Talking to the Dead: A Novel

Written by Harry Bingham

Narrated by Siriol Jenkins

A mesmerizing and thrilling novel-perfect for fans of Tana French and Stieg Larsson-that introduces a modern, unforgettable rookie cop whose past is as fascinating and as deadly as the crimes she investigates.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Boston Globe • The Seattle Times

SHE KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE. . . .

At first, the murder scene appears sad, but not unusual: a young woman undone by drugs and prostitution, her six-year-old daughter dead alongside her. But then detectives find a strange piece of evidence in the squalid house: the platinum credit card of a very wealthy-and long dead-steel tycoon. What is a heroin-addicted hooker doing with the credit card of a well-known and powerful man who died months ago? This is the question that the most junior member of the investigative team, Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, is assigned to answer.

But D.C. Griffiths is no ordinary cop. She's earned a reputation at police headquarters in Cardiff, Wales, for being odd, for not picking up on social cues, for being a little overintense. And there's that gap in her past, the two-year hiatus that everyone assumes was a breakdown. But Fiona is a crack investigator, quick and intuitive. She is immediately drawn to the crime scene, and to the tragic face of the six-year-old girl, who she is certain has something to tell her . . . something that will break the case wide open.

Ignoring orders and protocol, Fiona begins to explore far beyond the rich man's credit card and into the secrets of her seaside city. And when she uncovers another dead prostitute, Fiona knows that she's only begun to scratch the surface of a dark world of crime and murder. But the deeper she digs, the more danger she risks-not just from criminals and killers but from her own past . . . and the abyss that threatens to pull her back at any time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
• Release date: Sep 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9780449011737

Harry Bingham

Harry Bingham is an ex-City trader who has worked for major British, American and Japanese firms but who now writes full time. He lives near Oxford with his wife and their three dogs.

Reviews for Talking to the Dead

[thornton37814 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

D. C. Fiona Griffiths is a junior member of the police but works to get herself assigned to a murder inquiry involving a prostitute and her daughter even while finishing up work on an embezzlement case. She doesn't follow orders very well and is a bit of a "loose cannon." Throughout the book, hints are made of a psychological issue from her teen years. After the case is wrapped up, far too long is spent revealing that psychological issue. I had a love/hate relationship with the protagonist, but decided it was mostly hate. The author spent far too much time on things other than the investigation itself. It sometimes made it difficult sorting the wheat from the chaff. This police detective acts as stupidly as many amateur sleuths in cozy mysteries. However, the feel of this novel was far from cozy. I wonder if future installments, after Griffiths works through her issues, might improve, but I'm not inclined to try them. I listened to the audio version read by Siriol Jenkins.

[zumbanista · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Overall, the writing in Talking to the Dead (Fiona Griffiths Book 1) by Harry Bingham is good. The plot is fine, if a bit tired. However the quirky protagonist didn't appeal to me for some reason. I found her an improbable candidate for policework and it takes you right up to the end of the book to discover why she behaves the way she does. I wasn't all that fussed on this one and will give the rest of the series a pass.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have to give a thank-you shoutout to my friend Mary, who put me on the trail of this series featuring Wales D.C. Fiona Griffiths, who is a crackerjack detective with a penchant for not following orders from her superior officers. There was lots of potential for her personality quirks to make her unlikable but the author avoided the potholes and instead created a fascinating woman who was easy to root for. The book is narrated by Griffith, and she has a strong and distinctive voice. The plotting was also well done, with several seemingly disconnected threads coming together in the end. I really enjoyed this debut and look forward to continuing the series.

[dianekeenoy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I did like this book but found that I could easily put it down between readings. Fiona Griffiths is a rookie detective constable and works and thinks very differently from her co-workers. Her great attention to detail makes her either an excellent detective or not so good, depending on what her boss expects of her. The story starts with the murder of a prostitute and her six year old daughter. It gets more intense when the debit card of a very rich man (now dead) is found in the house where they died. Fiona also has 2 years missing from her work history that creates the background of this main character. This makes for another very interesting mystery running along side the main story.

