A Bustle in the Hedgerow

CASMIRC #1

by Ben Miller

"This nail-biter teems with suspense...An unrelenting debut thriller." --Kirkus Reviews The strangled body of a 9-year-old girl is discovered behind a hedgerow bordering her school playground in York, Pennsylvania. The local authorities’ only clue lies in a scrap of paper left in her front pocket, with a short phrase printed on it in an unfamiliar language. Jackson Byrne, an FBI agent who specializes in investigating crimes against children, has just completed a book tour promoting his best-seller about solving his most recent high-profile case—the abduction and murder of a celebrity’s young daughter. Unexpectedly, Jack receives an invitation from an old family friend and powerful political insider urging him to run for the U.S. Senate. At the same time, his FBI division learns of the murder of another child with a similar mysterious message, launching them into a search for a serial killer given the moniker The Playground Predator. As Jack becomes torn between his excitement about a new career and others’ expectations of a celebrated investigator, he must also continue to deal with demons from his past. While Jack’s devoted wife, a sycophantic young FBI colleague, and an ambitious and attractive female reporter all try to influence his path, none of them pulls the strings as effectively as the enigmatic Randall, the psychologically disturbed but brilliant Playground Predator himself, who orchestrates his own master plan,eventually dragging Jack into an inevitable showdown. "A BUSTLE IN THE HEDGEROW starts out deceptively simple, but gets more complex and interesting as the mystery deepens. Characters are three-dimensional and multifaceted... a good psychological thriller that allows the reader to piece together the clues to a mystery." --Catherine Langrehr, IndieReader

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Ebooks, Crime, Fiction

475 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 25, 2013

Reviews

[Kimba Tichenor · Rating 4 out of 5]

My expectations were not high for this book given that it is self published and through Bookbub, I received a free copy. So I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be quite good. I don't want to give away the plot, but unlike some mysteries it is believable and the various twists and turns work very well. My only criticism is that the writing style leaves a little to be desired, meaning this is not a book where you will be impressed by any particular turn of phrase. The prose is adequate at best. That said I would definitely consider buying and reading another book by this author because of how well the various plot lines are woven together.

[Jann Swanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shouldn't be This Hard...

to read an OK book.

And it was an OK book, would have given it a weak four stars if it hadn't been so messy. Constant run-on words and paragraphs, tons of typos, and a terrible job of converting to Kindle format, exacerbated by a dumb decision to right justify text. Every apostrophe (and maybe all quotes as well) had an extra space before and after. It was all so distracting as to be very difficult to follow a rather cut up story line.

Miller should pull down his book and have another go at proofreading and formatting. It would be a shame to let easily repaired technical stuff torpedo a pretty good read.

[Sandy Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 4.5 star rating

While I really enjoyed this book, I felt the author occasionally seemed to feel the need to insert superfluous wording such as, "She rapidly shook her head with a few small oscillations and smiled." I also was irritated that Jack, a supposed top-notch agent was so slow to note the obvious....the killer is focused on him so who else would likely be in danger? Then there is the ending - all that trauma and the outcome a mere blip. I know it is designed to lead into the next chapter in Jack's life, but it is, in my opinion, a poor one.

[Bev.proffitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perseverance does help with reading this book

Glad I persevered with this book as it was incredibly hard going and a bit slow in parts but as it gets to chapter 80 the whole plot finally picks up speed and becomes a roller coaster of emotions with a good storyline. I do however appreciate that this is the first book introducing CASMIRC and the leading characters so I will be purchasing The Piper just to see how the leading character Jack Byrne gets on.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riveting Read

I admit that when my book club chose this selection I was ambivalent about reading it. I’m not a big fan of crime and detective books so I approached this with an obligatory attitude of just getting it done so I could check it off my list. However somewhere in the first 50 or so pages of the book I was hooked and swiftly completed it to the end. The antagonist is both repulsive and intriguing as he should be, the protagonist is flawed yet likable and the plot has enough twists and turns to hold one’s interest. I’m captivated enough to want to read the sequel. A very satisfying read!

