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    The Facts of Life and Death
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    The Facts of Life and Death
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    The Facts of Life and Death
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Facts of Life and Death

    Written by Belinda Bauer

    Narrated by Colleen Prendergast

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    On the beaches and cliffs of North Devon, lone women have become victims in a terrifying game where only one player knows the rules-and, when those rules change, the new game is murder. But that madman on the loose feels very far from the crumbling, seaside home of ten-year-old Ruby Trick. Instead of living in fear of him, she lives in fear of school bullies, the dark forest crowding her house into the sea, and the threat of her parents' divorce. So when she decides to help her father catch the killer, it seems like a good way to keep her father close-that is, as long as the killer doesn't catch her first...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateAug 15, 2017
    ISBN9781520074184
    Author

    Belinda Bauer

    Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter, and her script The Locker Room earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters, an award that was presented to her by Sidney Poitier. She was a runner-up in the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition for “Mysterious Ways,” about a girl stranded on a desert island with 30,000 Bibles. Belinda now lives in Wales. Her latest novel, Snap, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. 

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    Reviews for The Facts of Life and Death

    4/5

    56 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Ruby Trick lives in a decaying cottage in a tiny village on the coast of north Devonshire. Her parents are struggling, both financially since her father's employer shut its doors and in their marriage. Ten year-old Ruby, who is both plump and red-haired in addition to being poor, is friendless at school, but she dreams of owning a pony and loves her father deeply, and shares his love of American cowboys with him. When the bodies of young women start turning up, Ruby and her father go on patrol, looking for the killer, but mostly ferrying young women safely home late at night.DC Calvin Bridge only became a detective because he was tired of keeping his uniform clean. A man content to drift through life, he's ended up engaged to be married without really understanding how that happened. And now he's partnered with DCI Kirsty King, an ambitious officer who is going places. He finds it all exhausting, especially how King insist he not daydream his way through the day and actively help the investigation.Belinda Bauer is often compared to Ruth Rendell in the blurbs to her novels, which is shorthand for how her characters are often drawn from the people we are likely to overlook. But Bauer's writing goes more deeply into character, while keeping the tension in her stories high. She doesn't travel the predicted path, but her unexpected endings are well plotted. This isn't her best novel (that would be Backlands), but it is a well-written and solidly plotted crime novel that was a great deal of fun to read.
    • 5/5
      This is another wonderful story from the pen of Belinda Bauer.Set, a little along the coast from Clovelly, in Limeburn a tiny village that once had a prosperous past, but never a pull for tourists to save its own economy. Slowly, the population and their homes seem to be surrendering to the economic reality, further squeezed by the advancing sea and the encroaching countryside. The hamlet has just 5 children who are forced to play together, one of whom is Ruby Trick. This is her story, during a changing time as she moves from small child into a young girl on the cusp of puberty. However, it is a wider threat to the whole of North Devon that will change her life forever and take her more rapidly into the world of adulthood. A serial killer is at work; no young woman appears safe and Ruby is determined to help her Daddy try to catch the murderer.The author has always to my great pleasure shown great skills in voicing young people and writing from a child's perspective. That strength is demonstrated here with compassion and wit, through Ruby's coming of age, in her relationships at home, at school and as a new appointed deputy in her Dad's gunslingers' posse. Her relationship with her Father is crucial to this story and is beautifully explored, especially in their dialogue and interactions.The sense of place is also beautifully drawn. I had visions of the author bribing local Welsh fisher folk to cross the Bristol Channel in secret to spy/research the geography and gather a sense of time and place. My partner suggested she probably used the Severn Bridge a couple of times. Whatever, Belinda Bauer has captured the locale and written so well that you can smell the sea, sense the damp and have to pause for breath as you climb one of the paths out of Limeburn.This is an easy book to read and you can quickly progress through the book on the back of this discerning storyteller.As with all her books, this novel has a dark side. The author's most clever attribute is her ability to look at stories from a fresh perspective. Here it is through the eyes of Ruby; the horrors of these crimes will change her life forever and live long for the reader long after you finish this excellent novel.
    • 5/5
      The thing that always strikes me when I read one of the books by Belinda Bauer is just how different each one is from most of the run-of-the-mill stuff written today. This one is no exception with its setting of a rain-swept and bleak coastal community which is being slowly but surely eaten away by the sea. The heroine is a ten year old girl called Ruby who is remarkably savvy for her years. Into this closed community comes a killer who abducts young women and before murdering them,makes them phone their mothers and transmit their terror to them before their lives end.
    • 5/5
      I did enjoy this. It had brilliant dark humour in some of the dialogue (Calvin not enjoying being with his girlfriend) , great prose (the sea and it's war with the shingles is excellent) and Ruby as a character is well written. Who the killer is doesn't come as a great surprise though and once this is known, it doesn't take long for the story to complete. This felt more like a Sarah Rayne. I like her books but I was reading a Belinda Bauer. Calvin was the best character of the book, you could see potential in him, maybe another story with him would be very nice.
    • 4/5
      A thoroughly good read! Told through the eyes of Ruby is done with authenticity. The evocation of the community in which Ruby lives is superb. Very atmospheric. There's palpable tension as the story unfolds and the killer is revealed ... With even more tension after that! Well written at a great pace. If you like reading crime fiction, give this one a go. I'll be reading more of this author.
    • 5/5
      This was so tense that I’ve aged 10 years! I recommend it to all who like a good thriller, but remember to breathe as you’re listening to the last hour or so.
    • 5/5
      Call your mother.'
      'What do I say?'
      'Say goodbye.'

      This is how it begins.

      Lone women terrorised and their helpless families forced to watch - in a sick game where only one player knows the rules. And when those rules change, the new game is Murder.

      Living with her parents in the dank beach community of Limeburn, ten-year-old Ruby Trick has her own fears. Bullies on the school bus, the forest crowding her house into the sea, and the threat of divorce.

      Helping her Daddy to catch the killer might be the key to keeping him close.

      As long as the killer doesn't catch her first...


      From the author

      ‘I am intrigued by the secret lives of children. It seems to me that parents trust too easily that their children are safe as long as they are not alone. In fact, children are in the greatest danger when they are with other people – be they friends or foes. And because children can be confused by loyalty and guilt, when something bad happens, many parents will never even know.

      In this book I wanted to explore the way a child negotiates her own secret fears – the forest that presses against her ramshackle home, the sea that creeps up the slipway, the bullies on the school bus and – the most frightening thing of all – her dread that her Daddy might leave.

      Limeburn is based on Bucks Mills in North Devon – an eerie hamlet caught between the forest and the waves, and a grim reflection of the way Ruby is squeezed between unhappy parents; corruption and manipulation; childhood and adolescence.

      All in the shadow of a serial killer…’

      Brilliant atmospheric novel by one of my favourite authors. You never know what to expect from Bauer whether it is the bleak Blacklands trilogy or her stand alone novels.

      The Facts is an manipulative coming of age novel where no one or nothing is as they first appear. Slow to start but quickly picks up pace and sustains it. Likeable characters, outstanding writing and Bauer's trademark black humour made this a wonderful read.

      1 person found this helpful