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    Love Story, with Murders
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    Love Story, with Murders
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    Love Story, with Murders
    Audiobook13 hours

    Love Story, with Murders

    Written by Harry Bingham

    Narrated by Siriol Jenkins

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Harry Bingham's Talking to the Dead introduced readers to one of the most compelling new heroines in crime fiction, Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, earning comparisons to Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. Now D.C. Griffiths returns to investigate a series of gruesome murders-and their connection to her own shadowy past.

    D.C. Fiona Griffiths is facing the prospect of a dull weekend when the call comes in, something about illegal dumping in a Cardiff suburb. But when she arrives on the scene she finds, in a garage freezer, a severed human leg, complete with a pink suede high-heeled shoe.

    South Wales police are able to ID the body part as that of a young woman who went missing five years earlier; a young woman who once made a living as an exotic dancer. All at once, Fiona's job as a detective and her role as a loving daughter collide: Fiona's father owns a Cardiff strip club and was once deeply involved in the local crime scene.

    Still in recovery from a devastating psychotic breakdown, Fiona is wary of exploring a path that might end at her father's door . . . yet her obsessive approach to criminal investigation leaves her no other option.

    But Fiona's specialty is not the living, it is the dead. And as she is just starting to get into the murdered girl's head, a severed hand is found-and this one is male.

    Soon, police are swamped with an increasing number of body parts found in and around suburban gardens, sheds, and garages. Media attention is intense, and investigators are working from a list of hundreds of persons of interest. When the department identifies the second victim, Fiona struggles to connect him with the dead stripper. What do the victims have in common? And why this macabre method of disposing the corpses?

    The answers may be more than Fiona can handle. Because in order to solve the riddle of these hideous murders, D.C. Fiona Griffiths will have to delve into the mysteries of her past-and hope she comes out intact . . . and alive.

    Praise for Love Story, with Murders

    "A most intriguing, if peculiar, detective . . . Although his volatile protagonist certainly dominates the first-person narrative, [Harry] Bingham doesn't stint on plot (very complicated), procedures (very detailed) or action (very brutal). . . . Satisfying."-Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

    "Love Story, with Murders is a dark delight, and I look forward to Fiona's future struggles with criminals, her demons and the mysteries of her past."-The Washington Post

    "Bingham's superb second police procedural featuring Det. Constable Fiona Griffiths delivers an even more intense plot and richer character study than his first. . . . Fiona's past mental problems and her unconventional personality make her a distinctive lead."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    "Some of the most memorably staccato narration in the genre . . . [Bingham's] remote, unquenchable heroine makes her stand apart from every one of her procedural brothers and sisters."-Kirkus Reviews

    "Compelling . . . [Love Story, with Murders] amply proves the freshness and flair that [Bingham] has brought to the police procedural. . . . Surprisingly delicate, it weaves a sinuous, seductive spell and confirms we have a new crime talent to treasure."-Daily Mail (UK)

    "Love Story, with Murders boasts what must be the most startling protagonist in modern crime fiction."-The Sunday Times (London)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 23, 2019
    ISBN9781978648685
    Unavailable
    Love Story, with Murders
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for Love Story, with Murders

