Murder in the Gallowgate by Daniel Sellers and narrated by Karen Bartke is a dark, gritty and brutal police procedural that is the first in a new series, the Detective Lola Harris Mysteries

There is absolutely no messing with Lola Harris! Hard, driven and focussed, she deals in the darkest of crimial corners with tenacity and fortitude. She is well-matched to the challenges of her environment and powers through the walls put up in front of her

Karen Bartke is a fantastic narrator and was the perfect choice for this novel

A great listen and definitely a series I will be keeping my eye on

Thank you to NetGalley, Bolinda Audio, Daniel Sellers and Karen Bartke for this ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

Thank you to Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

As a Scot, I am often put off books that are set in Glasgow as I feel they lack any real connection to the city, focusing on stereotypes and lazy ideas about the city. This book, however, could not be further from that if it tried.

The first in the Detective Lola Harris series, this book follows a 46 year old detective as she navigates work place politics, a failed relationship and a grizzly case surrounding an upcoming art installation, this book has the right amount of sub-plots and side characters to keep the reader constantly guessing what is going on.

The narrator does a wonderful job at bringing the detective to life while simultaneously carrying the side characters, giving them their own distinct voices to flow with the plot.

A fantastic story with many twists, it kept me guessing throughout.Wow what an ending. I look forward to listening to the next book in the series.

Detective Lola Harris is a tough woman, with a good heart. Harris returns from a miserable solo holiday — an effort to get over her useless ex — only to find herself in charge of a high-stakes investigation in gritty Glasgow. She drinks too much coffee, and likes a Bacardi and Coke.

She rushes to a crime scene in the historic Gallowgate neighborhood. An awful smell in the basement is thick, even through everyone’s forensic mask.

There’s an old wooden chair and rope hanging from its arms, both stained red. The earth below is saturated with blood. Six candleholders, their lights burned out, lend the scene an air of a completed ritual. Though there is no sign of a body.

They find a smashed-up phone in the corner of the room. The phone puts the investigators on the trail of a local politician. Who just so happened to have vanished without a trace and a controversial artist who died thirty years ago on a remote Hebridean island.

Lola will have to work with the most obnoxious detective in Glasgow if she’s going to stop the killer from striking again.

Whereas Detective Sergeant Aidan Pierce, who seems hell-bent on sabotaging her case, and her career with it. He thinks he’s the next big thing and has convinced himself that Lola got ‘his’ promotion.

This story is a truly compelling crime novel. It’s filled with twists and surprises. And has a strong. Lovable flawed female detective as its main character.

It has a disturbing gothic opening to the final twist.

I can’t lie, I really struggled with this one. I did wonder if it was just because I listened to it on audio rather than reading the hard copy but the pacing felt far too slow for me and the story was almost too complex. I also didn’t enjoy the narrator unfortunately.

I did start to get into it towards the end but the last 25% didn’t feel like enough to save the whole book for me. The major issue with this book was the pacing and I think if that had been corrected I would have enjoyed it so much more.

I would recommend it if you want a very complex plot, an interesting back story and a clearly well researched story.

This sounded right up my street. A new series, a female character, set in Glasgow. There was a lot of characters to contend with and it became a little confusing at times. It’s an extremely slow burn and could definitely have been a lot shorter. The storyline was interesting but it lacked oomph and the intrigue to know what was going on. So much so I was more interested in Detective Lola Harris relationship with one of her colleagues than the storyline. I did love her as a character and her no nonsense attitude. The outcome was interesting how it all came together even if it did take awhile to get there. I would be interested to read more in the series but with maybe a faster paced storyline.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bolindo Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review #MurderInTheGallowgate

This was my first book by this author. Overall I enjoyed it. I had picked up the audio version. It took a bit to get into it. I think that was because sometimes the narrator was a little hard to understand, and I would back it up to relisten. The longer I listened, the easier it became to understand. The main character has flaws that make her more realistic. She has finally decided to end her relationship with a married man. Initially I thought that would bother me, but it didn’t. I liked that she was an older, more established woman. She still has to deal with some of the issues that unfortunately, woman have to face in a “man’s” world. The mystery part of the book had me questioning a lot of my guesses. I would definitely read another book by this author.

Murder in the Gallowgate, by Daniel Sellers is a great cop murder mystery. This is the first book in a new detective series full of great characters, and a great storyline. The narrator did a wonderful job bring the story to life.

I always access this genre through audiobooks; however, this author is new to me.
I tend to prefer books set in the north or Scotland, so was pleased to find this book set north of the border. The blurb sounded appealing and the audiobook definitely lived up to my expectations.
The narrator can make or break an audiobook, and thankfully the narrator of this book brought the characters to life while her intonation and voice work captured my imagination.
The storyline was imaginative and had me guessing throughout (although one guess was correct I had discounted it because of the many twists and turns in this novel. The pace was held throughout and held my interest from beginning to end.
Lola is a strong & capable female lead without any stereotypes or assumptions made about a female detective inspector, The relationship between her, the antagonistic sergeant and her constable is one that holds the potential to continue to make great reading (or listening) in future books. The way the author has written the characters I developed a I stand dislike to the sergeant and was not expecting the final twist at the conclusion of this book,
The only thing I didn’t feel lent anything to the unfolding of the story was the day/time at the start of each new chapter. The time was not particularly relevant to the storyline (not like it was set over 24 hours or time was essential) but that’s not a negative, just something I feel wasn’t needed as it didn’t add anything.
I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and am pleased to see it is the first book in a series. I will most definitely look out for the second.

