Cached Out: A Cliff Knowles Mystery
Written by: Russell Atkinson
Narrated by: Joe Hempel
Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:11-09-15
Publisher: Russell Atkinson
Available from Audible
Publishers Summary
Newly retired from the FBI and alone after the tragic death of his wife, Cliff Knowles takes up geocaching. While looking for a cache in the mountains, he comes across a human skeleton and reports it to the sheriff's office. Then a second body is found - a fresh corpse this time - right after Cliff found another geocache nearby. When it turns out the first remains are those of a fugitive he was supposed to arrest years earlier, he becomes a suspect in a multiple homicide investigation. He has no choice but to use his sleuthing skills to identify the mysterious cache owner, known only as Enigmal, and free himself from suspicion.
Cached Out is the second book in the popular Cliff Knowles Mysteries series. The author is a retired FBI agent. Many of his books are inspired by actual FBI cases.
©2012 Russell Atkinson (P)2015 Russell Atkinson
My Review
You haven't heard of geocaching? No, nor had I, but this is how it goes: it's a bit like a treasure hunt for smart people, the clues to the cache are in the form of GPRS co-ordinates. If you read this book you will find out more, much more, so very much more about this, well, how do I describe it, hobby? Pursuit? Obsession? I think you get my drift, the author is an obvious enthusiast, actually, probably an expert, and he likes to let you know, everything, far too much for me, I just lost interest.
I broke my rule for this book by reading a few reviews prior to posting my own, seems all these (to me) endless details go down a treat with some of the readers.
So there! Audiothing, what do I know? The author also happens to be an ex Federal Special Agent, so yes, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to crime and criminals. Now I do love a procedural, I really do, but again I felt overwhelmed by details, just too many details. When I come across these lengthy explanations in a work of fiction, it makes me feel that the author underestimates the readers' ability to understand anything, unless given a lengthy and detailed lesson.
However, apart from these criticisms, the book does contain a cracking good story full of interesting characters, exciting moments, cliffhangers and lots of good old mystery. Now here's the rub! Review sites expect a star rating and I can only go with 3 for the story. A smart editor could knock 4 hours of the length of this listen simply by weeding out extraneous material, then it would be a 5 star for sure, but that's just my opinion.
Narrator
Narrated by Joe Hempel who has been blessed with a pleasant and easy to listen to voice. Character definition is good, I had no trouble in identifying the male characters of the story. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the female characters, it takes a bit more than simply raising the pitch of the voice. I reckon if he worked on that a bit, then he'd be a top notch narrator.
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com
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