Penguin Audio – Page 2 – Rosepoint Publishing

Omens by Kelley Armstrong #AudiobookReview #ContemporaryFantasy

Best Science Fiction and Fantasy

– Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Paranormal Fantasy

Book Blurb:

Number-one New York Times best-selling author Kelley Armstrong begins her new series with Omens, featuring a compelling new heroine thrust into a decades-old murder case and the dark mysteries surrounding her strange new home.

Twenty-four-year-old Olivia Taylor Jones has the perfect life. The only daughter of a wealthy, prominent Chicago family, she has an Ivy League education, pursues volunteerism and philanthropy, and is engaged to a handsome young tech firm CEO with political ambitions.

But Olivia’s world is shattered when she learns that she’s adopted. Her real parents? Todd and Pamela Larsen, notorious serial killers serving a life sentence. When the news brings a maelstrom of unwanted publicity to her adopted family and fiancé, Olivia decides to find out the truth about the Larsens.

Olivia ends up in the small town of Cainsville, Illinois, an old and cloistered community that takes a particular interest in both Olivia and her efforts to uncover her birth parents’ past.

Aided by her mother’s former lawyer, Gabriel Walsh, Olivia focuses on the Larsens’ last crime, the one her birth mother swears will prove their innocence. But as she and Gabriel start investigating the case, Olivia finds herself drawing on abilities that have remained hidden since her childhood, gifts that make her both a valuable addition to Cainsville and deeply vulnerable to unknown enemies. Because there are darker secrets behind her new home and powers lurking in the shadows that have their own plans for her.

My Review:

Well, it started out okay. Then began a journey that bordered on boredom to a new thread of interest and back into tedium. I do enjoy an occasional paranormal novel and thought this might be one.

Olivia Taylor Jones is from a wealthy family from Chicago, twenty-four and engaged to another privileged child, now the CEO of a tech firm. They are all shocked to discover that the adoption of Olivia was the result of her birth parents being sent to prison for life as serial killers.

Yeah, things didn’t go well after that.

She ends up going back to Cainsville IL where she and her birth parents were from. She meets Gabriel Walsh, her birth mother’s attorney. She swears they were innocent and, of course, Olivia will have to set out to prove or disprove that. I was a little incredulous with not only Olivia’s stance but her adoptive parents as well. No love lost(?)

I end up listening with half an ear when it appears to bog down in minutia. An interesting plot, but the pace just didn’t keep my interest. Also, I never invested in Olivia, although Gabriel showed some promise as a support character.

There were elements of the paranormal that seemed to be inserted somewhere that didn’t add to the progress of the mystery. Cainsville was…just weird. It had gargoyles everywhere, adding possibly one per year…because…didn’t grab me and I couldn’t really imagine a town where there were real people living. With gargoyles.

The two narrators made a valiant effort, but the storyline, though promising, never really became a matter I needed to solve. The conclusion was not a whole resolution, perhaps a lead in to the next installment. I guess not a book for me, though readers into fantasy or occult fiction might find it gripping.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy, Occult Fiction, Women Sleuth Mysteries
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B00E827JQE
Listening Length: 14 hrs 36 mins
Narrator: Carine Montbertrand, Mozhan Marnò
Publication Date: August 20, 2013
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Omens [Amazon]

The Author: Kelley Armstrong believes experience is the best teacher, though she’s been told this shouldn’t apply to writing her murder scenes. To craft her books, she has studied aikido, archery and fencing. She sucks at all of them. She has also crawled through very shallow cave systems and climbed half a mountain before chickening out. She is however an expert coffee drinker and a true connoisseur of chocolate-chip cookies.

Relax, it's Sunday

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton #AudiobookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

Detective Elise King investigates a man’s disappearance in a seaside town where the locals and weekenders are at odds with each other in this rich and captivating new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow.

Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective–or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she’d ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing–the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes.

Elise can only guess what really happens behind closed doors. But Dee Eastwood, her house cleaner, often knows. She’s an invisible presence in many of the houses in town, but she sees and hears everything.

The conflicts boil over when a newcomer wants to put the town on the map with a giant music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise is drawn back into her detective work and starts digging for answers. Ebbing is a small town, but it’s full of secrets and hidden connections that run deeper and darker than Elise could have ever imagined.

