A Deadly Thaw cover art

A Deadly Thaw

Inspector Francis Sadler, Book 2

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

A Deadly Thaw

By: Sarah Ward
Narrated by: Julia Anthony
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
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

It's 2004. In Bampton, Derbyshire, Lena Fisher is arrested for suffocating her husband, Andrew.

Spring 2016: A year after Lena's release from prison, Andrew is found murdered in a disused mortuary. Who was the man Lena killed 12 years ago, and why did she lie about his identity? When Lena disappears, her sister, Kat, follows a trail of clues delivered by a teenage boy.

Sarah Ward's second novel confirms her place as one of the UK's most exciting new crime writers.

©2016 Sarah Ward (P)2016 W.F. Howes Ltd Crime Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Murderer's Son cover art
Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story cover art
The Fall cover art
All for You cover art
A Limited Justice cover art
The Seven Sisters cover art
The Infirmary: A DCI Ryan Mystery (Multicast Drama) cover art
Game Over cover art
Deadly Lies cover art
Blood Atonement cover art
Cut Short cover art
Good Girls Don't Die cover art
Dead Secret cover art
The Girls in the Water cover art
Born in a Burial Gown cover art
Murder on the Marshes cover art

Critic reviews

"The most engaging debut I have come across in a long time." (Yrsa Sigurdardottir, praise for In Bitter Chill)
"A twisted, skilful and entirely intriguing mystery." (Quentin Bates, praise for In Bitter Chill)
All stars
Most relevant  

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Absolutely not! The book is okay but the narration was really terrible. It sounded like the person narrating was learning to read as they went along and had no awareness of the actual content/meaning of the words she was saying out loud. The intonation completely destroyed the author's intent and quite often mispronunciation was just ludicrous. Overall the narration was so distracting that I couldn't get into the novel and really couldn't say whether it's any good. Out of deference to the effort that authors put into their work I always finish a novel but this one was through gritted teeth! I found myself musing on how audible versions of books are produced, from the initial selection of the narrator, through the actual recording of the performance of the work, to the involvement (if any) of the author. This is the first time that I have considered asking for a refund of my listening credit and I have listened to hundreds of books on Audible for over 10 years now. My advice to those thinking of listening to this is to take a few minutes to listen to the sample before you add it to your basket ... or perhaps just read the novel rather than listen to it.

What didn’t you like about Julia Anthony’s performance?

See my comments above.

Do you think A Deadly Thaw needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not if it's the same narrator ...

Any additional comments?

The first in this series was great (different narrator) but the narration of this one has stopped me dead in my tracks. If there's another one and it has the same narrator then I won't be listening to it which is a great shame as the series promised to be really good.

the narrator killed this one

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

What would have made A Deadly Thaw better?

A different narrator.

Would you recommend A Deadly Thaw to your friends? Why or why not?

No, the book was recommended by somebody with similar taste in books. I chose to download the audio version. It is a lesson to me that a bad narrator can ruin a story.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Other people have detailed the mispronunciations that pepper the narration, they were very distracting. The emphasis often fell on the wrong part of the sentence and some of the voices of the characters were just strange.

Any additional comments?

Just don't understand how this got through the editing process.

Is narration not edited?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I nearly gave up on this book because of the narration. It was not easy to distinguish between the accents of different characters and there were many mispronounced words.

Disappointing narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Story is interesting but the narrator is awful very boring and no character I almost returned it but stuck with it.

Good story awful narrative

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

What would have made A Deadly Thaw better?

I'm sure this is a good book to read, but the narration is awful. The pronunciation of some words is laughable and the whole thing is just very poorly read. I haven't even managed to listen to the end. What a shame, I really enjoyed this author's first book but this has put me off.

Dreadful narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I genuinely cannot tell if this book is good or not. It has an intriguing premise and I've previously enjoyed a book written by Sarah Ward.

The narrator made it impossible for me to concentrate on the story, such was my incredulity at the amount of mispronounced words. Very distracting.

Viscous is an altogether different word than vicious, and relevation is a made up one!

This one is going back.

The Narration!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have to agree with the other reviewers - a good detective story let down by an appalling narration. The narrator, editor and publisher should all be ashamed to have let the multiple mispronunciations of not uncommon words go uncorrected. The childish emphasis applied to many phrases and sentences completely took away their meaning and impact.

What a shame.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Story was okay. I listen to alot of crime series and there was nothing new in the characterisation and the 'romance' between characters was just too obvious. I think it would have been better with a better narrator. Like others, the mis-pronunciation of words and the tone of the voice grated. I also struggled to make out the different voices which made it harder to follow the story and who was talking. The voices did not seem to go with the characters and just felt a little young - more for children's book I think.

Story Okay, narration not so good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love audio books but it really grates when words are mispronounced. Also (bless her) she is good at some accents, but also somehow sounds like a year 5 kid reading a book report. Story good, if you can get over the presentation.

Mispronounced much?!

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

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the written book but not the Audiobook

What didn’t you like about Julia Anthony’s performance?

No sense of timing, no flow, mispronounced words, sounded like a schoolchild reading to a class. Nearly gave up listening but carried on out of respect for the author

Do you think A Deadly Thaw needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes please but with a different Narrator.

Any additional comments?

Please withdraw this edition and re-record with a different Narrator.

Worst Narration I have ever heard

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews