Blog Tour: Audiobook Review of Cut Short by BD Spargo
Today I am helping end the blog tour for Cut Short by BD Spargo. This is a debut novel crime thriller/police procedural and the second in the series is also available now!
Book Description:
Detectives can’t bury their mistakes, murderers can.
DCI Liam Doyle is haunted by the demons from his past and the challenges of the present: a broken marriage, a tarnished reputation, and a troubled young son who needs him. He’s newly moved out of south London – and out of his comfort zone.
When a murdered woman is found at a Lancashire beauty spot in his new patch. Doyle is tasked with finding her killer, along with his new detective sergeant, Anna Morgan.
As the investigation progresses, it becomes clear that things are not as they seem. A clever killer has created a complex web of deceit and is always one step ahead of Doyle … and the bodies are mounting up. Is the past the key to unlocking the present? When the stakes get higher, Doyle’s need to find the killer becomes personal and the detective is plunged into a desperate race against time. Will Doyle succeed before he has another dead body on his conscience?
Played out across the rugged Lancashire landscape, Cut Short is a gripping crime thriller layered with plot twists and sprinkled with humour. This fast-paced novel, the first in a series featuring DCI Liam Doyle, will have readers on the edge of their seats.
If you have enjoyed books by authors such as Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride, JD Kirk and Alex Smith, you won’t want to miss Cut Short.
Cut Short
Series: DCI Liam Doyle #1
Author: BD Spargo
Narrator: Aubrey Parsons
Audio Published: February 6, 2026
Audiobook: 9 hours 43 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 8-14, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Jessica’s Review:
Cut Short is a gritty crime thriller/police procedural taking place ‘across the pond’ in Lancashire, England. I enjoyed this one and the fact that this is a debut novel is impressive! Cut Short takes place in present day with flashbacks to 1996 and 1999. Animal lovers be on the lookout for the deaths of two animals: I’ll first mention there is a death of a rabbit, which is just a minor two sentences. A larger warning in regards to beginning of the novel as we have a very brutal murder of a dog. It is necessary to the story and I was prepared for an animal death but wasn’t expecting what we got.
As this is the first novel in the series, we meet DCI Liam Doyle and he is just starting his job in a new location and what a start: a body! And things are just not what they seem. We also meet many more characters which a reader may or may not like. I like DS Anna Morgan and adore Pathologist Doctor Vedhika Gupta! Gupta is my favorite character! We get to know these characters along with Doyle and we get to see into his past and personal life, which is far from perfect. These characters all came off as ‘real’ to me.
As the case grows and more is discovered; the reader goes along with Doyle to work to solve the case. The story speeds up and I was really wanting to know how it was going to end! Cut Short is a fast paced novel that you don’t really want to put down and stop listening. The narrator Aubrey Parsons did a great job! He became DCI Doyle for me.
In addition to the grittiness of the story, we also get some humor in the novel to lighten the mood at times. I was surprised to find myself laughing at times with the humor. Now remember, this is a British author, so we have British humor!
Fortunately, the second in the series is available now in kindle and paperback. I’m optimistic that the second will be available on audio soon!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Audible US
Amazon UK
Audible UK
About the Author:
Fast approaching fifty; without enough money for a sports car, BD Spargo decided to express his mid-life crises by turning to crime …
Thankfully for pretty much everyone this meant writing crime fiction rather than anything more nefarious. Originally from London, he spent his early career working in television and theatre including on the Ruth Rendall Mysteries broadcast on ITV.
A life changing accident necessitated retraining and a change of direction going on to work in mental health services. This culminated in ten years managing a groundbreaking forensic psychiatric service. He now lives in Lancashire with his family and is getting acclimatised to the rain.
Contact BD:
Website
Bluesky
X @BDSpargo
Instagram @BDSpargo
See the whole blog tour:
Audiobook Review: The Voice We Find by Nicole Deese
The Voice We Find: A Fog Harbor Romance
Series: Fog Harbor #3
Author: Nicole Deese
Narrators:
Stephanie Cozart
Nick Mills
Taylor Meskimen
Published: April 15, 2025
Audiobook: 14 hours 26 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: February 15-23, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Two voices. One story. A chance to rewrite their future.