My Review:

I do enjoy mysteries and whodunits and always willing to try a new author to me. The blurb sets up a mystery involving conflict between the residents of a little seaside village and the seasonal weekenders who are buying up the older homes and turning them into luxury getaways.

And that prospect begins the storyline with a music festival that ends in tragedy when two teenagers OD. Guess I expected that’s the direction the plot would take, but you know what happens when you jump to assumptions.

The reader is introduced to Elise King, fighting her way through a cancer regime and still experiencing chemo brain. Admittedly, she acknowledges brain fog, memory loss, and concentration. She was a successful detective prior to her diagnosis and treatment and now would love to return to work. But she’s a little afraid to push it, recognizing her current limitations.

So when the teenagers OD and Charlie Perry disappears, Elise is a bit reluctant to jump back into her role when requested to do so by her old boss. Fortunately, she has a rather nosy older neighbor who would love to be an unofficial associate and is more than happy to help when Elise requests her assistance with Ronnie’s expertise in researching.

In the meantime…enter the housekeeper of many of the local homes forced into the role by the loss of her hubby’s job and income. Dee Eastwood has discovered she’s “invisible” to those whose homes she quietly goes about cleaning, while being privy to their conversations, secrets around the house, and their relationships.

Charlie Perry becomes sympathetic when the reader is introduced to his wife Pauline who appears to be more than a little narcissistic. But then it’s also discovered that Charlie wasn’t the sweet, friendly neighbor thought to be and in fact had put himself in a precarious financial position trying to care for his daughter.

Multiple POVs, lots of characters, many of whom are not wholly developed. The plot breaks down into sub-plots. I did like Elise and admired her successful struggle with her health circumstances, but with all the characters and a rather slow moving pace, there were times when I tuned out the narration of the audiobook. There is a twist at the end I didn’t expect and in the end a surprising discovery in conclusion.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B09J1RPG7N
Listening Length: 10 hrs 19 mins
Narrators: Gabrielle Glaister, Jayne Entwistle, Nicholas Guy Smith
Publication Date: June 14, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Local Gone Missing – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK

The Author: Fiona Barton’s debut, The Widow, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and has been published in 36 countries and optioned for television. Her second novel, The Child, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Born in Cambridge, Fiona currently lives in Sussex and south-west France.

Previously, she was a senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards.

While working as a journalist, Fiona reported on many high-profile criminal cases and she developed a fascination with watching those involved, their body language and verbal tics. Fiona interviewed people at the heart of these crimes, from the guilty to their families, as well as those on the periphery, and found it was those just outside the spotlight who interested her most . . .

#TuesdayBookBlog

Dark of the Moon by John Sandford #AudiobookReview #crimethrillers

A Virgil Flowers Novel, Book 1

Book Blurb:

Virgil Flowers kicked around for a while before joining the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. First it was the army and the military police, then the police in St. Paul, and finally Lucas Davenport brought him into the BCA, promising him, “We’ll only give you the hard stuff.”

He’s been doing the hard stuff for three years now, but never anything like this.

In the small town of Bluestem, a house way up on a ridge explodes into flames, its owner, a man named Judd, trapped inside. There are a lot of reasons to hate him, Flowers discovers. In fact, he concludes, you’d probably have to dig around to find a person who doesn’t despise Judd.

And that isn’t even why Flowers came to Bluestem. Three weeks before, there’d been another murder, two, in fact, a doctor and his wife, the doctor found propped up in his backyard, both eyes shot out. Flowers knows two things: this wasn’t a coincidence, and it had to be personal.

But just how personal is something even he doesn’t realize, and may not find out until too late. Because the next victim may be himself.

My Review:

My first book by the author, so I knew nothing about the Sandford Prey series. Virgil Flowers is apparently a spin-off. I like getting in on the first book of a series (not my usual style), but in this case where the protagonist is a spin-off from another series, it seems assumed you already have a modicum of knowledge about the character.

I didn’t; nor did I particularly like him.

Flowers joined the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA—a name I found phony to funny). This, after he pulled a stint in the military police, then the police in St Paul. He has a solid background without a ton of baggage unless you count three failed marriages. Just a good ole boy doing his thing, which is apparently women.