[Dayna Hauschild · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivated from the beginning, it took me some time to come to appreciate the character of Jackson Bryne. Confident yet vulnerable Ben Miller developed Jackson throughout the story to make him more relatable for me. I appreciated the suspense and intrigue that Miller set up from the beginning of the book that caught my attention and held it throughout the novel.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this book, having expected a mundane, formulaic thriller. Based on a difficult subject matter that was researched and handled quite well. It's rather like meeting up with a brilliant, psychotic child serial killer not unlike Hannibal Lecter, yet quite a bit different. This killer has a specific agenda that involves an FBI Special Agent, the main protagonist of this story.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good character development. The story moves at a good pace and keeps you guessing. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Debbie Oxier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good read with a very different ending from what I'm used to in a thriller. It left me with mixed emotions, building to a climax and then a totally unexpected finish. Jackson Byrne was an FBI agent who wrote a best selling book about the case that made his career. Now he's been approached by some politicos who want him to take over a soon to be vacated Senate seat. He's leaning towards accepting even as a new case is presented to his department. The body of a young girl has been discovered. The lead is given to to Jackson's colleague, Heath O'Reilly.

At this point a good portion of the book featured Heath as he worked the case. He was spotlighted almost as much as Jackson, however, as the Playground Predator evolves and more children are killed, it soon becomes obvious that the killer has it in for Jackson and that for the time being, at least, he'll have to put his political career on hold in order to bring a killer to justice.

I really liked the characters even though Jackson and Heath shared much of the limelight. I would love to see both of them in a future book together. Heath bears some resentment towards Jackson because of his recent fame, which makes an interesting dynamic between the two of them. I also liked Jackson's family, wife Vickie, and young son, Jonas. A couple of other colleagues at the Bureau played minor parts in the solving of the case. I'd like to see their roles expand if there's another book.

The only drawback I found to the book was the number of mistakes a good editor could have cleared up. Words run together. Gaps in sentences where half was on one line, the other half on the line below it. Simple things that will hopefully be corrected in the next book. Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Gripping enthralling read.

This book was Excellently written and had me gripped from the first page till the last. Ben Miller is an author i will now follow and I can't wait until his next book in this series comes out.

[Brenda Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't for a moment believe you can put this book down before finishing it !!

One minute you are trapped inside the mind of a child killer, next you'll experience the visceral agony of the FBI agent who must stop him from murdering a final time. Amazingly well written. The best book I've read in ages. Keep up your excellent work Ben Miller !!!

[Ruth King · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Thriller

FBI versus Serial killer with a personal agenda! This is a great story that will keep you guessing. Great work!

[Margaret Wray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Great story line and a couple of twists.

[CMT-Michigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack is a star detective who is considering leaving his field for politics. However, a horrible case with young girls being murdered, and Jack is being drawn into the case. I don't want to say too much about the murders, the case, etc, because this is a mystery. It did a great job of drawing me in, and the book moved along at a good pace. The story also shows the serial killer's point of view with some twists along the way. The ending seemed a little anti-climactic to me, but it's a setup for the next few books in the series.

[Lynda Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, plenty of reviews warned me there were errors in this book but they seemed to refer to cases of the words running into each other. Yet I didn't come across those types of mistakes once, although just about every other type. I persevered till 48% but by then I'd just had enough and couldn't bear to see anymore.
The story itself was going along nicely and I especially liked how he gives us little future vignettes of life ahead for some of the bit players. I've not seen this type of writing before but thought it very effective. I enjoyed the fact too that even though Jackson was the main "hero" we got to meet all his colleagues and follow their work. But the mistakes in the end just ruined it. Maybe one day I'll try it again if he ever gets it properly proofread and edited.
We had poured and not pored, Bluetoothes where I'd use Bluetooths (why the e ??) a massive ouch with Jonah suddenly being referred to as Johan, Lindberg should be Lindbergh, insured and not ensured, site and not sight !! Pretty slapdash. We hear Jonah sees the doctor every four months THEN the receptionist books an appointment in 3 months' time so it should have been he sees her 4 times a year. He did the name thing again using Vick and not Vicki, co and not so, that's and not that're, than and not that......sigh......
We also had a LOT of incidents where a word was dropped from a sentence. As usual in e-books we lose "little" words like a or to (along with the usual apostrophe mistakes, too) but there were many more when it was up to the reader to fill in the blank !! "...but inside they each filled with dread" "Maybe he has off work on Mondays" "Reilly turned and began back towards his apartment" "The body is back this trail"....I gave in when a fullstop was missing at the end of a sentence. Just one mistake too far for me.
Another irritation was that we never learnt Lamaya's age, either. I looked back but couldn't find it at all.
So, for the sake of a proper edit I have to join the ranks of reviewers mentioning the faults.