    4/5

    147 ratings28 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Drop the psychological drama. It is so annoying. I couldn’t listen to all the hand-wringing.
    • 4/5
      Delightful... a strange word to use about a novel which is largely related to a serial killer hunt; but the character of Fiona Griffiths is delightful, especially when she is trying to be normal.
    • 4/5
      The second book in the DC Fiona Griffiths series (Talking to the Dead is #1). I didn't find this one quite as good as the first, but Fiona remains a dynamic character with a fantastic narrative voice. I particularly like her penchant for making friends with unlikely people. The relationship with Rhiannon Watkins in this book is priceless, and the friendship with Penry continues.
    • 3/5
      This is the second book in the series with Fiona Grittiths as the main character. It is well written, but sometimes very technical and a little bit dry. Fiona gets into a detailed investigation of two very bizarre cases in the Welsh countryside. At times, the storyline comes across as unbelievable as Fiona always is able to get herself out of very crazy situations. I was compelled though, to follow the story through to the end and will read the next book in the series.
    • 4/5
      This is a good book but...it is hard to warm up to Fiona. She's independent and bright and very interesting, but off putting. Sometimes the quirks an author gives a character are a bit much. She's growing on me though. This book (2nd in the series) is a little stronger and more relatable than the last , so they are improving, and the first one was pretty good. So while better, that's all this one was as well though--pretty good. Maybe I'm being too harsh -- considering the amount of dreck and drivel I've come across lately-- pretty good ain't bad.
    • 5/5
      Another terrific Fiona Griffiths mystery. This one combines a few good mysteries, and lets Fiona search more for answers about her past. Looking forward to the next book.
    • 5/5
      Thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program for the chance to discover yet another excellent series from a talented author. (more later)
    • 5/5
      Love Story with Murders by Harry Bingham is the second book in his series featuring DC Fiona Griffiths, and this series is quite simply fantastic. Fiona is a dominant, fiery, slightly psychotic personality but this book offers a lot more than superbly developed characters. The plot is intricate, there is plenty of action and the police procedures are detailed and informative.This book opens with the discovery of two bodies, both chopped into pieces and scattered or placed in some pretty obscure places. The police work hard trying to find the connection between these two murders, even though they occurred some five years apart. This bizarre situation develops into a complex, convoluted case that eventually becomes bogged down with politics. Fiona, heavily invested in this case is nonetheless still working through discovering her own identity and trying to find her place on “Planet Normal”. She finds herself falling in love with her boyfriend and thinking about a future that could include marriage and children.An excellent police procedural that draws the reader in and has you rooting for the police to nail the bad guys. The star is without question the intense and quirky Fiona who has made these books a “must” read for me.
    • 5/5
      This terrific thriller is number two in the Harry Bingham's Fiona Griffiths series, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Fiona, who we met in "Talking With the Dead", is NOT a nice normal Welsh policeperson, she has mental issues that make "keeping it together" a major accomplishment on her part. She also has an excellent brain, a great deal of determination, and a much more fighting ability than one would expect. This story starts off with a pair of murders in which each body has been dismembered and distributed about a Cardiff neighborhood -- five years apart. The story is complex but gripping: I didn't lose track and I stayed glued to the page. The author has a terrific gift for creating secondary characters; each one stands out as an individual. A top notch thriller, but, even more than with most series, I'd recommend reading the first novel in the series before starting this one.
    • 5/5
      Every once in a while I read an Early Reviewer book and find it so enjoyable that I have to read more of the author, sometimes devouring everything they have written. Love Story, with Murders by Harry Bingham is just such a book and Fiona Griffiths is the character that hooked me. Sadly, there was only one other offering to devour, the first book in this series, Talking to the Dead. Love Story, with Murders is set in Wales and the main character is D.C. Fiona Griffiths, a quirky, imperfect policewoman. The story opens with a call about illegal dumping that leads to a chest freezer containing a frozen human leg complete with pink suede platform shoe. Pretty soon more body parts show up in seemingly random places and as Sherlock Holmes would say, "The game is afoot!." I found the story line intriguing and creative, surprising me with twists and taking me on a thrilling ride. I truly love a female detective who is an individual, with quirks and imperfections and Fiona fits the bill. She has intuitions about the dead, seeing and feeling things that you and I would not. Love Story, with Murders and Talking to the Dead are both very well-written with great plots and interesting characters. I would suggest reading them in order as Talking to the Dead gives lots of insight into Fiona's life. I highly recommend both books to anyone who loves a good crime thriller. I will be impatiently waiting for the next installment in this series. Hopefully Harry Bingham has many more volumes in him!