Perhaps I’m the wrong gender target for this character and series. While there were a few humorous moments, dialogue, I just couldn’t get invested in this character and unfortunately, for me, the storyline meandered and lost my attention.

In a little town in Minnesota, one murder is a headline, which is why he was sent there to investigate, but then there occurs a series of murders—all related according to Flowers. No problem, Virgil will quietly and effectively get to the crux of the matter all while playing with the sister of the local sheriff.

It falls back on the old cozy trope of the guy that’s offed being the most intensely disliked person in town, thereby offering everyone in the little town a position as number one suspect. Then we have to shuffle through all of them to get the perp. Groan.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Two Point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Thrillers, Mysteries, Suspense
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B000WPL3C2
Listening Length: 10 hrs 22 mins
Narrator: Eric Conger
Publication Date: August 23, 2007
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Dark of the Moon [Amazon]

The Author: John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of the Prey novels, the Kidd novels, the Virgil Flowers novels, and six other books, including three YA novels co-authored with his wife Michele Cook. [Amazon]

John Sandford was born John Roswell Camp on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the public schools in Cedar Rapids, graduating from Washington High School in 1962. He then spent four years at the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies in 1966. In 1966, he married Susan Lee Jones of Cedar Rapids, a fellow student at the University of Iowa. He was in the U.S. Army from 1966-68, worked as a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian from 1968-1970, and went back to the University of Iowa from 1970-1971, where he received a master’s degree in journalism. He was a reporter for The Miami Herald from 1971-78, and then a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press from 1978-1990; in 1980, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and he won the Pulitzer in 1986 for a series of stories about a midwestern farm crisis. From 1990 to the present he has written thriller novels. He’s also the author of two non-fiction books, one on plastic surgery and one on art. He is the principal financial backer of a major archeological project in the Jordan Valley of Israel, with a website at www.rehov.org In addition to archaeology, he is deeply interested in art (painting) and photography. He both hunts and fishes. He has two children, Roswell and Emily, and one grandson, Benjamin. His wife, Susan, died of metastasized breast cancer in May, 2007, and is greatly missed. [Goodreads]

Have a Great Sunday

Two Books You Missed and One You Should #BookReview #SundayVibes

Graphic - Two books you missed and one you should

I just finished up an audiobook that I still can’t believe I stuck with. And now, preparing for a review I see it has an astounding #12 on Amazon Charts. Obviously, I’m the wrong generation for this one, but it got me thinking of two books I’ve read and listened to this year that still reverberate that didn’t make the same distinction. Why?*

First, back in February, I read The Great Gimmelmans by Lee Matthew Goldberg.

The Great Gimmelmans by Lee Mathew Goldberg It left me speechless. The fast-paced narrative follows the thoughts of middle child Aaron Gimmelman. Their family has had catastrophic reversals of fortune with the loss of his father’s job. Aaron manages to become the voice of reason for the family despite his parents going off the deep end. I kept rooting for a miracle and waiting for the author to pull a rabbit out of the hat. It’s a strongly mixed emotional message, dark, suspenseful, and full of twists, surprises.

Then there is Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. Seriously, this is a shocker. It’s enraging, gripping, and unfortunately so real it breaks your heart. In 70s Boston, a single mother is struggling. She’s a scrapper, strong, but there comes a time she’ll break. The novel is dark, extremely atmospheric of the time and locality. The author nails the main character. If you missed it—don’t.

Now, I finished Funny Story. And there is nothing funny about it. I’ll give you a taste of the Book Blurb:

Daphne is “Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

“Scruffy and chaotic…Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne.”

My Thoughts

Yes, of course, the two are thrown together as roommates and I’ll bet you can guess what’s going to happen immediately. They decide they must provide a “fake” new love relationship to mess with their ex-es.

Daphne is damaged, of course, having lived a horrible childhood. Poor baby. She really loves her mother. She doesn’t her absentee father. She has issues. So many issues.

Miles is damaged, having lived a horrible childhood. He hates his mother. He has issues. So many issues.