[Denise Zendel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fresh off a nationwide book tour promoting his book on solving the high-profile murder of a sports star’s child, Jackson Byrne, a star FBI agent with the Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resource Center (CASMIRC), gets hit up to run for office. He’s trying to tie up loose ends when another complicated case involving the death of three young girls comes in to CASMIRC. He’s torn between the two paths in his life, and plagued by demons from his past.

Minor quibbles with the book – it sure could have used a good copy editor. I noticed a weird slipping between past tense and present tense that distracted me and took me out of the story. Also, there were chapters devoted to Bryne’s book, and a news article that I ended up paging past because they bored me.

I found some of Byrne’s actions disturbing – going into an active crime scene without backup, and lying to his wife about a prior relationship with a crime witness. I think I would have liked him more if he hadn’t behaved badly, either professionally or personally. Or, if he’d come clean and taken his medicine. And then he compounds the problem by making a deal with a serial killer. He tries to clothe it in noble intentions (“but we might save more victims,” and “I must protect my wife and child,”) but what he’s really doing is covering his own sorry ass. I just wanted to slap some sense into Byrne.

On the plus side, the plot is interesting, and I enjoyed seeing into Byrne’s head as he worked to solve the current case. The supporting characters were stock characters (eager reported, faithful wife, darling child, underling gunning for Byrne’s position) but likeable, and I want to know more about them.

I am 50-50 on reading the next book in the series. Book 1 held my interest enough to finish it, and it did make the time on the recumbent bike pass very quickly. I find Byrne an irritating character, yet I still want to see if he redeems himself in book 2. But I don’t really want to invest $5 in that redemption either.

[Dana Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure I liked this book until about a third of the way in. Interesting plot, and overall I'm glad I stuck with it.

I felt there were a number of sections throughout the story I felt were unnecessary and just added to the length (although these sections could just be prepping the reader for the next book in the series, too). The Kindle version I received had a lot of formatting issues which made it a little hard to get through, but not enough that you couldn't follow/understand the story (it's possible this has been fixed in a later version, and possibly not an issue in other e-reader versions). The author also seemed to rely on a thesaurus a lot --- I've never had a book where I had to stop and look up so many words before because I couldn't figure it out through the text (although maybe that says more about me than the author, haha!)

[Carol Hurtig · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a hard time with this book. It seemed like the author was writing two books at the same time. It bounced around a lot in the beginning. It's OK to give us some background but several paragraphs? And did we really need to read the whole chapter of Jack's book on a previous murder? Really?? I felt the characters were very self centered and were only worried about themselves rather than solving the murders. Jack doesn't want to be in the FBI, Reilly wants to get a head of Jack, Corinne wants to get even with Jack for something he didn't even do, no one wanted to deal with the murders! The real premise could have been pretty good without the distractions and, with all the long explanations, Randall's back story wasn't explained.
The book was also desperately in need of editing. I hope the author settles down and concentrates on one story at a time.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful thriller that deals with a psychologically disturbed serial killer, nicknamed the ‘Playground Predator.’ It is not for the fainthearted but will appeal to anyone who enjoys this kind of crime novel. It is quite disturbing in places as Jackson Byrne is caught up in the killer’s web whilst trying to run for the US Senate. Lots of twists and turns, manipulation and red herrings mean this is a book that will stay with you long after you finish it. You may also want to give your children an even tighter hug this evening. The only point that I did find confusing was that the characters are sometimes referred to by their first name, sometimes by their surname or by a nickname – but that could just be me!

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very suspenseful. I had to leave it at home so that I would not be tempted to finish reading it at work. As per my usual format, what I learned from this book: 1. appreciate and love your family every day. 2. watch out for crazy people. 3. don't lose sight of what is most important to you.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

A missed opportunity. Too many sub-plots that are left unresolved, confusing jumps in storyline, and a completely unbelievable ending render what might have been a competent three star book into one that is in need of a strong editor.

[lisa brockway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dictionary

Author should research definition of sex acts before writing about fellatio and calling it sodomy. Makes tho whole drawn out, over detailed story sound like a twelve year old looking for shock factor.

[Becca Grober · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the story line was engaging, the main character was a bit frustrating. He bounced from being admirable, to quite frankly, a tool. There were some minor flaws and mistakes in the writing, but it kept me engaged long enough to finish rather quickly.