    • 5/5
      I found Love Story, with Murders to be a very enjoyable read. I really liked the main character. I felt that the author was able to make this book unique with Fiona's mental disorder. She sees and feels things differently then most people, which makes it more interesting. I will definably read the first of this series and hope that more will come soon.
    • 3/5
      This is my first book by Harry Bingham and I was pleasantly surprised. I had never heard of the author of this book before winning this ARC. This is the second book in the Fiona Griffiths series. I have not read the first one so not sure if that mattered. I still enjoyed the book. I now want to read the first and third books.Fiona Griffiths is a cop in the UK. She is not your typical cop. Her adoptive father is a known criminal that has never been convicted. Fiona also has some problems with her mental state. I don't even know how to describe it.There are two murders in this book that are connected but not by being committed by the same people. They are connected by Love. Fiona has her way of investigating which isn't always above the law. Her life is also put in jeopardy twice. She is left for dead in the freezing cold and the way she survives is interesting. Fiona is also trying to figure out who she is. She starts investigating into her father's past and trying to find out why she was left in the back of her father's car one day during church. She feels that her father knows who her parents are and that there is a reason why he is her father. That is the part that really has me interested in the series.
    • 4/5
      I had never heard of this author of the series until I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers program. I read the first two chapters and then realized I wanted to start the series at the beginning so I bought Talking to the Dead and read it first. I loved Talking to the Dead. This second book in the series is not quite as good as the first.The primary detective character (Fiona) is creatively imagined and complex. She has a mental illness that almost becomes a character in the series which adds interest to the storyline. I wish that the Buzz character got a bit more development -- he's generally just the "oh by the way" boyfriend. Rhiannon Watkins is fleshed out in a more satisfying way as I hope Fiona's father will be as the series moves forward. The story starts with two murders and largely continues with the exploration of one without much focus on the other until the very end of the book when, almost as an afterthought, the author seems to remember he's left a loose end that he scrambles to tie up. I will read future books in the series but I hope that the main plotlines are woven as tightly as the one in the first book.
    • 5/5
      I loved his book! Love Story, with Murders is a fast, easy read that will keep you entertained. It is the story of a young Detective Constable who is dealing with a psychotic breakdown while trying to find out about her own past, when she gets a call to investigate what turns out to be a body dismemberment. As she investigates who killed and dismembered the girl, there is another body showing up in pieces. While the entire force is trying to figure out how these two are related, D.C. Griffiths realizes her fathers shady past might have something to do with it. List of twists and turns that will keep you guessing or at least entertained in trying to figure out "who dun it ".I will be looking for more on this series.
    • 3/5
      Very interesting read a little to descriptive of things that really didn't add to the story, but some people like that, other than that it was very good.
    • 5/5
      "Love Story, With Murders" is an exceptional read. Welsh police woman Fi is a cross between Harry Hole and Lisbeth Salander. The story centers around two murders, starting with a body part being found in someone's freezer. Fi is not quite right in the head. Found at the age of 2 and adopted by a couple in which the husband is shady. Harry Bingham is a brilliant writer. The prose really blew me away.A great read.
    • 5/5
      Wow! Read this book! It's wonderful to discover a great new mystery writer (there is an earlier title as well). Fiona Griffiths is a most unusual detective - her father is a former (?) master criminal and Fiona has a history of severe mental illness. Because she once felt dead herself, she has a feeling for the dead. She's a rule breaker, a creative thinker, and when necessary, a dirty fighter. Harry Bingham clearly has a gift for characterization, as even minor characters are not only distinguishable, but memorable. And when have you read a mystery set in Cardiff?Happy reading!
