The First Time Ever

Ted Darling #1

by L.M. Krier

‘ original, character-driven crime fiction’

Ted Darling is a Specialist Firearms Officer, and a good one. With a promising career in front of him. Then he meets someone who could change everything but who can’t live with his police role.
Ted’s wanted to be a copper since he was nine. Can he find a new opening within the force which is his surrogate family?
Despite being trained to shoot to kill, Ted’s good with people. They like him, they trust him, so they talk to him. His skills get him noticed and he’s seconded to help with a big CID operation. It isn’t long before he’s facing his first murder case.
Has he made the right choice in switching jobs? Or is he, as his Firearms boss warns him, about to commit career suicide?

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Romance, Thriller, M M Romance, British Literature, Detective

289 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2021

About the author

Retired journalist, freelance copywriter and copy editor Lesley Tither writes under various pen names for different genres. Already well known for travel memoirs as Tottie Limejuice, Lesley also writes crime fiction under the name L. M. Krier. Her first children's fiction book, adventure/crime, The Dog with the Golden Eyes, is published under under the pen-name L M Kay.

Writing as L M Krier, Lesley has published twenty-two crime fiction books in the popular Ted Darling Crime Series: The First Time Ever, Baby's Got Blue Eyes, Two Little Boys, When I'm Old and Grey, Shut Up and Drive, Only the Lonely, Wild Thing, Walk on By, Preacher Man, Cry for the Bad Man, Every Game You Play, Where the Girls Are, Down Down Down, The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird, Dirty Old Town, The End of the Line, It’s Oh So Quiet, A Woman’s Heart, No Way to Say Goodbye
Everybody Hurts Sometime, Sweet Little Lies, Not To Tell.

'Sell the Pig' is the first in a series of travel memoirs describing how Lesley, writing as Tottie Limejuice, decided to make the move from the UK to France to start a new life, taking with her an 89-year-old mother suffering from vascular dementia. The story continues in three further books, 'Is That Billinge Lump?' 'Mother, Was It Worth It?' 'Biff the Useless Mention', and 'Angling Bumateurs'. There's an additional standalone prequel to the series, Trot On!, about her time running a holiday riding centre in Wales, before her move to France.

Lesley is also the not-so-secret writer behind the pen-name of Carl Granger. The book Looking for Lulu is darker crime fiction.


Lesley is a former journalist, working as both a criminal court and coroner's court reporter. She also worked as a case tracker for the Crown Prosecution Service, and for a firm investigating irregularities in offshore finance. Her other jobs have included owning and running a holiday riding centre and acting as a 'charity mugger', lying in wait to sign up shoppers for a wildlife charity.

Lesley's interests centre around nature and wildlife and encompass dogs, wild camping and organic gardening. She lives in the Auvergne region of Central France and holds dual French/British nationality. Her current dogs are two rescued border collies

Want to chat with Lesley? You'll find a Tottie Limejuice Chat Group on Facebook, with lots of photos of the Auvergne.

Reviews

[Alan Cotterell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

Well worth reading. Fills in quite a bit of background. I have read 4 of the series so far and love the characters, plus story lines.
Personally I feel this book will be better for people who have read at least one of the series, before. If I read this first, would not be thinking I have got to read more of them. Would feel I might try one if an opportunity arose, not be searching one ASAP.

[Kath Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think many readers of this prequel will be fierce fans of the Ted Darling series already. I’ve only read the first but enjoyed it so much that I pre-ordered this. We see here several firsts in Ted’s life, such as his first kill as a firearms officer, his first meeting with Trev, his partner, the first time they adopt a cat (rapidly followed by another six!) and his first cases in CID.

I enjoy the characters in these books. Story and character are both important to me and here we are given both. This was a book I struggled to put down at bedtime and found it a gripping read. If Ted has a fault, he’s too good to be true but I sincerely hope there are at least as many decent, kind, generous and hard-working DIs in the force as popular fiction would have us believe there are drunken, maverick misfits. This is one police officer I want to believe in!

[Shell Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fans of Ted darling are in for treat with The First Time Ever where LM Krier takes us back to where it all started with this cracking prequel. And for those that haven't read any of the series this is a brilliant time to start, with only 206 pages long I devoured this in one seating. I couldn't put it down.

The author takes on a rollercoaster journey where we learn how Ted how starts his career in the police. Not only do we follow a murder investigation. But the author brings us plenty of humour with scenes that made me laugh out loud. Being A fan of the series this book also answered a lot of questions for me about Ted and Trevor.

There are lots of new characters I especially liked Detective Shell HaHa

Has always LM Krier writing is brilliant and has produced another top quality story that will have you hooked from start to finish.