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

SPOILERSFiona Griffiths is a DC in Cardiff, working on two cases; one embezzlement by a former police officer and the other the deaths of a woman and her daughter in a squat. The novel started off promisingly and I liked Fiona's voice, but as we learnt more and more about her mental health, I became almost uneasy. I suppose the author did a good job of demonstrating how fragile her mental health was, but it made for a stressful read. At the very end, when the revelation of Fiona's diagnosis during the missing two years came, it made me wonder about the exact range of symptoms she seemed to have. Were they all attributable to her diagnosis/PTSD? I also wondered how she had managed to reach her mid-twenties without ever having seen her birth certificate...I had initially also thought this was going to be a fairly straight police procedural with a quirky heroine (the holy grail of crime fiction for me!) but it all got a bit much: Fiona's mentor Lev of the secret martial arts skills, Fiona's query criminal father who arranged for her to acquire a gun and ammunition, Fiona goes it alone and takes down all the armed baddies etc etc.I'm not sure I'll read any more, but I can see that other people might really enjoy this series.

[t_k_elliott · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I nearly gave up on this book on Page 1 because it's written in the present tense. I hate the present tense for books.

Still, I'm glad I persevered with this one.

Fiona Griffiths is a very junior detective constable in Cardiff; she's the sort of person you like to have on your team as long as she's managed by somebody else: bright, efficient, but with a bit of a blind spot when it comes to following orders. As is de rigueur with detectives nowadays, Fiona has a Dark Secret In Her Past. I do wonder whether, in real life, she would have got into the police force at all, or once in, managed to stay that way but, hey, whatever.

As a protagonist, Fiona works well if you like your detectives slightly strange, but in a weird-loner way, not a krazy, kooky, klutzy way. I can see that she might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I took to her immediately.

The plot itself moved along with multiple strands, some of which bore fruit and some of which did not. Various characters are introduced (one particularly I hope will reappear). I don't know how much research Bingham did into police procedure, but there was a believable groundedness about his descriptions - a lot of telephoning, a lot of chasing and paperwork.

I didn't quite believe the end - but Bingham did it so well that I didn't care. I burned through this in a sitting, and went to buy the sequel immediately. Despite my slight misgivings about the realism of certain aspects, this was a five star read. Thoroughly recommended. :-)

[berly_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fiona is smart and quirky. There is definitely something off about Fiona, but I like her and will happily follow along on her sleuthing adventures. Besides, I want to find out what's up with her past....I liked it enough to join the Fan Club and get a free download of a prequel and a short story. Yay!

[mmoj_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Terrific book, a little hard to get into at first but I think it's because I read the books out of order, Love Story with Murder, first. I kept trying to fit what I knew about the characters already with what was happening in this story.

This is the story of Fiona Griffiths a young Welsh police officer who's brilliant and clever and quite a bit creepy/scary but in an "I'm so glad she's on our side" sort of way. She's also not so much for following the rules so as the story progresses she manages to irritate her higher-ups who want things to be by the book. Fiona also has some personal issues that she's trying to work through which are aggravated by the case she's working on.

Very much enjoyed this book, especially once I quit trying to match-up what I knew from the first book I read.

[sanddune_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't really read crime fiction. But I've been starting to wonder recently if the reason that I don't read crime fiction is merely because I'm not in the habit of reading crime fiction. After all Scandinoir is one of my favourite TV genres. So when Talking to the Dead was recommended to me as being set in my home patch of South Wales I thought I'd give it a go. And I did very much enjoy this story of Fiona Griffiths, an inexperienced detective constable in the Cardiff branch of the South Wales Police.Fiona (or Fi), a Cambridge Philosophy graduate, is good at her job when she wants to be, but unexpectedly and unpredictably bad at others. Her colleagues perceive her as slightly 'odd', she doesn't drink or smoke and has an unexplained two year blank in her history that she won't talk about. And her father seems to have a slightly dodgy past as well. Certainly her superiors officers are a little doubtful, but when a prostitute and her young daughter are found dead in a run down area of Cardiff, with the daughter having been murdered in a particularly gruesome way, all available officers are called in to assist. Gradually Fiona becomes convinced of a connection between that case and a much more mundane one of embezellment that she is working on, but with nothing more than a hunch to go on how can she convince her superiors? But Fiona is never one to let a little thing like rules get in her way ...This was an enjoyable read which kept me hooked until the end, and I liked the portrayal of South Wales. Fiona was an interesting character who will clearly develop in future books. But the character that I absolutely loved, suprisingly, was Fiona's father. I would never have thought that I could warm so much to a character whose business is running pole-dancing clubs, but I did absolutely. (I feel sure that I have been lulled into a false sense of security and he may turn out to be an axe murderer in future books but we will see).

