Novel set in the DOLOMITES
Crime mystery set in DEVON
26th May 2026
The Good Listener by Holly Watt, crime mystery set in Coryton and Exeter, DEVON
#audiobook narrated by Nicola Burgess
Clara lives in the tiny hamlet of Coryton, not too far from Dartmoor and Exeter, and in the city she works as a Good Listener (think – sort of – Samaritans). She has inveigled her way into the GL community, despite recent trauma which, if revealed, would make her unsuitable for the role. A couple of years ago she was with her husband Lucas and daughter Lyra and they attended a local festival. Lyra went missing and later her body was found. The killer was never identified but a local man, Ryan, certainly proved to be a person of interest. The stigma of possible guilt continues to hang around him like a nasty smell.
The pressure of the loss caused the couple to split and Lucas is back in London, dating someone else. Clara has determined to stay in their rented cottage – Damson Cottage – because that is the last place Lyra lived, the bed where she slept is close by, and that proves a real comfort to her.
At work, on a call one Friday evening, she encounters someone called Emma, who struggles to speak but announces that her husband killed a little girl. Of course, Clara pricks up her ears and it seems that Emma calls regularly on a Friday night at pretty much the same time each week. Clara knows this from the confidential logs that she decides to access. She gets herself on the Friday night shift and determines to be the one to take Emma’s future calls, so that she can gently tease out information, little strands that might offer clues to her identity and where she might be located. And, of course, who her husband might be. Could she be talking about Lyra? Could her husband indeed be Ryan?
The audiobook narrator does an incredibly good and professional job of bringing the story to life, and for a while I was lulled by her wonderfully dulcet narration skills, her lilt and diction are seductive. Clara is (perhaps understandably) beset by a kind of madness engendered by her loss, and has a determination to root out out the killer. She was beginning to turn into a stalker, and it was then I began to notice inconsistencies and editing issues:
Given Clara’s recent history, she would have been an unsuitable candidate to train as a Good Listener, as the trauma in her life could, when triggered, impede her interacting with her clients. Clara therefore applies under her maiden name, yet I am sure due diligence would have picked up who she really was, and GL would have declined her services – assuming this national company, with offices all over the country, was reputable. Why she had the drive to be a Good Listener, I don’t know, but it is necessary for her to be in place for the story.
She affirms with her clients time and again that a GL cannot call the emergency services. Oh wait, she does at one point call the police and ambulance service on behalf of a suicidal client. Would someone really say “that is very sad” when someone rings in to say her husband killed a little girl? A man walks in off the street (a person of possible interest to Clara) and after a quick tour of the facilities, is soon offered a GL training contract (what?). There is no supervision in evidence, you can’t run an organisation specialising in therapeutic skills without it. To be honest, the author faffs on with duty of care and confidentiality – both for clients and the listeners – but ditches those when it suits the narrative.
Then, there are quite a few loose strands that needed the firm attention of an editor. For example, Clara’s friend Rachel comes to stay, but the plot takes over and there is no mention again of the weekend visit. And there are all kinds of ensuing extrapolations, clue gathering that sometimes feels quite far fetched; Clara poses herself innumerable rhetorical questions, pondering her conclusions and at times gets the wrong end of the stick. Her pondering reflections could drag on a bit, to be honest.
Clara, nevertheless, is sympathetically portrayed, a tortured woman whose only way to get closure is to keep running on the hamster wheel of sleuthing.
When it comes to setting, the author has a very lyrical turn of phrase, she revels in the setting she has created: On Dartmoor: “Summer only ever feels as if it has been borrowed; Summer is a skirt begged for a party. Winter is her soul. It is so beautiful here…” She captures the feel of small village life, the people, the traditions and the ingrained way of life, all set against a rugged backdrop.
Given the nature of the topic at the heart of the book, quite a few difficult issues are covered and may be triggering for some.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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