This is a must read for crime fans and ticked all the boxes for me which I highly recommend giving it 5 well deserved stars.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good

Having read all of the Ted Darling series I was very much looking forward to this prequel and was not disappointed! It was wonderful, I loved learning the back stories of all the characters I've come to know. Well written, entertaining and covering all the details I wanted to know, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to more in this series.

[Sandy McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Billirant !

I am a huge fan of the Ted Darling series, and this prequel filled in a lot of gaps for me, as well as gradually introducing some of the regular characters mentioned in the later books.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, there are also a few crimes thrown in as well, which Ted deals with in his unique style.
Like all of the books in this fabulous series, it is well written and researched.

[mrs a richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

How it all began

I love the Ted series but was a bit apprehensive when I knew about the prequel. Knowing a bit about Ted i was expecting an upsetting story about him being bullied when he was young. Thankfully, this started with him already in the police force. I just loved the insight in to his life before Trev and the early days of their relationship. Makes me want to read the first one again now!

[Macky · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️4.5⭐️

[Cariad Dussan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and engrossing first entry into the Ted Darling Crime Series.
We are introduced to Ted Darling, a SFO with 4 black belts. We get to know him through his work ethic, his da and with his partner, Trevor, a man who never met a cat he didn't take home with him.
Written in a sparse, compact and matter of fact style L.M. Krier brings breath to the life of a CID officer and his office.
An engaging read.

[Sharon Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Ted and the prequel to the series takes it back to where it all started. It was great finding out about Ted's early experiences in the police, about how he met Trev and where the cats came from.
The book was very well written and kept me turning the pages, so to speak.
If you love Ted Darling then you are not going to be disappointed.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a rule I hate reading out of order series especially a prequel when there are already a number of the series out there. Having said that I read this one and enjoyed, star dropped because I would still have preferred to have read it before the others.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the prequel of Ted Darling working his way up the ladder at work and how he met Trev now got to read all the others agian and going for walks in Denbighshire which is where I live 😊

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was gripped by this prequel from the word go! The opening sentence is a real hook. Brilliant beginning. We learn about several ‘firsts’ in Ted’s life and it fills in a great deal of background about the main character of Ted Darling and what makes him tick. It starts with him as a sergeant and a trained Specialist Firearms Officer and tracks his progress to CID.
The writing is, as usual, tight and keeps the plot moving along nicely which I enjoy. I didn’t want to put the book down after I had started reading it. Having read a number of the Ted Darling novels I recognised a few of the names. If you haven’t you have a treat in store. Usually I would read books in order but I was very happy to go back to the beginning and find out more about one of my favourite Detectives. I’d love to see Ted on the telly! I can only hope.

[Linda Hawkswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to more in the series.

[Anke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the last book, #8, was more or less a let-down I don't give up on this series and read on:)

Sadly I have to say - this series is losing me. Although here were several 'firsts' and they were interesting for a fan of the series like me, the writing was totally repetitive, superficial, unsubstantial and in the end rather boring. I think Ted Darling deserved better.

[Shelba · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 39%.

For being a 'character-driven crime fiction's, Ted has a pretty bland character. Everyone's dialogue sounds the exact same, and it all comes off a bit stiff. When I think if character-driven crime fiction, I think Josh Lanyon, Marshall Thornton, C.S Poe. This is reminiscent of none of those.

There is a lot of telling in this. Just Ted doing this, Ted doing that for pages on end then a few pages of awkward dialogue exchanges and then back to showing. There hasn't been a whole lot of crime or police procedures. Sure, Ted has talked to some victims and busted through a window, but it has been pretty much just talking about making a bust, then said bust is over in a second, and then Ted goes drinking with his coworkers.

Then there is the relationship with Trev. I don't really know anything about Trev other than he does martial arts, is a student, and is fickle. He tells Ted he doesnt know if he can be with someone who kills people, so Ted changes from a job he loves to a different division. Then Treg is going on about how hot it is that Ted has a gun. Then he says that he uncomfortable with Ted having a gun and his job in general. That's a 23 year old for you though.

My least favourite thing about this book is the POV. For the most part, it could be described as 3rd person limited, being told from Ted's POV. But at random point, and almost everytime a new character pops up, the POV will switch to omniscient, I assume just to suit the author's narrative. Chapter 14 goes from Bill to Ted to Bill in the span of a few paragraphs. Even the bartender, Sue, had a paragraph from her POV and I'm pretty sure that is the only appearance she had in the entire book.

