The Long Game cover art

The Long Game

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Long Game

By: Simon Rowell
Narrated by: Elle Mickel
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $23.87

Buy Now for $23.87

About this listen

A tightly wound debut crime novel set in Melbourne and surrounds, for fans of Sarah Bailey, Garry Disher and J. M. Green.

A summer of relentless heat. A local surfer named Ray Carlson is found dead in a house not far from Portsea back beach. There’s a silver-handled kitchen knife deep in his chest, and blood everywhere.

Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer is scarcely back from extended leave and still wrestling with her demons, but she is assigned the case, alongside her new service dog, Harry, whose instincts help her in unexpected ways.

There’s an obvious suspect for the murder, and Zoe makes an arrest. But it’s all too neat, and none of Zoe’s colleagues believes her theory that the whole thing is a stitch-up.

Except now someone is trying to hunt Zoe down.

Superbly plotted, and vividly set in the beachside suburbs and hilly retreats around Melbourne, The Long Game is a mystery about a tough and clever investigator who won’t give up.

©2021 Simon Rowell (P)2021 W F Howes Crime Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Sports

Continue the series
The Good Dog cover art
The Good Dog By: Simon Rowell

Critic Reviews

"Beautifully written, this clever crime thriller kept me hooked till the end." (Sara Foster, best-selling author of You Don’t Know Me)

"A sharply written, vividly set page-turner, inhabited by memorable characters, including Harry the loyal service dog." (Tania Chandler, author of All That I Remember About Dean Cola)

"The Long Game is a nail-biting ride. Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer and her service dog, Harry, kept me enthralled to the end." (Greg Woodland, author of The Night Whistler)
All stars
Most relevant
You have to relax and allow yourself to be led along by the author.
The twists to the plot are mostly unexpected and the villain very believable in a modern context.

The narration has some words that are pronounced strangely and in my opinion some of the emphasis is exaggerated, unfortunately.

Appropriate Title

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the characters and the story. Although I guessed the murderer - eventually. The narrator was excellent. 👍🏻

Great crime mystery

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
After so many Australian Outback crime fiction, it was a relief to read one set where most Australian live: in a big capital city and its vicinity. Well drawn characters and …. well, any book with a dog as one of the major protagonists has got my emotional vote.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it, great twists but easy to follow. Would recommend to all. Easy to listen to narrator.

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed this. I found it a bit slow at the start. It was a little heard to emotionally attach to the story and to Zoe to start with but once I’d got into it it was great. Really enjoyed it. And I’m so greatful to Simon Rowell for having a main character with PTSD and a service dog to help her with that. As some who has cptsd and need a service dog it was very heartening to read. She went though trauma. She’s coping with it and Harry helps her when she needs it but she’s still strong imdipendant and confident and highly capable of doing her job and not letting her trauma break her. We need more books avout people with psychiatric service dogs living their lives and kicking ass, not letting trauma define them. It’s important in both normalising ptsd and service dogs (to validate those with it and to destigmitise it. but also so other people like me can read about characters just like us.
Performance was awesome. Loved the narrator. Will definitely look for more of her work.
Rowells writing is very good. I think the ptsd and anxiety was handlers well. Diffrent approach than normal to flashbacks. It happens sometimes. You reassure your self you safe and keep going, it’s normal. (For me it is normal. A normal regular part of my life. I can manage them and help myself. That meant a lot to see Zoe with her issues and just going in with life the ptsd is just a normal part of life now. And the way it wasn’t a big deal or a major focus of the book was also good. It’s a crime novel that’s the focus. The main character just happens to have ptsd to. The portrait anx stifling of Zoey is validating and means a lot. I saw myself in her and it was nice to read a book with a main character like me m

I enjoyed it, well written interesting plot

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.