Audiobook Review: Hades by Candice Fox

Hades
Author: Candice Fox
Narrator: Stephen Shanahan
Series: Archer & Bennett Thriller (Book 1)
Publication: Macmillan Audio (July 17, 2018)
Length: 8 hours and 8 minutes

Description: Candice Fox's Hades is the winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Novel.

Twenty years ago, two children were kidnapped and left for dead....

Homicide detective Frank Bennett has a new partner - dark, beautiful, coldly efficient Eden Archer. Frank doesn’t know what to make of her, or her brother Eric, who’s also on the police force. Their methods are... unusual. But when a graveyard full of large steel toolboxes filled with body parts is found at the bottom of Sydney harbor, unusual is the least of their worries.

For Eden and Eric, the case holds chilling links to a scarred childhood - and the murderer who raised them. For Frank, each clue brings him closer to something he’s not sure he wants to face. But true evil goes beyond the bloody handiwork of a serial killer - and no one is truly innocent....

My Thoughts: This was an extremely grim, dark thriller. It begins when some criminals bring two young children to a junkyard owned by a man known to be a problem solver. When Hades takes over, no bodies are ever found. But the two children aren't dead and Hades decides to raise them himself.

Twenty years later, Eden and Eric Archer are members of Sydney, Australia's Homicide Department. When Frank Bennett is assigned to the Homicide Department he is partnered with Eden. Their first case together involves a junkie who was rescued from the ocean and who has discovered a bunch of toolboxes filled with bodies. 

Their investigation leads to an off-the-books organ transplant scheme with a doctor who is willing to kill to get the body parts he needs. And, while Frank, Eden and Eric are trying to track down the killer, Frank learns more than he wants to know about his new partner and her brother. 

This was a story filled with morally grey characters. It is a story told with flashbacks to Eden and Eric's childhood with Hades. The mad doctor also has a point of view role. And Frank also has his point of view which seems to bind them all together. 

This is a series starter. It was engaging but now I have to go read something light and fluffy to get all of the grimness, evil people, and corrupt cops out of my brain. 

I bought this one August 12, 2021. You can buy your copy here.