This is a brilliant audio book and I loved it. I haven’t read any of Sellers’ work before. The book is set in Ireland, and the Scottish accent of the narrator makes the book. In the basement of the Gallowgate (a perfect spot for a corpse) is a chair, some ropes, spooky candle holders, and a whole lot of blood. Where is the body? It doesn’t take long for the body of Sandy to show up. Lola Harris doesn’t want the case. She’s just back from holiday and a bad break up with her married boyfriend. After being talked into it, she does her best to get it solved. The art gallery where the victim worked comes under scrutiny after it was announced that they will be displaying the photos of a disreputable artist. One who seemed to like little children. The dialog is great. This may not be something you would think to put in your beach bag, but do it. Thank me later

This was an interesting read that really takes you through a lot to get to the end. I would call this a police procedural, with each chapter starting with a time of day. The narrator, Karen Bartke, made the book more enjoyable to listen to. She did a great job of having a different voice for each character. I picked up this book because of the setting, which is in Scotland. Something in the story was figured out early but others had you guessing. Overall, I liked the book.

This one was a bit hard for me to get all the way through, as it just didn't have me gripped into the murder story. The narrator was great and her accents felt perfect. I also loved the feeling of being transported to Scotland. I did like the female detective enough that I plan to check out the second book and see if I like her next case better.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC audiobook!

This one is a hard call for me. If 3.5 was a thing it wouldn't have been as much. I loved the story and the plot but it took me a bit to find myself hooked on the audiobook. I suspect I wouldn't have been able to put a hard copy down though. All in all, I will definitely be back to find out what happens in the next book!

Thank you #netgalley for the #arc!

Murder in the Gallowgate by Daniel Sellers is book one in the Detective Lola Harris series. I wish they would make this book into a series or movie!!

This book was so good and unputdownable!Detective Lola Harris is a total badass who doesn’t take any crap from anyone. I think that Daniel did such a great job with the details of the characters, what happened to the victims, and even describing the scenes. I thought I had the murderer figured out but I was wrong. This is the second book I’ve read by Daniel Sellers and now I am a fan and would read anything he writes. Karen Bartke did sucks a great job as the narrator. Thank you to Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for letting me listen to this audio in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

This was a good mystery. I listened to the audiobook. The narrator has an accent. It fits the story but took me a bit to get used to it.

This book looked exciting and I'm sorry but it was based in Scotland and I would be surprised to have a narrator (Karen Bartke) speaking English and feel that marking this book down because of this is a little unfair. She did an amazing job!
Admitted there are alot of characters to keep up with but the story is good and for me this audio scored a strong 4*. This is the first in the series and I look forward to hearing the rest.
Thank you to netgalley and Bolinda Audio for an early opportunity to listen to this audio and to the author Daniel Sellars.

I'm still not sure what a gallowgate is, but I know I don't want to be murdered there.
The book was rich with details and sidestory- perhaps a bit too much actually. But very enjoyable!

The narrator has a very thick Scottish brogue. I had to slow the speed down to be able to listen. Not a detraction for me, but may be for some listeners.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for my advance copy of this audiobook

How can a gallery exhibit cause so much … murder?  

This was a first time read of this author. I felt like he was bursting with information to share and threw it all into this book. For me it felt too long, with too many characters, and too much information. This is the beginning of the series for Detective Lola Harris but it felt more like David’s story with his sussing out clues and calling them in versus Lola and her team investigating.

Lola and her team were working the case. We small insights into her leadership style and personality but if this series is about her and her cases, I felt like it was secondary.  There is conflict between Lola and Pierce, but it was more referred to (numerous times) instead of shown/explained. Until the final few chapters it felt like Lola spent more time avoiding her ex and trying to get Pierce off her team than investigating.

That being said, once the investigation kicked into gear, some good scenes there. I do wonder though why Lola running around alone so much without any of her team members.

The resolution was brilliantly done. I am on the fence about continuing the series. The writing is good, the information interesting, but a bit too much of it all for me.

Thank you to #NetGalley  for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the story. 

Happy Reading!

This book is #1 in a series about Police detective Lola Harris. I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Karen Bartke. Ms Bartke has a thick Scottish brogue and it took quite awhile to understand her and enjoy the book at the same time. I'm sure she was chosen as the setting is in Scotland but it is a risky choice as many people will stop listening when they can't understand.

Narration aside, Lola is a wonderful strong character.. She is confronted with a myriad of characters who may or may not be involved with the murder. The murder is a particularly ugly one not least because there is no body and a tremendous amount of blood, candles set as if a ritual had happened, and a putrid smell. From an art exhibit, to an obnoxious detective who has to work with, an island where thirty years ago someone died possibly murder and the longer Lola's search goes on, the more it seems the two deaths are related. (The first body does eventually show up)

Partly because of the strong Scottish accent, partly because of so many characters, I had a hard time getting into the book. But about a third of the way in, I began to really like it. By two thirds of the way through, I was loving it. So it's one of those books and I recommend anyone who decides to read it--well first to read it, not listen, and second to keep to it. You won't be disappointed.

I found this an enjoyable and solid beginning for Detective Lola Harris, and an intriguing case to follow, although as an audio book you do need to concentrate and pay attention to chapter headings etc. as there is an awful lot going on, that's not easy to keep track of. Will certainly comeback for more instalments.