What happened to your face?

The first day as Chief of Police in the backwater Louisiana town of Merchant Loup wasn't as quiet as Clint Wolf had expected - an oversized alligator had taken a large dog and had to be hunted down. It does not go well and Clint spends the night in a tree, cold, miserable and covered in mosquito bites. Welcome to the new job. Things are going to get far worse.

This superbly written story sucks the reader in like the river mud of the bayou The characters, especially Wolf himself and his small police team, are completely three dimensional, with realistic dialogue and interaction. The feel of the surrounding land just oozes from the pages. And the story is pretty good, too, with fights and confrontation, murder and conspiracy, jealousy and hatred, crocodiles and a dog called Achilles. Oh, and just a twist of romance. Add in the (always) superb narration of J.Scott Bennett, whose deliciously softly accented voice perfectly fits the subject as well as bringing all the other protagonists vocally alive, and this book is as near perfection as it can get. O.K. perhaps one or two tiny flaws, but way too small to matter.

This is not a slick, poster comic detective; Clint Wolf is a fully rounded, if flawed and troubled man trying slowly to regain his life. But he has kindness, loyalty, strength and a good sense of humour. He'll need all of those to get him through his first few days as Police Chief in swampy Merchant Loup.

Highly recommended.

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“Although I was breaking dishes on the inside, I remained unmoved on the outside”

Wow, loved it and it was exactly what I was looking for!
Action, mystery and intrigue, all really well put together and nothing too obvious! Maybe a few tropes thrown in there, but don’t all books have at least a few.
Well paced, well written, well narrated!
Scott does a brilliant job with the suspense and character voices; probably my favourite of the books I’ve listened to him narrate (they’re all good!).
Didn’t want to get out of my car and stop listening. Straight into book 2 for me.
This is my honest opinion on a free review copy.

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Fast paced and entertaining.

Two yeas ago, Clint Wolf's life changed forever. Now, all he wants is a quiet and easy life, so he takes a job in a backwater place expecting nothing more than speeding tickets! But life isn't all roses and Clint's first taste of the job is facing off against an alligator. From then on it's a dark and twisted road of murder and deceit, with Clint trying to figure out what is going on before it's too late.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! The plot was intriguing and had a lot of twists and turns and I couldn't figure out who was the killer, or what exactly was going on till near the end! Poor Clint just wanted a quite life but this little town isn't going to give him that!! The characters were all well written and developed too. Clint is a deeply flawed character. His life changed forever two years ago and it's put a permanent stain on his thoughts, so much so that he needs alcohol to sleep. Despite this, he is willing to do what is needed to get to the bottom of the killings, no matter whose toes he has to step on!

In all, this was a great read. The only real negative I have about it was the romance that seems to be building. I felt like it is was the wrong character for Clint, but hopefully he will realise that before book 2!

J. Scott Bennett definitely knows how to perform a book like this! He gives each character their own personality and knows how to make them stand out. He also does great with the female characters and makes it so easy to follow who is talking at any given time.

I was given this free audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

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Southern charm

I very much enjoy this book and felt that the characters and the story was very well fleshed out. It has a certain southern charm in both the narration and the descriptions of the place. However the eventual ending of the story was not based upon anything that was very believable which spoiled it somewhat in my eyes.

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