    • 5/5
      Fiona Griffiths, a young detective on the South Wales police force, feels a strong affinity with the dead. Not surprising since she suffers from Cotard’s Syndrome, an illness that causes its sufferers to think they are dead (I looked it up. Turns out, that’s a real syndrome). So when a human leg is discovered among some rubbish, she couldn’t be happier. Well, at least not until she discovers the head in a vat of old motor oil. It turns out to be parts from a college student missing for five years. Then body parts of another victim start turning up in the same area. Fiona becomes obsessed with the case and its victims and is determined to go wherever they lead her. Unfortunately, one of the places is a strip club owned by her adoptive dad, once one of the most notorious criminals in all of Wales. Okay, so I’ll admit I decided to read this book solely because of the title, Love Story with Murders. It just struck me as all kinds of fun: humorous, quirky, just slightly twisted. Happily, it lived up to the expectations it offered. The story itself is pretty good, lots of action and not a little humour amongst the gore (I mean, how can body parts strewn willy nilly all over a Cardiff neighbourhood not be funny in a weird, slightly bent sort of way), but it ‘s really the characters that kept me up all night reading from Fiona’s seemingly oblivious but caring boyfriend to her decidedly ‘butch’ boss with romance issues, her secretive Russian friend, her loving if somewhat larcenous dad, and two very nasty hit men who take umbrage with her investigation. But it is Fiona who owns this tale as one of the most eccentric but likable heroines ever to grace the pages of a murder mystery.
    • 4/5
      When South Wales Constable Fiona Griffiths is called out on a mundane case she stumbles onto a women's leg carefully wrapped and hidden in a garage freezer. Later, parts from another body are found and complex cases with almost no clues are set in motion. Griffiths is able to make connections that others cannot not see but the story is believable. The plot retains the reader's attention throughout the book and the action spreads and picks up as the story moves along. In the middle of the book Griffiths comes head to head with some killers and the action, which covers several chapters, is terrific. The crime story is entertaining on its own but Griffiths story is just as compelling. She was found abandoned when she was just 2 1/2 by a crime boss who raised her. Underlying the story is Griffiths search for who she is. She is a complex character fully able to be sympathetic and sweat when necessary but also able to take down some tough bad guys. She has issues and the reader will wonder just how stable she really is. I look forward to seeing how her story plays out in future books.This is Bingham's second story with her and he is writing another. This story holds up well when compared to the writing of people like Patterson, Parker, Child, Grafton, Gardiner and others. If you like any of those you should try Bingham who may just be one of the best in the mystery/detective genre. I give this book a strong recommendation.
    • 5/5
      If I had simply picked this book up in a bookstore and glanced through it, I never would have bought it, because I intensely dislike books written in present tense. However, as I got it through the early Reviewer's group, I forced myself to read it. I would have enjoyed it greatly if it had been written in past tense, but I found it wasn't quite as annoying as other books in present tense, and the story was good, with great characters and plot. It is very unusual for me to actually buy a book in present tense, but this story was so good that I immediately bought Talking to the Dead and look forward to more books about Fiona Griffiths.
    • 5/5
      I'm really enjoying this new mystery series. Set in Cardiff, Wales in present day, it's narrated by D.I. Fiona Griffiths, whose loving and generous father, a major crime boss in the area, owns a string of lap-dancing clubs. As a teenager, Fiona had a psychotic breakdown and was diagnosed with Cotard's syndrome. She's still a bit tweaky, but it is that very tweakiness which helps her see things just differently enough to sometimes make connections other detectives don't catch. It also alienates some of her co-workers and usually rubs her bosses the wrong way. As she says at one point: "She (her commanding officer) doesn't seem to be angry with me now, which always feels weird. If I spend too long alone with a senior officer without them reprimanding me, I'm not quite sure what's going on." Anyway, in this (the second book of the series), the severed leg of a former lap dancer gone missing five years previously is found in the freezer of a recently deceased elderly lady, and then suddenly a whole mess of body parts from two different victims ~ one from the older crime, one quite recent ~ start turning up around the neighborhood. Are the two murders connected? Could they be connected to her father's shady business practices? What is the connection of those murders to a guy who, while in prison for drug smuggling, killed himself? The mystery was good, I really like the character of Fiona, and I like the setting. There were some lovely turns of phrases that I enjoyed very much, and a few bits made me chuckle out loud, though this is not a typical English cozy. Not much in the way of vivid descriptions of gore, but it's not tea and roses either. There were a few minor issues (for me) with grammar and usage, but I decided to put it down to differences between British English and American English usage and just get back to the intriguing story.