[Kathryn P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather predictable and lacks credibility

Ted, the Mary Poppins (practically perfect in every way) of the police world. An expert in everything he does. Many different types of martial arts, as a senior firearms officer, as a police officer. Always kind, his people skills beyond reproach. I'm unsure in reality if the police force would have such a person in their ranks. He can be a bit pedantic as well, and pull people up if they use a word inaccurately. Ted sings a song which Trev describes as absolutely beautiful. So singing could also be listed as one of Ted's attributes! Trev is also an expert in martial arts, is an amazing cook, and a lover of collecting stray cats. If they weren't fictional characters they'd be rather cloying to be around. Ted has gone from being a senior firearms officer, into uniform then joined CID as a DS , then by Christmas of the same year he's a DI. I mean come on...that's fast tracking gone mad. It's all somewhat unbelievable.
The book covers one major investigation plus a couple of smaller ones involving lesser time spent on them, which leaves in-depth procedural work lacking in the main case.
This book; to me anyway, is almost in the realms of a 'cosy' murder mystery rather than the more grittier books I'm used to. If Ted wasn't so perfect, but made the odd mistake every now and again like any normal person, he wouldn't come across as so punctilious. If the other books in this series are all like this, I probably won't bother reading any more.

[Mrs K L Mallinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introducing Ted...& Trev

Another well deserved five stars for LM Krier!
As ever, this latest episode which is also the prequel, is well written and well researched: the author being a stickler for accuracy in addition to being an accomplished storyteller.
The book begins with young Ted's early days as a firearms officer and takes us through to his promotion to DI after his transfer to CID - with quite a few interesting chapters along the way!
If you haven't read any of the DI Darling books, this is a good place to start. If you're a fan, as I am, it's a good place to broaden your knowledge!

[Helen Parris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happiness is....

A new Ted Darling book. Loved this, the prequel covering Ted working in firearms before joining CID. Interesting to see the initial relationship with his team. Great to see the start of his relationship with Trev, and the circumstances surrounding the addition of the cats to their home. Thank you Lesley, and in the words of Oliver Twist, " Can I have some more please".

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review

I really enjoyed this story. It was great to read about how Trev and Ted's relationship started and how Ted's career has progressed. I can't wait for the next Ted Darling mystery.

[NoirBlogger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started with a bang and then we met Phillip... Oh dear! ( :) )Thankfully Ted booted Phillip out of his life and the book went from strength to strength. I can't tell you how much of a refreshing change it is to read a detective novel where the police actually call for back up, assess the situation before blundering in and getting themselves half killed/injured or dead. I loved the way the book was structured. It felt like you were in a real police station with genuine police officers doing the job as they are supposed to. Ted and Trev's relationship is brilliant. It also makes a change for a gay couple to be portrayed as normal, doing everyday things rather than the stereotypical "Hallo- this is a gay character here! I'm so right on!. The relationship is brilliantly constructed and shows how completely normal it is. Sorry to bang on about that but it's just so fantastic to see homosexuality portrayed in a book as a normal everyday thing (which it is).

I loved the cats, especially being named after Queen, one of my fave bands ever.
The plot was engrossing and incredibly realistic. I think the realism is one of the greatest strengths. You don't have to suspend belief. You can easily imagine these things happening. The characters are all well drawn and fully rounded. It reads just like you were a fly on the wall in a real police station.

I also like the titles of the books- song titles- great idea. Highly recommended

Have to say I really enjoyed it and I look forward to reading the others.

[Fiona Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's important to note that The First Time Ever is a prequel. Usually, I'd start with the first book of a series, even if a prequel exists, but recently I've been annoyed by series that keep referencing earlier events, so I decided to go with the prequel. Ted Darling - I won't give his rank here in case anyone wants to read this first and not know what comes later - is a fascinating character and quite different from any other police officer I've encountered in the reams of crime fiction I've ploughed through. I can't say I like him, but on the other hand, I didn't dislike him either. Possibly because we've been told that heroes of crime fiction are of a certain breed, it feels a bit strange when they break free of the mould, hence I can't quite decide how I feel about him. In essence, The First Time Ever is a series of vignettes that tells the story of how we get to the first book proper of the series. And that's fair enough. There's a lot to know about Ted and his partner Trev, and learn it we do. Things I really enjoyed in this book are the local colour (northwest England, Stockport area), the attention to detail in police matters, the comparison of different facets of the police force and, to some extent, the characterisation - the only negative here would be that I didn't really discern different voices among the team members, they sounded quite similar in dialogue. It'll be nice to see Ted actually tackle some crimes. Yes, there are occasional elements in this book but the point is more to set the scene. What crime there is I found realistic, plausible and pacy.