[crazymamie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So this is the book I mentioned when I said that Julia and Joe were discussing this series (over on Joe's thread, I am thinking), and it sounded good, so I looked up the first one on Amazon, only to realize that I already had it in the stacks. It was offered for free on Kindle back in November. It's a contemporary murder mystery set in Wales, and featuring Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, a very unusual person who we will slowly discover has suffered a traumatic past. Fiona is smart and spunky and resourceful but does not follow directions well. She is outspoken and tends to think on her feet, not always to her best advantage. The writing here is good, and so is the pacing. For that I could put up with a few holes in the plot and a bit of unevenness with the storyline. I will definitely read the next one.

[scrabblenut · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure at first if I could relate to the strange character of Fiona Griffiths or care about solving the mystery of the murders. However, I stuck with it and soon began to care very much as I got to know Fiona and it became evident how much she cared and acted to make a difference in the lives of women on the fringes of society and trapped in a life they didn't necessarily choose. It was interesting to learn about the very strange Cotard's syndrome, and I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

[bookmagic_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

D.C Fiona Griffiths is a very interesting cop. She seems disconnected from her feelings and throughout the book we learn that she was institutionalized as a teen and though she appears fragile, she goes above and beyond to try and catch the killer or killers of a young mother who was trying to get clean and provide a decent life for her little girl. They are murdered in a horrendous fashion. Her supervisor knows Fiona has a habit of going off book and tries to reign her in but he knows she gets results.For the most part this was quite enjoyable. Though I found Fiona a bit disconcerting with her intensity. But it began to make sense as the novel progressed and i think and hope it was providing background for a new series. I would definitely read another book with this character.

[ronrose1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story of first year Detective Constable Fiona Griffith of the South Wales Police Force. At barely over five feet tall she is not an imposing figure, but more than makes up for it in determination. She is not one to take readily to orders and often thinks outside the box. She does however want to keep her newly won position, so she is burying her head in financial figures trying to uncover the embezzlement trail of an ex-police officer. She finds some relief from this drudgery, when a double homicide is called in to the office. A prostitute and her young daughter have been brutally murdered. Fiona is assigned only a small part of the investigation. She finds herself drawn to the young girl whose skull has been crushed in and the mystery surrounding her death. Fiona is hiding her own mysteries. As a teenager she had a complete breakdown. For a long period of time she felt that she was dead. She was out of touch with reality and spent a lot of time under psychiatric care. Even now she has times when she is more comfortable around the dead than the living. Fiona must face her past as well as the dangerous threats of the present if she is going to find the murderer. This book provided for review by Delacorte Press.

[caitemaire · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fiona "Fi" Griffiths, a new detective with the Cardiff, Wales police department, is a bit of an enigma to her colleagues. She has a philosophy degree from Cambridge, a bit unusual for your average cop. She doesn't drink, not even coffee and is often oddly detached in her emotions. Then there are the missing two years in her resume, when everyone knows something happened to her, but no one can find out what it is.But no one can question that she is a good, if sometimes out of the box cop, very smart and intuitive and a bit ambitious. At least ambitious to follow the cases as she, rather than her superiors, see then, something that does not make her their favorite young detective. So she is upset that with a huge new case breaking but she is tied to doing research on another case that is about to come to trial. Her assigned work is researching the money trail of a man that embezzled a great deal of money from the local school board, but she is trying as hard as she can to get into the new investigation.The new case involves a woman, a prostitute, and her young child that were found dead, murdered, in a particularly horrible and brutal way. A dead prostitute is not that unusual, especially when at first they think is is just another drug overdose, but the obvious murder of the child takes it a while different way. And then there is the credit card found in the hovel they are found in, a place they find she was hiding out in, the credit card of a millionaire that was supposedly killed in a private plane crash a few months ago. A millionaire who, it seems, is tied to the man who Fi is investigating. And Fi can not get over the connection she feels to the case, especially to the little dead girl, a connection that becomes, especially to us the readers who see what is going on in Fi's mind, more than just a bit disturbing.The plot of this story, the mystery that Fi and the police gradually unravel, is quite interesting and with just that, it would be a pretty good book. There are lots of different threads, from a bunch of seeming different cases. But as we watch, it all get tied together and ends with a really great, thrilling conclusion, (at a lighthouse!!) Fi at the very center of pulling it all together. But what puts it over the top is the character of Fi and trying to figure out what is going on with her.Yes, her co-workers know she rarely socializes with them and never drinks. They know about those missing two years. But they have no idea about is that she can only sleep a few hours a night and spends many evenings and early mornings sitting on her back patio smoking pot and tending her pot plants in her wee greenhouse. We will let you read on your own about her, shall be say, odd view of the dead. They don't know that she has been studying martial arts since college as a way to try and control herself and her environment, something that is a real issue for her. And they have no idea..or so she thinks..about her budding romance with a fellow cop, who is going to have to be an extra understanding fellow with Fi as a girlfriend. Fi has demons...and she does what she must to keep them as bay. But happily that also helps to make her a great cop, very in tune with the suffering of the victims. You will be trying to figure out the crime, but I am sure you will also be trying to figure out what is going on with Fi as well, a mystery that is much clearer by the end of the book but still interesting enough to keep you looking forward to future books in this new series.