[Teresa Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I really enjoyed the majority of this book, I had a bit of trouble getting fully engaged at the beginning. I felt like I was trying to read two books at the same time. Granted, I realize Mr. Miller needed to give the background story so that the motivation for the characters' later actions would be understood; but wow, what detail. I think half of it could have been left out and the story would have been just as good. Mr. Miller definitely has a way with writing villains because Randall got my blood pressure going several times and I could have gladly strangled Corrinne on more than one occasion. I will say, once Mr. Miller began to focus on the current case the reading became much easier and more engaging - well, with one caveat. I wish the book had the services of a good proofreader and/or editor. There were entirely too many typos and poor sentence structure. The majority of these errors wouldn't require an English major to catch. I will never understand why an author doesn't make use of friends and family to at least attempt to put out quality work. Oh, well, I have a feeling this will never change with most indie authors. All in all, I was pleased with this book and look forward to reading the next in the series.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started off well enough but quickly became tedious. I was not at the edge of my seat, there simply was no "thriller" in this thriller. The writing felt choppy, one paragraph is too verbose and the next not enough. The writing did not adequately paint a picture and draw the reader in. I felt that the main character was not developed enough, it seems the author tried to paint him as a likable flawed human, but completely missed the mark. There were some things that completely did not make sense to how the character was portrayed in the beginning. The CASMIRC Team were inept at effectively profiling the suspect, they came to conclusions early on that had absolutely no basis from the evidence that was found. The whole plot was forced and had too many moving parts. There were not enough breadcrumbs left by the author to make this a mystery, so the big reveals were not so big and just fell flat. The confrontation with the serial killer felt contrived and most of his motivations made no sense, seemed the the author was trying to force this story to fit together but the puzzle pieces were the wrong ones. The end was horrible, did not effectively wrap up the story and leave you wanting more. Would not recommend.

[Mystic Miraflores · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the plot of this book. However, I didn't give it more stars because the author obviously isn't familiar with the Washington DC area, where I have lived for almost 40 years. I do get annoyed when authors base their books in this area and don't know much about it, except from what they can get off the Internet and maps. For example, there isn't a Williams Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River. It is the WILSON Memorial Bridge, named after President Woodrow Wilson. Silver Springs isn't plural. The actual name is Silver Spring, just singular. There is no Chevy Chase High School. There is a Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. And Jackson and Randall were supposed to grow up south of Chevy Chase in Montgomery County, Maryland. However, south of Chevy Chase is Washington DC! If they grew up in DC, they wouldn't have attended high school in Maryland. Finally, Belmont Bay Marina is only 5 miles from Lake Ridge. Why would Randall have a vacation home just 5 miles from his main home? This doesn't make sense. So the wrong information about where Jackson is supposed to live and work was very distracting for me and detracted from an otherwise fine story.

[Joe Vitucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody is perfect. This married FBI agent, who has great insights about his cases and has successfully closed most of them, had a brief fling with the mother of one of the victims from a previous case. The serial killer in this book also goes after the wife and child of our FBI agent. There are thoughts by the agent whether or not his fling will be made public. The agent seriously considers the effect on him if his fling becomes public knowledge, which at some points seems to take precedence over the cases he is involved with.
My applause to the author for having our hero be less than perfect. There is a lot going on in this book which I haven't mentioned, and I hope you like it as much as I did.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and one-half stars, I think. The plot was engaging, there was enough suspense to keep you guessing, the dialog was intelligent, and the author nicely set up the ending for a sequel. But I did think there were several contrivances to push the plot forward, and the murderer's reasoning was never really explained from his/her perspective.

Also, the author likes declarative sentences. I mean, he really likes them. There are more skillful ways to share a character's thoughts than to say, "Jackson thought...". That sort of narrative dominated the story, and it seemed a bit amateurish.

To be extra picky, I don't think that Starbucks has ever served its brews in styrofoam cups.

However, it was an entertaining read and I might check out the sequel.

[Pencie Rumley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, very well developed characters and engaging plot. The turmoil Jack puts himself in due to his career, ambitions, weakness along with his love for his family set a super story line. Was very surprised and impressed with this author's writing and the fact it was self published. Found only a few spelling or grammar errors however that in no way took anything away from the story or the excellent writing. Just purchased the next book.......

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of a little girl who was murdered . It surprised me when I learned that the story was written to have occurred in the town I actually live in now. The serial child killer was trying to draw in a cop who was thinking about quitting and going into politics instead.The book kept my interest and the ending was like a big surprise. Some people murder others for reasons that most people don't think about.