[Charmaine Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book on audio, I have worked in the police system alongside several forces and judicial procedure and to be perfectly honest, I expected, quite cynically, to be picking yet another crime book to pieces , for its artistic license, regards the authenticity of law enforcement . How wrong I was. My experience with audio books, has been hit and miss. I have found the narrators have been distracting and I have lost interest in continuing with two earlier books, the narrator, in this book, hit the floor running in my imagination, he brought the characters to life, as visual as any master piece. The characters themselves were old friends in my head, I have come across them many times in real life. Ted was no exception, he is a professional and like many police officers and CID, wears many hats, from Psychologist to social worker and so much in between, for me he also had an air of vulnerability , hiding in his self confidence. I loved this book, listening to it as I cooked and even, as I worked on assessments. It is clear that the author knows their stuff to the finest detail.I am itching to read them all and highly recommend it.

[Peter Marsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would really have liked to have just marked this as unrated. I saw there were quite a few books in this series and all had very good ratings and this one was a prequel, so seemed like a good place to start. As soon as it downloaded I saw the first mention that these were character driven books and so they are, at least this one definitely is. A few bits of unconnected policework were thrown in but otherwise very much about the main characters relationships with family and colleagues and his domestic arrangements.

So very much not for me and after getting about half way through, I called time. Not being the target audience, I don't want to criticise so I would like to have left it unrated.

[Sheila Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve fallen in love with Ted and Trev, what a fantastic partnership. This is the first book I’ve read in the series. The book explains the background to why Ted is the person he is, why he became a police officer despite the fact that he’s short and gay and with a name like Ted Darling likely to be ridiculed, but Ted is a black belt martial arts expert so takes no nonsense from anyone. The book give an insight into Ted’s homelife with his dad and his burgeoning relationship with Trev at the same time as his job in the police force solving a particularly nasty murder. A very well written book, the characters are well drawn and mostly likeable. The book has whet my appetite and I am now going to read the rest of the series, highly recommended

[Rose Arbor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really Good Book.

This book was really good. It engrossed me right from the start. It was tightly written, with no wasted words. There was a lot of action and many exciting moments. Yet, there were personal moments too.

Ted Darling is a short, unimposing man. He looks much younger than his age. He is also gay. Yet, he is a highly effective policeman who quickly advances in his career. He is skilled in martial arts, a deadly sniper, an intuitive investigator, and a loyal friend. And he's very good at solving mysteries, too.

If you like a good mystery with interesting, thought out characters, you will love this book. I highly recommend it.


I bought this book while browsing Amazon.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This is a new series to me, and I was pleasantly surprised. The protagonist copper, Ted Darling, has four things against him in the Manchester police force: he has a baby face, he's short, his last name is a bit of an embarrassment, and he's openly gay. You'd think he'd have no chance, right? He's also a black belt in 4 martial arts disciplines, and a trained firearms and special forces officer. Who's soft-spoken, smart, and thoughtful. So truly, he's quite formidable. This first book introduces us to Ted and the police teams he's a part of, his boyfriend Trevor, and gives us some family background as well. Fun to read and fast-paced, I'm looking forward to reading more in the series. Fun fact: one of the author's pen names is Tottie Limejuice!

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Always looking for a good gay detective novel and was excited to read about a detective who didn't do stupid things, have the cliched, boring personal issues, just faced a challenging murder and solved it. And being stupid is not the same as making mistakes or taking a wrong turn; that's well and fine, but the problem here is that there is no conflict, no challenges to be dealt with, and any small issues that come up turn out perfectly. Ted comes off as a caricature as opposed to a real human. Moreover, this novel lacks narrative savvy; it reads more like a bunch of journal entries when scenes and plot lines needed to have been set up and developed. Very disappointing.

[Carol Rotherham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry, but I found it plodding and two dimensional. Ted the Wonder Cop didn't work. The investigation story was amateur, just dropping into their lap with no effort.
It wasn't plausible, for example on New Year's Day, hitting the sales late morning, spending a good deal of time in the shops. Grabbing a designer picnic and heading of to Wales for a walk. I don't think so. At that time of year it goes dark early.
I was bored rigid by it. I only read it as it was my Book Club's selection. Thank God I got it free. I would have hated to part with money for it.

[Mary Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tried so hard to enjoy this book but after hours of reading, gave up. The main character is delightful but definitely unbelievable: 4 black belts; champion shot; incredible interview techniques and a knack for spotting a bad ‘un. According to the ‘Contents’ page on the box set, it was 700+ pages long I pretty certain I’d already read the equivalent of a book and a half and found I was jumping into another wonderful bright idea about kids who ran away from home. Perhaps the box set has not been split in the correct way but I’d had enough.....

[janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is he short?

..the number of times this was mentioned was overkill...and I really couldn't understand the constant mentioning of Ted and Trev's sex life..was it really necessary?..or to prove a point ?...I also found it hard to believe Ted had such a clear run in his new job..he appeared to encounter no prejudice or any obsticals. Not sure I will bother with the rest of the series.Far to flimsy for me!