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Turning Blue

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Turning Blue

By: Benjamin Myers
Narrated by: Andrew Macintosh
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Bloomsbury presents Turning Blue by Benjamin Myers, read by Andrew Macintosh.

‘Ben Myers is the master of English rural noir, and with Turning Blue, he has created a whole new genre: folk crime … this is by turns gripping, ghastly and unputdownable’ PAUL KINGSNORTH

In the depths of winter in an isolated Yorkshire hamlet, a teenage girl, Melanie Muncy, is missing.

The elite detective unit Cold Storage dispatches its best man to investigate. DI Jim Brindle may be obsessive, taciturn and solitary, but nobody on the force is more relentless in pursuing justice. Local journalist Roddy Mace has sacrificed a high-flying career as a reporter in London to take up a role with the local newspaper. For him the Muncy case offers the chance of redemption.

Darker forces are at work than either man has realised. On a farm high above the hamlet, Steven Rutter, a destitute loner, harbours secrets that will shock even the hardened Brindle. Nobody knows the bleak moors and their hiding places better than him.

As Brindle and Mace begin to prise the secrets of the case from the tight-lipped locals, their investigation leads first to the pillars of the community and finally to a local celebrity who has his own hiding places, and his own dark tastes.(P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Crime Thrillers Mystery Police Procedural Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime England Funny Suspense
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Critic reviews

Myers summons up the Yorkshire landscape with lyrical aplomb. The bleakness of the snowbound landscape, the beauty of the moors, the vivid realisation of market town and northern city are all rendered with absolute clarity. His prose is beautifully controlled and so graphic it’s impossible not to picture the scenes he conjures up in striking detail. There is no hiding place from the darkness because the writing is so damned good (VAL McDERMID)
Working within the genre of crime fiction, and yet with a prose style that at times reads like poetry, Myers spins a tale of torment that creaks into other, older narratives. He creates a novel that is both environmentally and ecologically prescient … Turning Blue is a brave and utterly uncompromising novel which positions Benjamin Myers alongside the great names of crime fiction. He has earned his metaphorical seat on the bench, snuggled in between Val McDermid and James Ellroy (KATHARINE NORBURY)
A queasily compulsive evocation of a wild and brutal Yorkshire landscape, informed and haunted in equal measure by the shades of Jimmy Savile and his monstrous deeds and the East Riding’s lost boy of crime fiction, Ted Lewis (CATHI UNSWORTH)
[Myers is] grammatically armed, experienced, and capable of subverting language to dangerous effect….In terms of the current pantheon of crime writing, there truly is nothing with Turning Blue’s dark power and literary ferocity
Myers has his own style, he is an exciting writer of extraordinary talent with an ability to weave heart-breaking tales about marginalised communities and individuals with brutal, bleak and stomach-wrenching stories into the evocative tapestry of a landscape setting … I am continually excited and blown away by Myers’ awesome writing
Not only has Myers managed to retain his genuine gift for writing about the countryside – despite some quite explicit diversions into the sexual underworld – but in James Brindle he has created a detective who is troubled, and thankfully not just by the tired clichés of drink, drugs or divorce … Turning Blue works as a proper old-fashioned page turner, but Myers has created a new genre – Dales Noir – with echoes of a great like James Ellroy
Turning Blue is cool, dark and hypnotic. As we’ve come to expect from Myers, landscape and nature play an important role in the book, providing the rough-hewn canvas on which he paints yet another gripping, shadowy portrait of humanity, and in the process proves himself one of our most interesting and original writers
This is far removed from the picture postcard Yorkshire of Heartbeat … the wildness of the environs are particularly well drawn, the reek of sheep shit practically wafting off the page…this compulsively readable work is driven by the same kind of grimly hypnotic thump that David Peace brought to his Red Riding Quartet (another author not given to romanticising “the north”
All stars
Most relevant
gripping story unfolds and builds gradually putting together the clues. looking forward to the next novel

turning blue

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A dark and bleak tale from Myers that cuts a little too deep, possibly because Myers is such a good writer he draws you in a little too far. There's some wonderful landscape writing that off-sets a cast of vile, misbegotten men. The story moves along and does what it's meant to, you binge it because you want to hear a modicum of justice done. It is a compulsive (and repulsive) listen.

The narrator's performance is staccato and punchy, it fits but can get a bit samey - you have to pay attention to catch the swaps in character perspective because they are marked and there is no difference in reading style.

I'm going to listen to the next book in the series but probably after a break to lighten my mood and cleanse my ears!

Ben Myers is too good a writer for this..

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I became a fan of Ben Myers after reading another of his books so was eager to read this. The preview warned me of its nature but I was not ready for the shear bleak misery of the narrative, background, characters and story. That being said, Mr Myers is a master of his craft and you are quickly drawn into the world, however much you might dislike it - and if you have any sense of decency about you, you will dislike it.
Despite the bleakness of the background, it is obvious that Mr Myers has a great affection for the North of England. His other stories show a similar love. This though paints the scenery in its harshest and most savage state, and he portrays the people with grey colours.
I agree with other reviewers, the narration is difficult to follow. The Northern accent was spot on and added to the overall atmosphere of the story but the breaks (or lack of) between characters caught me off guard a few times.
Be ready for this book. It is a hard read/listen, but it is brilliant.

Bleak. Grim. Brilliant.

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I know these things happen in real life, but it is not what I want from an audiobook. I have read (listened to) almost all of Ben Myers books, but no more.

Horrific

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