    • 5/5
      Another free Early Reviewer book from my favorite site The Library Thing.com.This was a great, not-want-to-put-down, fast read London based police detective story with a main character somewhat like Stieglitz Larsson's Lisbeth Salander but with a slightly milder personality ( which I liked). It is very well written for this type novel and as with some mysteries of this sort, you are not always able to figure out plot twists etc. The only thing I disliked was that 1) it ended too soon and 2) that loose ends were left so that means a sequel or two is forthcoming - which is good meaning I will have more of this author to read but bad because I will have to wait and you know how that goes- always takes a year or so for the next ones to arrive on market! I loved this book and would recommend it ao all who like this type mystery.
    • 4/5
      I won an early review copy through librarything (thank you). Two murders, years apart, have similar MO's, yet the victims are seemingly unrelated. Until a detective goes rogue and begins to put the pieces together. The lead character is very bright and very interesting with a history of mental disease. Some of the wanderings into her mental lapses are a little too much for me, but they did deepen her as a character. Don't be deceived by the title. This is a grisly thriller NOT a love story in the traditional sense. Thriller readers, grab it when you can. I look forward to reading more from this author.
    • 4/5
      Quirky is good. I like quirky. Some of my favorite books and people are quirky. Perhaps though, they are quirky in a different way from D.C. Fiona Griffith. Because for no reason I can put my finger on, I didn't like her. I feel that she has a wee mean streak. I also didn't really fall in love with any of the other characters. What added a star to my rating for Love Story, With Murders was the story. Two murders that could not possibly be connected, or could they? The fact that the victims were cut into bits and hidden in random places didn't mean they had any more than a copycat kiler on their hands. Except D.C. Fiona Griffith or FI as she was called, felt that there was much more to the story than met the eye. Fi had an unusual way of investigating. She did not adhere strictly to any reasonable set of rules. She tended to follow random trails no one else perceived, and had a knack for getting herself into tight spots. Also, she was investigating more than the murders her fellow officers and detectives were investigating. She was investigating her own past. She wanted to know why she was broken in her own particular, and peculiar way. Well e all want to know that, don't we? It was a good story. I liked that some of the places named were places I had been, or been near to. That always adds a bit of spice to a story. I think that crime novel fans will enjoy this story. Love Story, With Murders is book two in the D.C. Fiona Griffith series. I myself won't be pursing the first, or the next, but you might want to. As I said, the story is good, lots of different possibilities. But I just didn't like Fi very well, not did I care much about any of the others. That always spoils the story for me. But that aside, it was a good read.
    • 5/5
      My first encounter with DC Fiona Griffiths was in Harry Bingham's Talking to the Dead, and it became one of my Best Reads of 2012. Love Story, With Murders is now one of my Best Reads of 2014, and it has everything to do with Fiona... Fi. While in her teens she suffered an unusual sort of breakdown, and it has colored everything in her world: how she relates to people, how she thinks, how she copes with stress. She's almost the idiot savant of the Cardiff police force-- one moment disobeying orders and haring off to do something extremely foolhardy, and the next moment putting totally disparate clues together to crack a case. Reviewers have likened her to Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, and they are similar in their strange intelligence, but where Lisbeth radiates hostility, Fi is often endearing-- especially once you know the truth about her breakdown.Love Story, With Murders continues the story of Fi's reintroduction to the normal world. She's got a man in her life now, and she works to remember to do all that "boyfriend stuff" that he expects. You can almost chart her progress as the pages turn, and it makes you feel good. She's also developing a rapport with her boss, Rhiannon Watkins, a woman so disliked