Clara’s Verdict
The Moor brings a splash of colour, and a good deal of heart, to the DCI Ryan Mysteries. The twelfth instalment rolls a circus into Newcastle and hands Ryan one of his most unusual witnesses, a ten-year-old girl who turns up on his doorstep claiming to have seen a murder. LJ Ross clearly had fun with it, and so did I.
What gives the book its warmth is that child. Sassy, vulnerable and impossible not to root for, she marches into the story and quietly takes it over, and the way the hardened detectives soften around her is genuinely touching. Wrapped around that emotional core is a proper mystery with the circus troupe as a closed, secretive world. It is one of the series’ most spellbinding cases, and one of its most likeable.
What keeps the book from mere whimsy is how seriously Ross takes her young witness. Samantha is never a device or a mascot. She is a real child, frightened and brave by turns, and the plot hinges on the terrible fact that she alone can identify a killer. That jeopardy gives the circus colour a genuine chill, and holds warmth and menace in the same hand.
About the Audiobook
The twelfth DCI Ryan Mystery begins with a knock at the door. A ten-year-old girl arrives to tell Ryan she has witnessed a murder, and he has no idea he is stepping into one of his most spellbinding cases yet. The circus has rolled into Newcastle upon Tyne, bringing with it a troupe of daring acrobats, magicians and jugglers, and one of them is a killer.
Ryan and his team must break through the closed ranks of the circus to uncover a secret that has lain buried for eight years, before the killer strikes again, this time to silence the only living witness. Ross sets the whole thing against the spectacular Northumbrian landscape and, in a lovely change of texture, threads the darkness with the colour and clamour of circus life. The murder and mystery come, as ever, peppered with romance and humour.
The Narration
Jonathan Keeble narrates a listen of around seven and a quarter hours, and the star turn here is his handling of the child witness. Voicing a ten-year-old convincingly, catching her sass and her fear without slipping into the twee, is a real test, and he passes it. The girl comes across exactly as the character on the page, instantly likeable.
He gives the circus its due, too, colouring the acrobats and magicians and the uneasy hush behind their spectacle so that the troupe feels like the closed world the plot needs. With two investigations running and eventually converging, clarity is everything, and Keeble keeps the strands clean. It is a warm, characterful reading that leans into the book’s slightly gentler, more human register. Across a little over seven hours he keeps the colour of the circus and the chill beneath it in fine balance, and the child at the centre never once rings false. It is a performance with a real lightness of touch.
What Readers Say
The Moor holds an average of 4.6 stars across 36 ratings, and the young witness steals the reviews just as she steals the story. One reader described the ten-year-old as instantly likeable, all sass and vulnerability, and praised how the book keeps you guessing. Another admitted it sat near the very top of their list of favourites, relishing the sight of the tougher detectives bonding with a little girl who firmly took over their lives.
The reviews confirm that the child is the beating heart of the book. Readers describe her as instantly likeable, all sass and vulnerability, and relish the sight of the gruffer detectives thawing as she marches into their lives and takes over. Several praise the two investigations that run in parallel before converging in the time-honoured way, keeping them guessing to the last.
Readers also return, again and again, to the Northumberland settings. One likened the series to Vera in the way it plants you among real local landscapes with characters you come to know, and confessed to being sorry to reach the end. Others simply declared their ongoing love for these books and for a good crime story well told. The consensus is of a series entry that balances warmth and menace with a very sure hand.
Who Should Listen?
The Moor is for the reader who likes a mystery with genuine heart as well as tension, and for series followers who enjoy watching a new character shake up a familiar cast. It suits anyone drawn to a closed-world whodunnit, here the secretive world of the circus, and to the show’s fans of regional British crime in the mould of Vera. It reads well alone, though longtime listeners will feel the character beats most.
If a circus with a killer inside it appeals, you can Listen to The Moor on Audible and meet the witness who turns up on Ryan’s doorstep.