When Daphne and Miles get together for other than “fake”, they usually end with an argument, most times initiated by Miles. And then begins the introspection. Boy, do we get the introspection! (Well…they argue a lot.) Or maybe it just seemed half the book was introspection by one or the other but I’d stopped caring a long time ago when I realized Daphne, smart as she is, was bound and determined to make the same mistakes over and over and …

They weren’t relatable (at least for me) and Miles didn’t come close to being a romantic interest, declaring more than once he still loved Petra. Duh. She still didn’t get it?

Rosepoint Rating: Two point Five Stars Two point Five of Five Stars

Book Details

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Author: Emily Henry
Narrator: Julia Whelan
ASIN: B0CCPPQ38D
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Source: Library
Title Links: Funny Story [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

About the Author: Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Happy Place, Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation, and Beach Read. She studied creative writing at Hope College, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. Find her on Instagram @EmilyHenryWrites.

If you are a big Henry fan, you may enjoy it as the others—she is new to me. Or, perhaps you just love romance books with familiar graphic descriptions.

I received a copy of this audiobook from my local library that in no way influenced my reviews. These opinions are my own.

Audiobook Review

*Now I see that Small Mercies was selected by Amazon as Best Books of 2023

First Lie Wins: A Novel by Ashley Elston #AudiobookReview #psychologicalthrillers

#19 this week

Book Blurb:

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. .

My Review:

ARGH! I’m fence sitting on this one! If I had to give it definitive stars, I guess I’d have to point to my confusion mainly with Devon. The book does have a hook at the beginning and does a nice job of steering you straight into a well-plotted storyline about a girl who evolved as she must to survive, given her lack of support. Her mother was dying. Slowly. And needed a lot of meds. Evie found a way.

Well, NOW she’s Evie. It wasn’t always thus. She’s smart, however, evolving as she must always take it to the next level until she is noticed by Mr. Smith. And Mr. Smith has specific jobs that she may be tailored for—a profitable experience for them both—until she gets a little cocky.

But Evie is tough, dangerous even, and she’s learned to be observant. She’s successful.

Until her next mark is Ryan.

Lots of twists and turns here, Evie playing games with Mr. Smith. But is she smarter than him or being played herself? And where, how did I miss the entry of Devon? Once revealed, he continues to show up like a bad penny—although admittedly—just in time.

The timeline has a habit of switching up or back as well, filling in a lot of voids, but unraveling my investment in the current storyline. The pacing is interesting. The characters are engaging and I must admit I did enjoy the reveal, the conclusion as unbelievable as it was.

This is one of those that had me scratching my head. I just read…what? You may love it if a fan of psychological thrillers with an unusual plot. Just be prepared to suspend some disbelief.

Narrated by one of my favorite narrators–as always an incredible job. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense, Suspense Thrillers
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B0C4BHDZGM
Listening Length: 9 hrs 16 mins
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication Date: January 2, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: First Lie Wins [Amazon]

The Author: Ashley Elston lives in North Louisiana with her husband and three sons. She was a wedding and portrait photographer for ten years so most of her Saturday nights included eating cake, realizing no shoe is comfortable after standing for more than six hours and inevitably watching some groomsman do the alligator across the dance floor. Now, Ashley helps her husband run their small business and she writes as often as possible.

Website
http://ashleyelston.com

Twitter
http://twitter.com/ashley_elston

URL
https://www.goodreads.com/ashleyelston

Happy 4th!

Two Audiobooks and an eBook – Listen While You Work #BookReviews

Mini-Reviews – Catching Up on the TBR*

Still catching up on the reviews of my audiobooks and an eBook, here are three more, two of which might be good candidates for #ThrowbackThursday and one very recent release. I love finding an author or new series that I can binge on, so I’m usually willing to look back—in this case, way back.