that she could be "the first murder victim with over a million plausible suspects. A group that would include every one of her CID colleagues." Watkins can see flashes of Fi's brilliance, and Fi always seems to ignore the superficial to see things in people that normally go unnoticed. Boyfriend, boss... and family, for Fi's father also becomes part of the investigation, which is both a worry and a help to the young detective constable.The case is a true puzzler; however, I was so wrapped up in watching Fiona put the clues together that I made no attempt to solve the crimes ahead of her. Bingham has combined an absolutely brilliant characterization with a finely constructed mystery-- for the second time in a row. Love Story, With Murders can be read as a standalone, but if wonderful characters are one of the main reasons why you read, why deny yourself the pleasure of even one paragraph of Fiona Griffiths' story?
    • 5/5
      The only reason for not making "Love Story with Murders" (LS) your very next book is that you haven't read the first book in the series, "Talking To The Dead" (TD). It's critical to read this series in order, so hurry up and read TD first. Here's some more good news - the third book, "The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths" (SD) has just been released in the UK. The bad news is that the publisher, for some very STRANGE reason, has decided not to publish SD in the USA at this time. What are they thinking?! I'm not going to wait for them to see the light, I'll just order SD from Amazon UK and pay the exorbitant shipping and handling charges to the USA. Here's more good news - it is rumored that the author is almost finished with book #4 in the series - since this is the Fiona Griffiths series, it is safe to suggest that the title of #3 is a bit of a ruse. Why should you take my word for all this, particularly my enthusiasm for this series. Well, I read about 100 books per year, mostly crime fiction. I have read many, many series, including some of the best - Rankin, Nesbo, Billingham, Larssen (both Stieg and Asa), George, Wagner, Lawton, Templeton, Indridason, Gage, Enger, Bolyon, Robotham, etc. etc. None in my view are better than Bingham. Fiona is a refreshing character, flawed in a new and unusual way (read the books and find out for yourselves), brilliant, action oriented, and fiercely independent. She carries some very different family baggage, and is slowly evolving; her handling of a very sensitive situation with a superior officer was very touching, very moving. She can be very frustrating and she doesn't always do what you expect nor want her to.Yet, in #2 LS she saves her own skin (pun) in a rather ingenious way - an extremely tense scene. There is plenty of other tension in LS. Towards the end, things are going unusually well for Fi. You just know that can't last forever. You realize that you are finger-nail biting waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop, what a change from the usual thriller. The prose, dialog, and characters are all excellent. The story is about some body parts that are suddenly discovered hidden away in some nearby "in plain sight" locations. Some new, some old - so where do you start that kind of an investigation? Already, I'm guessing about that "strange death" title. I don't think it'll be too long before I place my order for #3.
    • 4/5
      The second entry in Bingham's innovative Fiona Griffiths series, about a Detective Constable in South Wales whose personal situation make her both a very good detective and a very bad team player. In this one, Fiona and colleagues are faced with the discovery of two dismembered corpses: one turns out to be a missing persons case from a few years earlier, and the other is a recent murder. The discovery of the various body parts in the same general vicinity argues for the two cases to be connected, but the police struggle to make a connection between the victims until Fiona expands the range of possible motives.It's hard to overstate how interesting Fiona is as a main character. On one hand, these are standard police procedural mysteries, though tightly plotted and peopled with interesting characters, good guys and bad guys alike. On the other hand, the notion of a first-person narrator who openly acknowledges her personal (and ongoing) history of mental illness is not one I can recall ever encountering before. Bingham excels with his sympathetic and unsentimental portrayal of Fiona: She asks for no sympathy or accommodation either from the reader or her police bosses. Most valuably, Fiona is portrayed as a productive member of society not despite her mental illness but in many ways because of it. It's an invaluable viewpoint in a world where too often mental illness is treated as something shameful or as a stigma that completely cancels out any abilities the person might have.
    • 3/5
      Solid, well-written mystery. Structure of the mystery and its resolution was not too terribly sound, but this is forgivable since I enjoyed the vivid atmosphere and the main character. Second book in the series. First one was better. I do intend to carry on with the series and read the third one.