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First Line: Beyond the window, I can see three kites hanging in the air over Bute Park.The crime scene is a sad one: a woman killed after a short life ruined by drugs and prostitution... and her small six-year-old daughter lying dead beside her. The only thing that marks this crime scene as unusual is one small piece of evidence. Why would a drug addicted prostitute have the debit card of a very wealthy man who's been dead for months?Police headquarters in Cardiff, Wales, has more important cases to focus on, but there's one person who can't let this one go: young Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, who's got a reputation for being odd. She can become intensely focused on certain aspects of an investigation, and she doesn't always pick up on social cues. And everyone has heard about that two-year gap in her past.... (Psst! She had a breakdown. Mind-- you never heard it from me!)Even though she has to get called on the carpet by her superior officer and told that she must do as she's told (no ignoring bits of the investigation that bore her, no haring off on some wild idea that she's gotten), Fi Griffiths has all the hallmarks of a brilliant, intuitive investigator. Told to check out the dead man's credit card and nothing more, Fi rapidly heads off on her own investigation because she's positive that dead little six-year-old has something important to tell her.From the very beginning, Fiona Griffiths grabbed my attention and my sympathy. Throughout most of the book, her mental state is dealt with mostly by hints and innuendo, but the deeper she dives into this investigation, the more obvious it is that something is very wrong with her. From her flashes of insight and her way of putting clues together, to the way she counts the backwards and forwards "if's" in her name, to the way she tries to begin a relationship with a fellow officer, Fiona is an endearing-- and sometimes maddening-- creature.She tries so hard to come down to Planet Normal-- to know when to laugh and how to smile at the right times-- that I couldn't help but want to get to know her and help her. So many times throughout the book, Fiona's thoughts would sing across the page and make me smile in recognition... or make my heart break. This is one incredibly memorable character, and I have to know more about her.The fact that she's involved in a complex and dangerous investigation doesn't hurt one bit either. I couldn't put the pieces of it together and had to rely on Fiona's intuition to get us through. On his website the author states that he's working on more books in the series, and that is very welcome news. One thing that I would hope for in the future is that Fiona learns a bit of caution. The way she plows ahead into danger without waiting for backup-- although it fit the situation-- would mean that she would have a short life expectancy in the real world. Since she's a compelling character who's grabbed my interest in both hands, I want her to live for a good, long time.

[darcia_10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the start of this book. Fi's personality intrigued me, and the plot grabbed my attention. About one-third in, I began losing interest. The plot stalled and moved at a lackluster pace. Fi's character didn't unfold enough. She made odd choices and her behavior was not really explained until nearing the end of the story. Considering the book is written in first person, from Fi's perspective, I didn't think the connection to her was strong enough. I could easily have put this book down halfway through and not bothered to pick it back up. That being said, there were some great parts to the writing. Overall, it was just okay for me.