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My Thoughts

Triptych – This one starts out the Will Trent series and doesn’t pull any punches. It’s obvious by the first that it will be in-your-face raw, descriptions not for the faint of heart. If you’ve read any Slaughter books, you know her mind can picture and describe in details things you’d rather not know or see. Getting past that, the well-paced novel pushes into a deeply complex narrative, peering into the minds of several main characters who are well developed but definitely damaged. And don’t tell me you don’t delight in her little surprises. 4 stars

Book Details

Genre: Psychological Fiction, Serial Killer Thrillers, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Author: Karin Slaughter
Narrator: Michael Kramer
ASIN: B000JMKRAW
Listening Length: 13 hrs 15 mins
Publication Date: August 11, 2006
Amazon
Goodreads

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My Thoughts

Murder Road – EEK! Creepy. If you’ve read this author before, you are aware she can conjure up some pretty sinister stuff, pushing the supernatural buttons and the hair on the back of your neck. My first reaction was the over-the-top jump on this newlywed couple as persons of interest. Then as the story begins to lay out, putting one disturbing fact after another, the chills begin to add up. Why does the couple act guilty? 4 stars

Book Details

Genre: Supernatural Thrillers, Horror Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Author: Simone St. James
Narrator: Brittany Pressley
ASIN: B0CB99YKLY
Listening Length: 9 hrs 10 mins
Publication Date: March 05, 2024
Amazon
Goodreads

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My Thoughts

Desert Heat – Joanna Brady Mysteries Book 1 – Introduction to the small desert community of Bisbee, Arizona and the woman who will fill the shoes of her hubby, died while running for Sheriff. Yeah, doesn’t sound like a suicide, but that’s what they claim. While it’s true the area is an enclave of drugs and smuggling, that doesn’t mean all cops have to be dirty. Joanna works to clear his name—and hers—which will hopefully give her some serious cred. I like Arizona, not necessarily the unrelenting, incessant heat—but the beauty, so I enjoyed the atmospheric quality of the novel. 3 stars

Book Details

Genre: Read & Listen, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Avon
Author: J A Jance
ASIN: B000FC11DS
Publication Date: March 17, 2009
Amazon
Goodreads

Summary

Triptych is one of those whose characters are all damaged, one way or another, and are busy trying to find a serial killer. Kinda makes you nervous, huh! Actually, I liked the Angie Polaski character. Several perspectives. I like the way the author builds into the storyline, adding layers and twists—adding tension. Pay attention or you’ll miss the last hint. Generally, I don’t think you can go wrong with this author, just be prepared for a mind that no way can you see it connected to the bio picture of her. She looks so…normal. 4 stars

Murder Road is one of those that has you screaming at the characters. You know those commercials where they run and hide where the axe murderer is waiting? Ack! I advised them more than once to just leave. And when they did, did they stay gone? Also, I wondered by the B&B lady did such a flip from wanting to refuse them a room to actually befriending them. Huh? This is an Amazon Editors’ pick for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. Yeah, if you like disturbing, paranormal, tension and suspense—this would appeal. 4 stars

Desert Heat is a work-in-progress. Lots of groundwork laid for Book 1. The main character is not wholly developed and, at this point, I found her a bit difficult to fully engage. She begins the story as a devastated widow but quickly becomes a chief. Also, sometimes it feels like the reveal just defaults to the obvious. 3 stars

I received a copy of these audiobooks and the digital from my local library that in no way influenced my reviews. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Reviews - check

*To Be Reviewed

The Drifter (A Peter Ash Novel Book 1) by Nick Petrie #AudiobookReview #TBT

Editors’ pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thriller Award winner, Best First Novel, 2017

Book Blurb:

The first explosive thriller featuring Peter Ash, a veteran who finds that the demons of war aren’t easily left behind…

“Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Petrie’s Peter Ash is the real deal.”—Lee Child

Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls his “white static,” the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature, sleeping under the stars.

But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds more than he bargained for: the largest, ugliest, meanest dog he’s ever encountered…and a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives.

As Ash begins to investigate this unexpected discovery, he finds himself at the center of a plot that is far larger than he could have imagined…and it may lead straight back to the world he thought he’d left for good.

My Review:

Peter Ash is an ex-Marine of both Iraq and Afghanistan left with PTSD. He’s been living free since returning home, off the grid, answers to no one, until he learned of a fellow ex-Marine and friend who committed suicide leaving behind a wife and child.

He feels compelled to travel to his friend’s home and see if he can help out his widow on a bogus ruse. His first project is to shore up the sagging front porch and in doing so discovers a huge, slobber-dripping set of bared teeth in the head of Charles Mingus. The man manages to get the dog out from under the porch without losing a body part and in the process discovers a suitcase.

Right away I’m thoroughly impressed by Ash and love Mingus!