Sophie Wilder returns home to California with nothing more than a failed Broadway career and a geriatric cat. Stuck working at the family winery with her egotistical brother and desperate for a way to revive her acting dreams, she takes a side gig as an audiobook narrator with Fog Harbor Books. But getting mixed up in the life of her reluctant sound engineer was never a part of her plans.
August Tate is still reeling from taking on guardianship of his teen sister. Determined to find a solution to her degenerative hearing loss and to prevent his private recording studio from going under, he agrees to produce audiobooks part-time. When Sophie breathes new life into his creativity and forms an unexpected bond with his sister rooted in their common faith, he must confront the reasons he turned away from his own or risk losing the second chance he’s only just started to believe in.
The Voice We Find is the third book in Nicole Deese’s Fog Harbor Romance Series for fans of clean, faith-based stories, deaf and hard of hearing representation, workplace romance, books about books, found family, and sibling bonds.
Jessica’s Review:
The Voice We Find is a contemporary Christian Fiction novel that deals with some deep themes. All three of our characters: Sophie, August, and Gabby all have growth over the course of the novel. The reader also experiences the character’s traumas and the aftermath of family loss, family tension, struggles with faith, and as the title suggests: The characters finding their voice in the ways that they are meant to. In addition to these themes, we have God and He is also a central part of the story. There is also a little bit of a mystery with Sophie’s past..
In addition to the three main characters we also have Phantom, who is Sophie’s ‘geriatric’ cat. He is his own character as I saw my own cat Curry in Phantom. All my love to stubborn, older cats! Curry can be his own ‘stubborn old man’!
My favorite parts of this novel are the ASL and the hard of hearing/ deaf community representation! Disability representation is needed more of in books and it is a significant part of the novel due to Gabby’s degenerative hearing loss and eventual deafness.
The reader also gets some insight in theater performance and audiobook narration. I enjoyed getting a brief look at what working in those ‘worlds’ consist of. We also get a sweet romance that progresses slowly. We also get another form of love that is the sibling love between August and Gabby. They may not be ‘blood relatives’, but they are family and their love is definitely there!
You can’t help but grow to care about all of these characters in all of their realities. They are all far from perfect, but again we experience their growth over the course of the novel.
All of the narrators brought August, Sophie, and Gabby to life with perfection. They all enhanced the story. The Voice We Find is the third in the series, but each novel can be treated as a standalone. This one was a book club selection for February, and I enjoyed it and hope to experience the other two in the series soon.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Cover Reveal: The Freshman Parents by Ko Porteous
Today I am helping in the cover reveal for The Freshman Parents by Ko Porteous. This is the first novel in The Empty Nesters Series. It releases on July 10th and sounds like it will be a fun one to read, especially if you have a child leaving for college!
Book Description:
Single parent Heather isn’t neurotic (honest!) – she’s simply dreading the day her only child leaves for university – so her meticulous checklists grow longer by the hour. When she seeks advice on a parents’ forum, she clashes with Scott, a single dad whose “helpful” statistics and assertions about “helicopter parenting” leave her fuming.
Move-in day delivers the ultimate surprise: their daughters aren’t just roommates – they are self-declared “besties for life”. Suddenly, Heather and Scott are thrown into a begrudging alliance.
As they navigate the new status quo, Heather’s instinct to organise meets Scott’s philosophy of letting go. Their practical text messages about mattress toppers and emergency supplies evolve into conversations about dream jobs and bucket list aspirations. Despite their intentions to avoid relationships at all costs, unpredictable events keep throwing them together, meaning Heather and Scott find it increasingly difficult to ignore each other…
Now….. What does the cover look like?????? Keep scrolling to find out!!
Almost there!!!
Here it is:
Pre-Order Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
About the Author:
Ko Porteous lived in a tiny fishing village in the north of Scotland before moving to Edinburgh aged 10.
Ko loves meeting people with interesting stories to tell and is constantly on the lookout for knotty story themes, particularly involving women navigating the messiness of life. She has worked as a Research Chemist, Assistant Chef, Teacher and School Leader.
As well as writing, Ko works as a Business Manager and provides listening services for a mental health charity aiming to reduce the number of deaths caused by suicide.
In her free time Ko loves to run, meditate and travel; preferably all on the same day.
Ko has been married for 25 years, has 2 children of her own and is now navigating her own empty nest.
The Freshman Parents is Ko’s debut novel and is the first in ‘The Empty Nesters’ series.
Contact Ko:
Instagram @koporteousauthor
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