America / Audiobook and Book Reviews by Audiothing

Dead Like Me: Kelly Miller

Monday, 17 April 2017

Dead Like Me: A Detective Kate Springer Mystery, Book 1

Written by: Kelly Miller

Narrated by: Angel Clark

Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release Date:02-13-17

Publisher: Kelly Miller

Summary

On edge after a two-week mandatory leave, Homicide Detective Kate Springer is blindsided when she discovers she shares a link with Tampa's newest murder victim. A troubled teen is found strangled and dumped in a remote part of town. The bond between them threatens to expose Detective Springer's past, a past she's been hell-bent on keeping secret. When the killer finally emerges from the shadows, Kate's secrets aren't the only thing on the line. So is her life.

Review

Content warning: this story deals with child abuse which may distress some readers.

Detective Kate Springer is seeing a police psychologist, ostensibly because of her involvement in a shooting incident. However, as time goes by, Kates childhood secrets, so carefully hidden in deep her mind, begin to emerge.

When called to a crime scene Kate gets a real shock when she first looks at the body of the young girl because she bears such a strong resemblance to herself at that age.

The investigating team pull in several men to assist with their murder inquiries and when Kate, by chance, sees one of them being interviewed, she is horrified, he is like a ghost risen from her secret past.

How will she cope? Can she maintain her outward composure when all the time her mind is trying to make sense of this awful situation?

This story contains some interesting characters, Kates work partner Patrick Jessop is the perfect foil for Kate with her funny little ways. They get along quite well but that doesn’t prevent Kate from hiding her secrets from him. Her relationship with her therapist is interesting too, I can see this being built upon in future books.

Though quite gripping and fast moving for the most part, it did seem as if certain parts were being read straight from a text book, particularly the information regarding alcoholism, for me, this somewhat intruded on the flow of the story.

I’m not usually too keen on the psychologically damaged, kick ass type of character in books, but must say, that Kate, despite her flaws, comes off as far more interesting than most.

I have made a couple of negative comments but I really did enjoy the story and would happily read more about Kate Springer, I’m sure this will be a successful series.

Ah yes, just one more thing, I’m sure all us frumpier RNs didn’t take too much offence!

Narrated by Angel Clarke who is a seasoned performer with several audiobooks under her belt. Her experience shines through, I loved her as Kelly in particular.

Angel brings a vitality to the characters, but a little too much at times I thought as couple of female voices were just a tad over animated for my taste.

Audiobook provided by the author in return for an unbiased review

Forest Park: Logan Series 2

Saturday, 25 June 2016

Written by: Valerie Davisson
Narrated by: Leonor A Woodworth
Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:04-21-16
Publisher: Hauser Publishing
4 STARS

This is the second book in the Logan series. Logan McKenna is well on the way to getting her life

back together after a traumatic series of events had left her beaten down. Her husband had died and

Logan had also lost her job. Now, she has a new home that she is renovating and is tentatively committing to a new relationship.

Review

There are at least two parallel main storylines along with some flashbacks to when a family managed to escape their war torn home in Vietnam to live in America. Now, in present times, they have a successful food business but their mentor has died, his business has been taken over by his more ruthless family.

Logan has been travelling, researching school curriculum and cutting edge teaching methods; at a forward thinking school she meets educators and staff, one of whom is linked to the family who run a food van that Logan had patronised.
Before returning home, Logan is booked into an hotel for the weekend, she is expecting her new man to join her, this is to be the first time they spend the night together. For Logan, this is a huge deal and when he postpones his arrival she is very upset and confused.

Her attention is soon diverted by a huge explosion near her hotel, it is the the food van. The body of a woman is found ....
Because she had bought food from the van and, had also met a relative of the dead woman, Logan feels some sort of connection to the family and so she determines to help them untangle the many threads of this mystery. She becomes more deeply involved than she could ever have imagined.

Despite (in my opinion) a slow and slightly confusing start I thought this was an interesting listen, the cultural and social comment served to make it a little bit different. I must admit to finding Logan a tad dull, she isn't much of a one for witty repartee. I would have liked her to have had a more memorable character.

Narrated by Leonor A. Woodworth who is new to me. I thought she carried the story along well, she kept me interested and engaged.

I'm not too familiar with the specifics of the accents that Leonor had to cope with but they sounded pretty good to me. She also does a convincing "chilling" and "threatening" voice too - male and female. I hope Leonor continues to narrate this series.

Audiobook provided by the producer, author or narrator in return for an unbiased review

Cached Out: A Cliff Knowles Mystery

Monday, 4 January 2016

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.

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

The Casanova Killer

Thursday, 31 December 2015

Written by Jack Smith

Narrated by John N. Gully

Length: 1 hour 29 minutes

Unabridged Audiobook

Released 2/11/15

Published by Kemah Bay Marketing LLC

Available from Audible

Publishers Summary

"Paul John Knowles, nicknamed the Casanova Killer, went on a four-month killing spree in 1974. He still remains one of the lesser known serial killers of his generation. Learn all about this psychopath who wanted fame before his life ended.

November 7, 1974

As she entered her home in Milledgeville, Georgia, all Ellen Carr probably had on her mind was going to bed. She was a registered nurse who worked a night shift, and although her small family welcomed the money, the job was a demanding one.

Inside, the house was unnaturally quiet. She found that odd. Her husband, 45-year-old businessman Carswell Carr, and 15-year-old daughter, Amanda, usually greeted her when she came home from the hospital.

That wasn't the only sign that something was seriously amiss. As an investigator later put it, "The [place] looked as if it had been attacked by an animal." Mirrors were smashed. Slashed furniture lay everywhere, some of it in pieces. Books from the bookshelves littered the floor.

Had they been robbed? Where were Carswell and Mandy? Heart pounding, Mrs. Carr ran from room to room, calling out. Minutes later, she was back outside, screaming hysterically. Neighbors called the police to what was obviously the scene of gruesome double ........

My Review

At around 1/12 hours in length this is obviously not an in-depth study of these horrendous murders, nor does it delve deeply into the possible causes of psychopathy. What is though is an almost detached rendering of the basic facts. Facts which are quite shocking to read or to listen to. I'm surprised that I had no prior knowledge of this killer who, despite his terrible acts of violence, somehow escaped the notoriety of other serial killers.

I mostly read crime fiction and, whilst listening to this I realised I had to change my listening mode, I had to stop allowing this information to merely flow through my head, bypassing the deeper thought processes, it dawned on me: this stuff is real! A human being actually did this to another human being! Once this thought sinks in, well, that's when it becomes a little harrowing, especially so when this man, this fellow member of the human race, committed these crimes for his own pleasure. Best not to attempt to understand why.

I like the way this book is written, it gives us the bare facts, dig deeper if you will.

Narrator

Narrated by John N. Gully, and what a darned good job he made of it too. He has a pleasant, easy to listen to and clear voice and related this account of the crimes of Paul John Knowles in exactly the right manner.

It would have been easy to spoil the narration by using a news reporter or advertising voiceover style, I'm so pleased he avoided this through his use of a professional and dignified approach