Peter, for the most part, comes off as wholly authentic, with repeated (almost too many) descriptions of his reaction to being enclosed (claustrophobic)—in a building in particular. So he handles the overwhelming static by staying outside as much as possible. He is competent, intelligent, considerate, and genuinely engaging.

The suitcase, however, sharply veers the well-plotted narrative in a course that quickly becomes complex. There are a number of support characters, many of whom are well developed and provide the conflict that pushes the fast pace of the storyline.

I was totally taken with the novel, particularly considering a debut, and excited to have a protagonist capable and caring in view of his combat-hardened training and experience. The reader is introduced to believable military characters, natural dialogue, and the antics of Mingus that seals the deal for what appears to be the start of a successful series (eight so far?). I’ve already lined up another—audiobook—of course.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction, Military Thrillers
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B01995G6HM
Listening Length: 9 hrs 12 mins
Narrator: Stephen Mendel
Publication Date: January 12, 2016
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Drifter [Amazon]

The Author: Nick Petrie is the bestselling author of the award-winning Peter Ash series. A husband and father, he has worked as a roofer, carpenter, remodeling contractor, and freelance building inspector. He lives in Milwaukee. For more on Nick Petrie, including essays about writing, see his website, http://www.nickpetrie.com

The Hunter by Tana French – #AudiobookReview – #ReadingIrelandMonth24

Cal Hooper #2

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction

Book Blurb:

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by the Washington Post, TIME Magazine, BBC, TODAY, Elle, CrimeReads, and more

“Hailed as the queen of Irish crime fiction, French spins a taut tale of retribution, sacrifice, and family.”—TIME

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Searcher and “one of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (Vox), a spellbinding new novel set in the Irish countryside.

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.

Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

From the writer who is “in a class by herself,” (The New York Times), a nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.

My Review:

The good ole boys are back and more than happy to render opinions, considered or not—in their own way and in their own time. Book 2 picks up with Cal and Trey as main characters, Cal still struggling with his transition from retired Chicago cop to rural village in the west of Ireland.

Trey, the teen, is still exhibiting all the anti-social, rebelliousness as before, worsening when her absentee dad reappears with an English millionaire. Trey sets her venomous eyes on revenge and proceeds to set in motion an action that, combined with a tale of gold in them thar hills, sets the village into a frenzy of conflict.

I hope the narrator gets paid by the word cause this is a long one. Probably much too long, though in all honesty, I must confess to listening to hours of spirited brogue-studded pub discussions partly just to hear the unique Irish vocabulary amid lilting sounds.

“They are not dishonest men, or anyway not what they or Trey would consider dishonest, not one of them would ever so much rob a package of mints from Noreen’s and between any of them a spit and a handshake would be as solid as a legal contract…(but) an Englishman wanting to reap from their land falls under different rules.”

In fact, most of the book is filled with dialogue and if the author is a master of thrillers, she might also be considered the mistress of dialogue. Like a senior who wanders from one subject to another, it just keeps going while gaining very little in advancement of the plot.

As the plot begins to reveal the sub-plot…wait: Is the main plot Johnny coming home and Trey taking umbrage or the supposed possibility of gold? And then, the discovery of the body. Hooboy! Now Cal gets to shine, if somewhat in the background as this would appear all Trey’s episode.

I enjoyed Cal’s part in mentoring Trey in The Searcher and appreciate he’s out of his jurisdiction, but this is where the well-plotted (if overly long) storyline begins to add a few subtle twists.

Still, those long-winded, beer-driven lively and animated discussions in the pub between all those ole boys deciding whether or not to throw in money to look for gold offered a number of humorous breaks from the more serious Trey foreground leg of the plot.

Wholly atmospheric, character-driven tale of Irish proportions. If you like to ferret out the culprit, it may not be real difficult for you, or maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I was caught by this one. There were only so many it could have been but had my money on someone else.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Police Procedurals, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction, Suspense
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ISBN: ‎ 0593493435
ASIN: B0C7729CF8
Listening Length: 16 hrs 24 mins
Narrator: Roger Clark
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Hunter [Amazon-US]
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The Author: Tana French is the author of In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor, The Secret Place, and The Trespasser. Her books have won awards including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards, the Los Angeles Times Award for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Dublin with her family.