[chibitika-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Murder fans are drowning in the same old detectives, as entertaining as they may be, but holy cow, Fiona Griffiths is unique! Her story unfolds slowly but the author had good reason to go slow. Excellent story, well written, excellent book!

[usuallee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good mystery. This first in a series features a fascinating protagonist, was very well written, takes place in the exotic (to me) locale of Cardiff, Wales, and has a helluva exciting payoff near the end. The series has earned a spot in my mystery rotation, for sure. Going to read #2 before too long.

[ffortsa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fiona Griffiths is a fascinating character, at the start of her career in police detecting and with some unusual ghosts in her own life. I loved every minute of it, and can't wait for the next. Luckily, I have all the outstanding titles in the series on my Kindle. umptyseven stars for this mystery.

[christopherswann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars. Good crime novel with another "unique" detective narrator. The detective, Fiona, plays a fair amount of cat-and-mouse with the reader, withholding information about herself that seems important (she clearly has a problem, but what is it? autism? psychosis?), yet after awhile this becomes less bothersome as you get into the plot and wrapped up in Fiona's voice. She's damaged goods, but that makes,you root for her all the more. I'll read the next one in this series.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a really gripping, really moving book -- a fine novel as well as a terrific thriller. The central character, Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, is a new recruit to the Cardiff police department, and there is something a little odd about Fiona. It's not that she's stupid (she is in fact very bright) and it's not that she doesn't work like a demon (when it suits her), it's just -- odd. Anyway, Fiona gets caught up in the investigation of the murder of a prostitute and the woman's six-year old daughter, which spirals into an enquiry involving big money, dirty cops, and really dirty -- and dangerous -- dealings. The story won't let go, and neither will the parallel plot, which tells us more and more about Fiona. I almost never give thrillers five stars, but this one merits it. The characters are compelling -- so compelling that you end up caring a lot about them. The writing is vivid and exciting. And the story is terrific. Read it an enjoy: I'm off to start number two

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham is the first book in his series featuring Detective Fiona Griffiths. This first case is an emotional one for Fiona, a mother and her young daughter murdered and left lying in the filth of a squalid low-rent drug house. The mother was known to have worked as a prostitute, but why anyone would have murdered her six year old is a mystery. Fiona feels a connection with the dead and she is sure that the little six year old is trying to tell her something.As heinous as this case proved to be, my real interest lay with the main character. Fiona is a complex multi-layered individual. She doesn’t work well with rules, and has the reputation of being a maverick. The story is told from Fiona’s perspective and her unique voice lifts this book to a much higher level. There is a mystery about Fiona and why she is so different. She had an emotional breakdown in her late teens that cost her a couple of years of her life. She was able to overcome this, graduate from Cambridge University and find a position with the Cardiff police and works at appearing to be a citizen of “Planet Normal” but underneath we can see how vulnerable she is.I found Talking to the Dead to be both a great story and an introduction to a fascinating new character. The author excels in slowly revealing the layers of both the mystery and his main character, and I look forward to reading more about the damaged, slightly weird yet very sympathetic Fiona Griffiths.

[olivermagnus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Detective Fiona Griffiths has trauma in her past and inner demons she battles with on a daily basis. Her social ineptness combined with her maverick nature provides much opportunity for her to get herself into sticky situations. This book is the story of Fiona's first murder case. She is drawn in by the murders of Janet, a part-time prostitute, and her six year old daughter April. Fiona is convinced that Janet and April were in hiding at the time they died, but what were they hiding from? It would be a more mundane case except a bank card bearing the name of a wealthy businessman is found with the body. Unfortunately, that man is also dead.

We know from the very beginning that there is something rather odd about Fiona Griffiths. More than anything she wants to be accepted in "Planet Normal". Obviously there is a gimmick to this book. Fiona has something psychologically off kilter, and we don't learn what it is for quite a while. I thought the author did a great job building up the tension until it's revealed.

The book is well written and Fiona is very interesting. I enjoyed spending some time in Wales too. I would definitely give the next book in the series a try.

[mooose_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3 1/2 stars because it made me laugh, not sure if it came across as witty because i was listening to it (would it have struck me the same way if I was reading the words?) but it did make me chuckle more than a few times. Loved hearing the Welsh names pronounced as well, goodness knows I can't pronounce them when I see them in print.

