing, Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as a sub-editor and editorial assistant.
She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, including the Dan Taylor espionage novels and the Detective Kay Hunter series.
Originally from the UK and currently based in Brisbane, Australia, Rachel cites her writing influences as Michael Connelly, Lee Child, and Robert Ludlum. She’s also a huge fan of Peter James, Val McDermid, Robert Crais, Stuart MacBride, and many more.
She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers Association, with the Italian foreign rights for her debut novel, White Gold sold to Fanucci Editore's TIMECrime imprint, and the first four books in the Dan Taylor espionage series contracted to Germany’s Luzifer Verlag.
While attending a crime scene on the outskirts of Maidstone, DI Kay Hunter makes a shocking discovery.
Call to Arms
Hell to Pay
One to Watch