The Black Country cover art

The Black Country

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Black Country

By: Alex Grecian
Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal-mining village - and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird's nest - the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad. But Inspector Day and Sergeant Hammersmith have no idea what they're about to get into, and the more they investigate, the more they realise they may never be allowed to leave.

©2013 Alex Grecian (P)2013 W F Howes Ltd
Mystery Suspense Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Malvern Murders cover art
The Alienist cover art
Murder in the Crypt cover art
Forgotten Places cover art
My Own Dear Brother cover art
A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller cover art
A Bespoke Murder cover art
Death on Cromer Beach cover art
Black Feathers cover art
The Heiress of Linn Hagh cover art
The Infirmary: A DCI Ryan Mystery (Multicast Drama) cover art
Rook cover art
The Return of the Pharaoh cover art
Chronicles of Steele: Raven: The Complete Story cover art
Kill and Run cover art
Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story cover art

Critic reviews

"Will keep you riveted from page one" (Jeffery Deaver)
"Outstanding. If Charles Dickens isn't somewhere clapping his hands for this, Wilkie Collins surely is." ( New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about The Black Country

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    38
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    45
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

absolutely loved it.

Alex grecian is in a league of his own, absolutely fantastic story. I love the whole 19th century theme, and for an American to capture Victorian England so perfectly, is amazingly impressive. well done to Carrington for narrating this so well to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another great story

Another great story by Alex Grecian. I was concerned by the change of authors, but I needn’t of worried! Nigel Carrington was actually even better!!
There isn’t as much gore as I expected, given the previous reviews...just skip by a couple of minutes when they mention the word “maggot” and you’ll skip the bad bits, it’s only in a couple of places. The characters are really forming now and I’m off to download the third book, to hear more of their stories :-)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

good listen

Any additional comments?

I hate this idiot's guide to reviewing! I much prefer to read people's thoughts without the stupid question/response weird format. So I'm going to ignore audible's idea of reviews for idiot's and write what I think! Despite the reviews, both quite negative, I liked the first book so I decided to ignore them and down loaded this. So what was it like? Quite good, the first book had two murder stories running side by side and this has only the one. So it's less intricate but I like the main characters and additional characters. I guessed "who done the ugly deed" well before it was revealed but that isn't necessarily a big deal to me. So not quite as good as the first book but nearly and I will definitely listen to it more than once.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable

I enjoyed this book from start to finish and I am looking forward to the next one

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Overlong and confusing

I really enjoyed Alex Grecian's first book about Day and Hammersmith's adventures in the Murder Squad in London. This second book took them out of London and into Victorian West Midlands trying to solve the mystery of a missing mother, father and son. It was never explained why it was necessary to transport police officers from London to the Midlands to look for the missing family. Sadly this set the theme for the whole novel.

Confusing, overcomplicated and overlong. Nevertheless, I got to the end of the novel and understood all, eventually. I loved the first novel, it was brilliant. I persevered with the second novel and got there eventually and if it wasn't worth it I wouldn't have bothered. I will buy the third novel, it hasn't yet put me off and I still love the characterisation of Day and Hammersmith and the other people who habitate these books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good

A good story...read very well...although was a little disappointed as the story didn't grip me as much as The Yard... We didn't get to know the characters as we did before. I didn't feel quite so engaged by the new characters and the old ones didn't grow in character either..Also, the previous narrator was so totally excellent, that he is a tough act to follow.. I'd got used to his portrayal of the characters voices and was a tad disappointed to find they had changed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Dissappointment

The book gives a strange feeling - the plot builds, arising expectations but the result is very predictable and does not comply at all with the expectations and suvgestions initially built by the story. The story is well told, gives colorful picture of place of action (sometimes overly detailed and livid) but the aftertaste of the book is empty. It feels that the end of the story was forcedly made up and written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Ugly & Violent

What would have made The Black Country better?

Nothing, its an interesting story but dwells on violence. The writer seems to have a preoccupation with maggots.

Has The Black Country put you off other books in this genre?

Yes anything from this writer

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He didn't

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Interesting story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful