The Calling

DC Gary Goodhew Mystery #3

by Alison Bruce

Kaye Whiting went to buy a birthday present and didn't come back. She isn't dead, or physically injured. But she is alone and very, very scared.Fifty miles away in Cambridge town centre a deeply disturbed young woman is standing by a payphone. She knows she often feels compelled to do harmful things and is driven by a desire to make a call.DC Gary Goodhew is one of the detectives assigned to find Kaye and when her body is discovered the only clue to the potential murderer is a woman's voice on his answerphone saying, 'Kaye isn't the first and won't be the last...'Praise for Cambridge are pulled relentlessly in as Bruce racks up the tension. Menacing and insidious, this is a great novel.' R J Ellory'An exciting debut from a very promising new talent.' Paul Johnston'A fast-paced gritty tale guaranteed to have you hooked from beginning to end.' Cambridgeshire Pride'Meaty and deeply plotted.' Morning Star'DC Gary Goodhew could just develop into a worthy succesor to those venerables of the police procedural now drawing their pensions.' Tribune'A gripping tale of murder and mystery.' Cambridge Style

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, British Literature, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Thriller

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Alison Bruce was born in Surrey, United Kingdom, and now lives in Cambridge.

Reviews

[Dave Sivers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book in Alison Bruce's Gary Goodhew series and marks a real step change for the author. The first two, Cambridge Blue and The Siren, introduced an engaging and slightly unusual new detective in well-plotted, pacey novels.
The Calling puts Alison Bruce up with the cream of British crime writers, gripping from the first page to the last and getting the reader caught up with the characters and the urgency of their situations. Suspicions are set up, only for twist upon twist to keep you off balance. To say too much about the plot would be to risk spoilers - suffice to say the killer and their methods are very nasty indeed.
I had the luxury of reading this on a long-haul flight, and it kept me glued to my Kindle for hours. You'll want to devour it in one sitting too.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to in audio format.

Firstly, I love the Gary Goodhew series. Gary is only 25 years old and is the youngest D.C. in the Cambridgeshire Police. Gary is happy in his own company and has a close relationship with his Grandmother. Gary is a bit of a maverick, he is apt to follow up on hunches without telling his boss DCI Marks. I feel his character has a lot of potential and we still haven't found out what makes him tick.

The Calling is the 3rd book in the D.C. Gary Goodhew series. However Alison wrote this book first, which probably explained why the story was a bit disjointed. There were too many ex-girlfriends and victims and other incidental characters which made it confusing. It is not as easy to check what a character said or did when you are listening to a book.

Peter Walsh was implicated quite early on in the book, so the reader already knew who did it. The story was about Gary and the team finding the evidence to arrest Peter.

It was nice to hear about the characters from the previous book. DCI Marks, Sue Gully and Gary's arch enemy D.C. Kincaid. I mentioned in my last review that Gully may be a potential love interest, it hasn't happened yet maybe in the next book.


An interesting future storyline cropped up in the book. Kincaid knows that Gary lives in a large house that he inherited from his Grandfather. Kincaid told his wife that he thinks Gary is corrupt, I wonder if this was feature in the next book.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the earlier Gary Goodhew and I did't think quite as good as some of the others. It's an unusual plot but a bit far fetched in places.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll keep reading, but this one was a little grislier and scarier than the previous entries in the series - a little closer to Mo Hayder territory than I like to go, with abductions and a villain who is quite twisted. We see the perpetrator throughout; the trick is figuring out when and how Goodhew's unit will catch him, hopefully before more lives are lost. The tension ratchets up as the book progresses. The series characters are great, although the reader sees a little bit less of Goodhew's conflicts with his superior officer, Marks, than in the previous books. There's also less of the competitive, abrasive interactions with his colleague, Kincaide. I do like the developing trust between Goodhew and WPC Sue Gully. I'm not asking for a cozy mystery, but hopefully the next in the series, The Silence, will focus a little bit less on the graphic details.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a police procedural focusing on Cambridge CID and has at its heart the main character of DC Gary Goodhew.
All three books have been different and each plot has appeared fresh and interesting.
I really enjoyed the original start and the timeline shown. It provides a realism to the world of police investigations and insight in the case where nothing much happens. Goodhew works independently, a brilliant, unorthodox and lateral thinking detective. His boss tries to keep him in line but values his ideas. Others in the team are jealous and want him to fail.
When a missing person leads to a murder case a serial killer is Gary's preferred solution and all seems to point to his fallibility when his rival appears correct all along with an early arrest and confession.
The plot is original and thrilling and you share the police's frustration when a lack of evidence appears to prevent further victims. The psychological aspects were all well done, Alison Bruce is a wonderful writer and a great story teller. There is less reveal as it seems clear who is the perpetrator but did they work alone and where is the evidence or motivation to kill.
I feel this writer can only get better.

[Jo Jenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was apparently the first book written by this author but the third released. I found the story disjointed and a lot of the scenes had no real point.
At the start Kaye Whiting's sister and her boy friend are having sex. There is no point to this scene and the emotions developed are never mentioned again.
Half way through the detective suddenly starts taking sugar in his tea and after a discussion with his best friend about buying his car as the detective has no car the last third of the book has him driving all over the country in his car.
The culprit is never fully investigated to find out if he has an alibi when the girls go missing and it is never explaining why the murdered girls got into a car with a man they didn't know. It is emphasised that they don't struggle but why don't they?
He then goes to Hawaii and after a day comes back because he is convinced they have arrested the wrong man. But why go all the way to Hawaii?
The plot was good and the idea strong but a little stronger editing would have done this book a lot of favours.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

When The Calling opens Detective Constable Gary Goodhew is sent out to interview the mother of a young woman who has gone missing. Kaye Whiting failed to show at her grandmother's birthday party and then for work on the following Monday. She has been abandoned bound and gagged in a remote location with no clues to follow. Soon Goodhew is discovering similar crimes and an anonymous caller is pointing the police towards a perpetrator. Or is she trying to lead them astray?

This is the 3rd book in the Goodhew series. There were a lot of characters in The Calling which seemed to muddy the plot unnecessarily. Despite that quibble, I enjoy the series. Goodhew is cut from a different cloth than other police procedural leads. Still waters run deep and I think there is more to be revealed as the series continues.

[John Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third in this series of crime in and around Cambridge.
Some books in a series waste time bringing the reader up to speed with the back stories, in case they havent read the series from the beginning. As someone who always tries to start a series from number one, this can be annoying sometimes. This is not what happens here and, would you believe, there is something that I cant remember from the previous book (read about 2 years ago). It is the question about Gary Goodhew's inherited wealth and to make matters worse, Gary doesnt even tell the truth to his lifelong friend, Bryn, when he asks.
I like the character of DC Goodhew and even his relationship with his boss. It reminds me of Morse - particularly in his 'Endevour' days but also as the muture DI.
This story (which we learn from the epilogue) was in fact the first to be written and establish her Goodhew character, I have a couple of issues with. Firstly and maybe understandably considering the plot, I found confusing with the number of similar young females.
Secondly, I felt that it was spoilt by the over description of the sexual violence . This is usually the domain of authors with much less ability than Ms Bruce.
Nevertheless, I shall look out for the next in the series .

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit confusing at times, keeping all the names and murders straight in my mind. But it all starts to come together and make sense. Well done in the series, learning more about Gary and his odd personal life.

[Devon Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this won't be my typical review, as it took me more than four months to actually finish this novel. It's not that The Calling wasn't a good story, it just didn't draw me in as much as I would've liked. I had no problem putting it aside to read about ten other books that did seem to draw me in more. There were a ton of characters in this novel, all of which had their own point of views (POVs). Normally, I don't mind numerous POVs, but there really wasn't any segregation to tell you it had changed. You would read twenty paragraphs for one person, then suddenly two paragraphs would go to another and then it would revert back to the original character. There were times I had to go back and reread because I didn't quite realize it had switched and I was left wondering, "Wait. How'd he know that?"

As for the story, the plot was interesting enough but I trully never felt connected to any of the characters, and I really didn't care about what happened to them whether they were murdered, trying to commit suicide, a detective investigating the situation, or some other randomly chosen character. Maybe this was because there were so many, but I didn't seem too interested in the character that got the most face time either. But The Calling was by no means a bad novel. The writing style was clean and the mystery about the serial killer was well thought out. Ms. Bruce is a likeable author and I may try my hand at another one of her novels in the future.

http://devonashleywrites.blogspot.com...

[Steve Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alison Bruce has produced a masterpiece in The Calling. If you like crime for pure excitement, intrigue, suspense, gore and anticipation of an unpredictable ending then you must simply read this book. DC Goodhew is a fabulous twist on 21st century police character. He is enigmatic, confusing, misunderstood and easily likeable. The author keeps him away from the straight and narrow not for the sake of it but because Goodhew doesn’t think like anyone else.
Like most crime the story makes no sense at first. The suspect doesn’t fit with the crimes yet the continual link of the consistent looks of his girlfriends and the victims makes the suspicious reader sure that this isn’t a coincidence. Gradually more is revealed through the fabulous and crazy Marlowe.
The overwhelming sense from the book is the author’s ability to convey colour, smell, sound and atmosphere. She has a commanding ability to describe and feel the world around her, which is essential to gritty crime stories.
So much to recommend in this book, but perhaps the final point is knowing from the acknowledgements at the end that this is the story she has been writing in her head for years. This is the author’s passion.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about Detective Gary Goodhew investigating a series of murders in England. This is the third book in a series. It was a little hard to follow and although I liked the detective, he just needed to have more spunk, such a dry little fellow. A pretty good mystery but if you are looking for thrills and chills, it just didn't do it for me. This was an advanced reader copy.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Calling is the third book in the DC Gary Goodhew Mystery series written by Alison Bruce and centered on Gary Goodhew, a Detective Constable in Cambridge Parkside Station.

The Cambridge Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has its problems. Detective Constable Michael Kincaide is jealous of Gary Goodhew, who enjoys both unexplained wealth and the favor of their boss, Detective Investigator Marks. Kincaide would love to undermine his rival's search for the missing Kaye Whiting, who never showed up at her grandmother's birthday party.

However, arresting her uncle, Andrew Burrows, for her murder when Kaye Whiting inevitably turns up dead is a non-starter. Goodhew has his own theory, based on an anonymous call advising the police to look at Peter Walsh, who works for Dunwold Insurance. However, what to look at is the question. Walsh seems to have had a string of unsuccessful relationships with women, including needy Paulette, receptionist Donna and real estate agent Fiona, all of whom look just a little bit like slender, blonde Kaye.

The bond between the dead woman and Walsh's live lovers eludes Goodhew until WPC Sue Gully helps him link the crime to a string of bodies found, like Kaye's, bound and gagged in the open air – and until he connects a waiflike figure he sees outside Walsh’s house to a mysterious blonde who drinks coffee day after day at The Flying Pig.

The Calling is written rather well, albeit it seemed like a step-backward in Bruce's writing style – like a devolution. When I learned that this book was actually written first – it made sense and explained the feeling of a sophomoric trail run of a series. It could have used with a better editing or rewrite, but it was well written nevertheless.

As a former Cantabrigian, it is wonderful to read about the city the series is based on. It brought back many happy memories about my undergraduate years and brought a bought of nostalgia when reading about certain places that I have visited.

All in all, The Calling is written rather well and is a strong continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series, which I plan to read in the very near future.

[Larraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another series that I started out of order. I read the second one first and this is the third. The first one is coming in the mail. Our local library supposedly had an
ebook but the time was “unknown” which tells me that there is a problem. I finally found an inexpensive used copy which should arrive soon.

DC Gary Goodhew is an interesting character. He does his own thing which annoys his fellow police officers and usually he’s right. Meanwhile his nemesis, Kincaide, is doing his best to sabotage him.

The book opens up with an upset and angry woman. She is the mother of a young woman who is later abducted and murdered. I’m not sure why the author chose to open the book this way. An exploration of her unhappy marriage and useless son really doesn’t do anything for the story. At the same time another character is introduced: a young woman who had once been beautiful but is following a former lover who broke up with her.

At the very end there is a very big discrepancy which should have been noted by the editor. One of the characters does something that makes no sense and casts suspicion on that person. I couldn’t understand why this was part of the story.

In the meantime we learn a few more details about Gary’s private life including some changes he is making to the house left to him by his grandfather. His grandfather also left him a great deal of money which his rival, Kincaide, is trying to tie to graft. I’m sure that will be explored in the next book.

In the meantime, I’m taking a break from the series. Too many books, too little time!

[Plum-crazy · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest I was a bit disappointed with this. I found it muddling in part especially the way it switched between characters, so that sometimes I found it hard to keep track of who was being talked about. Also in my eyes it wasn't very credible, it wasn't anything specific just a few bits here & there that didn't sit right for me. For a start, the story opens with Margaret catching her son watching a porn video....a video?!! Surely he'd be in his room on the 'net! - & it was written in 2011 I checked :o) And while I can believe that a dedicated police officer may well return early from his/her hols to contribute vital info to a case, are we really expected to believe that Gary flies back after 24 hours in Hawaii? Sorry that's a stretch for me....

