Clara’s Verdict
I picked up Web of Lies on a damp Tuesday afternoon with the vague intention of listening to a chapter before dinner. I finished it the following morning. Sally Rigby’s opening novel in the Detective Sebastian Clifford series does not attempt to reinvent the procedural genre, and that restraint is to its credit. The best entry-level crime fiction knows exactly what it is and executes that thing well: it builds two central characters whose dynamic you want to follow beyond the confines of a single case, and it leaves enough unresolved to make the next book feel necessary. Rigby achieves both. Sebastian Clifford – former London detective with an eidetic memory, newly unemployed through scandal, constitutionally resistant to trusting anyone – is paired with Detective Constable Birdie Bird of Market Harborough. He has the analytical gifts; she has the local knowledge, the institutional access, and the social ease he lacks. The contrast is immediately productive and, more importantly, is earned by the writing rather than merely asserted.
Market Harborough is an unusual setting choice – not glamorous, not telegraphed as atmospheric in the way that Whitby or Edinburgh get to be. That ordinariness works. Rigby is not asking you to fall in love with a location; she is asking you to concentrate on the people, and the people repay that concentration.
Rated 4.4 out of 5 from five UK reviewers. A small but consistent set of responses.
About the Audiobook
Published by Podium Audio in November 2021, the audiobook runs to 9 hours and 17 minutes, which includes a bonus story, Nowhere to Hide, that genuinely extends the value of the purchase rather than serving as filler. This is Book 1 in the Detective Sebastian Clifford series – the right place to start with no prior investment required. The premise is compact and well-engineered: Clifford’s career ends when his London special squad is disbanded following a scandal, his cousin calls on him to prove her husband’s apparent suicide was in fact a murder, and he reluctantly partners with Birdie because she controls access to records he cannot obtain without her co-operation. The tension between an ex-Metropolitan officer accustomed to resources and a provincial detective constable with her own methods and institutional loyalty is a reliable structure in crime fiction. Rigby uses it with control rather than falling back on the obvious points of conflict, and the mystery itself is fairly clued – the kind of plot that rewards attention without cheating the reader at the resolution.
The series has continued with multiple further volumes, suggesting Rigby has found an audience that wants to stay with these characters across the long form, which is the most meaningful endorsement a procedural can receive.
The Narration
Jonathan Keeble narrates, and he is among the more dependable voices working in UK crime audiobooks. His ability to convey controlled, analytically precise male protagonists is demonstrated across a substantial catalogue, and Clifford’s clipped register suits Keeble’s natural strengths. Birdie’s warmer, more instinctive personality is handled with a lighter touch that differentiates the two principals without turning her into a comic contrast to his gravity – a distinction that matters for a character who is presented as genuinely capable rather than merely likeable. At just over nine hours, the pacing is brisk and consistent, with enough variation to signal the plot’s shifts without overemphasis.
What Readers Say
Reviewer Frances described finding this author as ‘a treat,’ noting that the writing style took a few chapters to settle into before she was fully absorbed, and highlighting the chemistry between the two leads with satisfying specificity: Sebastian’s eidetic memory and analytical precision against Birdie’s instinct and habitual lateness. She found it ‘a joy to read’ and described waiting to continue the series. Lindsay Weller declared it a future go-to series within a single brief review. Nomadicdragon found the theme intriguing and the action well-developed, calling it the possible start of another good Rigby series. Reviewer Geoff’s note that the writing was ‘not particularly refined’ is honest and fair – Rigby’s prose is functional rather than literary – while still recommending the book as a worthwhile read.
One final note on format value: the inclusion of a bonus story, Nowhere to Hide, within the same purchase is a genuine addition rather than a nominal one. Bonus material in audiobooks is often simply an excerpt from the next title, designed to prompt a purchase rather than provide content. Here it is a complete standalone story featuring the same characters, which extends the listening experience meaningfully and gives new listeners additional time with Sebastian and Birdie before committing to the subsequent volumes in the series.
Who Should Listen?
An ideal starting point for listeners who enjoy procedural crime fiction with a central partnership, a protagonist with an unusual cognitive gift, and a recognisably English setting that does not lean on atmospheric cliche. Those who prefer psychologically complex literary crime, or who want elegant prose as part of the package, will find the writing too workmanlike. But for a solid, satisfying procedural that delivers on its promises and includes genuine bonus content, this is exactly what it needs to be. Listen on Audible UK.