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

We know from the very beginning that there is something rather odd about Fiona Griffiths. More than anything she wants to be accepted in "Planet Normal". Part of our job as a reader is to unravel why that is not happening. Fiona gets a better understanding of herself when she is told by a friend that she has post traumatic stress disorder, but she can't work out what has triggered this.We know that Fiona lost about two years of her life at the end of her schooling. Eventually we learn that Fiona was diagnosed at that time with a particular disorder. Is it Asberger's or something else?But all this is not to say that Fiona Griffiths is not a valuable detective: as those who are in charge of her know, she needs careful management, but she has insights that no-one else seems capable of. And she tends not to do things by the book, to think outside the square, to act without thinking too much about the danger to herself.This book is the story of Fiona's first murder case: she is drawn in by the murders of Janet, a part-time prostitute, and her six year old daughter April. She is convinced that Janet and April were in hiding at the time they died, but what were they hiding from? Is the credit card of a dead millionaire that Janet has in her possession a vital clue?

[cainebooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

DC Fiona Griffiths is a dynamic, interesting character with a great narrative voice. A mentally disabled character, too, which makes her all the richer, because she isn't yet another cookie cutter character. The plot is good, mildly twisty, and populated with a host of interesting characters. There's no flinching when it comes to that moment in Fiona's life when she realizes that she is not safe, and no matter what she does, she will never be truly safe (And Griffiths is better able to defend herself than most). That's a bad moment in every woman's life, and we all have to keep on going, pretending we are safe. I appreciate the reality of that moment.

[randall6hansen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love a good mystery -- and lead characters with flaws -- so this novel was perfect! About a young detective constable in Wales who finds herself working a major murder case involving the death and beating of prostitutes, as well as drug-dealing, and more. Our young detective suffered a mysterious illness earlier in her life, which is not revealed shortly after the climatic end of the book. Good storytelling and strong characters. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

[maneekuhi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I remember Ian Rankin commenting to a questioner at a book signing that he doesn't write about female protagonists because he feels that he can't get the female voice quite right; he added that he thought that was true of most other male writers as well. I had that in mind as I read Harry Bingham's excellent "Talking to the Dead". Not only does he get the voice "right", but he does it writing in the first person, which I imagine makes it a bit more of a challenge. Fiona is a very interesting copper, a member of the force in Cardiff for the past 2-3 years, a lowly DC. But Fi is bright and a hard worker. She doesn't hang around with the boys at the local pub, and consequently is the butt of numerous whispers and har-har-har's back at the station. She becomes involved in a case involving dead prostitutes which expands to include drugs, people trafficking, embezzlement, etc. There is a hint of past substance abuse problems for Fi and perhaps some other dark episodes to her past. The prose is well done and entertaining, Fi's observations are spot on and occasionall rather humorous. Characters are well developed, including Dave, aka "Buzz", a potential love interest. The tension builds nicely throughout, and includes some scenes that are both shocking and touching at the same time. The biggest flaw is a fairly common one, once again we have the hero charging in without calling for support first; it seems to me that could have been easily avoided given the well done climax the author had developed..I will definitely look forward to book #2 "Love Story with Murders".

[kraaivrouw · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure what to expect from Talking to the Dead, but I was blown away. D.C. Fiona Griffiths will be compared to Carol O'Connell's Mallory, but she's her own person with her own set of issues and weaknesses and many strengths. It's obvious from the beginning that something is off with her, but Mr. Bingham doesn't slam you over the head with her difference and this makes the mystery more compelling - the mystery of her and the mystery she's working to solve.Fiona is a Cambridge graduate with a brilliant analytical mind. She finds her initial work on the police force stultifying - how interesting can forensic accounting really be when you aren't a forensic accountant? When a child and her mother are found dead in a squat, Fiona is captivated and begins to insert herself into the investigation finding unexpected links and causing lots and lots of mayhem.Fiona isn't one note. Her character is well-developed and seeing the events of the book through her eyes is pretty amazing. Her intellect and attention to detail and essential vulnerability make you want to cheer her on and to protect her from herself and the rest of the world. With the beginnings of some great secondary characters, Mr. Bingham's got himself a great series going if he wants to continue the story. If he doesn't the work stands on its own. Much enjoyment to be had in reading this one!