But what really irritated me was the fact that in Chapter 7, Pete & Paulette apparently work in the same insurance office but on page 179 her mother says she's worked on the make-up counter in Boots for the last three years - no wonder I found things confusing!

Those little gripes aside, the storyline as a whole failed to convince me & to be honest I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters. I don't think I'll bother with anymore of the series though I would be interested to learn where Gary's money came from!

[Bodil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very divided about this book. It is unusual in that we very early are told who the murderer is. But I still don’t really know how he did it, which maybe isn’t that important, and not really why!. However it is actually an awful story about somebody with a very sick mind. Luckily you don’t understand this until towards the end. The story is quite confusing at times, with several young women involved. And in some cases introduced into the story without being named. Is the anonymous caller one of these or not? (Even more confusing is that another is said to come from Auckland, but later turns out to be Australian.) And the ending, or rather the events leading up to it, is beyong my belief.
However, I found some of the characters quite interesting, not in the least “the caller”.

[Jayanne Rahal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Believe it or not I found this to be an enjoyable thriller with twists and turns and an interesting killer outcome in the end. The rating was knocked quite severely by the narrative itself, finding it quite hard to follow at times and too convoluted with its characters. This didn’t make for good reading or an intriguing mystery but made it more of a slog and therefore harder to get through even though I was enjoying the general plot. I do also think The Calling merits itself as being able to be read as a stand-alone as I hadn’t read any of the previous books in the series! Just needed some drastic sharpening as it got a bit lost.

[Caracol · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Calling was the first book I read from Alison Bruce.
It was easy to read, meaning the style of writing and vocabulary.
The story would be good, but still not catchy enough for me to get hooked and stay awake half of the night. Too many characters, some of them with very short appearance / mentioning in the novel. Some scenes with no point, no connection to the story.
At some point I stopped questioning the logical thread.
In my humble opinion, the editing work could have been more thorough.

[Colin Hodgkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was really impressed by this book. Probably the best crime novel I've read in a long time or possibly ever. Fantastic characters and storyline. Apparently even though this is the third in the series it was the book that the author originally wanted to write as her first novel and it shows. I often believe an author's first novel is often the best because that is the story that has hidden inside then the longest. This goes to prove that theory. Now to read books 1 and 2.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately in the charity shop where I picked up this book, I didn't have access to my comments on one of the previous novels in the series. So comments on this one are the same: implausible character, badly written, too much bad sex. To avoid, in future.

[Paula Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first two books some time ago & thought they were okay.
This has sat in my bookcase for a few years. It was awesome!!!
I just couldn't put it down!
The plot just hooks you in on a whirlwind.

[Anne Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first two books in the series, but found that this one was not up to scratch. Then, I read that The Calling was actually written before the others!

Anyway, the book had exciting and gripping moments but also a lot of flaws. The sheer number of female characters was confusing (and this was not a result of my memory issues as other reviewers have said the same thing). Some parts of the book were unnecessarily explicit. Also the story arc was muddled in places with scenes which could have easily been cut because they added nothing to the plot.

I will now take a break from the series, but may return to later books another time

[Sarah Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a good base storyline but it becomes way to overcomplicated throughout the book. I do like the goodhew character but it was quite hard to read at times and confusing. Even the ending was not very satisfying and i ended up with more questions.

[Dobby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being familiar with the area the book is based on, I found my mind wandering trying to pinpoint places to visualise it clearer, and it pulled me out of the immersion instead of drawing me in.
It was an easy guess as to who done it, early on.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Frustrated with the frail screwed up women victims. The graphic sex scenes not necessary. Liked the crime procedural aspects that were just enough to help me finish the book. Barely. Disappointing as I like the series so hope this is just a one off.

[Jane Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 2nd one I've read by this author, and what I like about it is, it's based around Cambridge, which is where I was born and bought up. I recognize a lot of street names etc. I like the characters especially the detective, D.C. Goodhew. An easy read, with an usual plot.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each book has gotten better.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this author but this book had a little too much crime description to get five stars.

[Anne Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this again so that I could read the final books in the series.

[Lucy Dawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got quite confused over who people were and the motives behind the murders. Started off good and I was able to follow it but half way through was when I began to get confused and mixed up.