This wasn't a thrill ride, but high temperature dance that I enjoyed every step of. Steven Crossley is supremely talented at what he does, and his voice just sucks you in. As far as the story goes, I would add it to my list of recommended must reads without hesitation. Tana is smart, raw, and witty. The story was serious, but many times I laughed out loud because of the sheer genius of the prose. A thoroughly satisfying read.

Decent book with a pretty good narrator. Well written, but uncommonly predictable. I was able to accurately figure out 'whodunit' remarkably fast. 3/5 overall.

The story started off intriguingly enough but hit a few long dry patches throughout. The story was still well written enough to keep my attention overall. I feel this book could've easily been cut down and trimmed to fix the this problem. The performance was perfectly executed and is part of what helped keep my attention.

Definitely at least try the book it was worth the read overall.

It's so great to find an author's work and style that you really love. I am a huge fan of Elizabeth George, And Louise Penny; this author is in that same club for me. So excited that there are more in the series to enjoy.

The story was too drawn out. we never understood what happened in the woods with his friends. I'm disappointed

Loved the book, love her writing style even more. I got a few chapters in and ordered the next book. Smart, funny, sarcastic and writes well from male or female perspective. I can't wait for more!

This book made me remember why I used to almost exclusively read murder mysteries. I loved the excitement and anticipation in this book. A lot of the complaints I have read about the story was that it was long and a bit slow. I do think both of those descriptions are accurate, but it didn't bother be because there was a lot of great character development.

I was intrigued by the mystery of the missing kids from 1984 from the get-go. I can't imagine how horrible it must be to have survived a tragedy so gruesome that your mind blocks your memory just so you will be able to cope and move on. I really felt like this was an interesting plot detail, and it may have been the one that kept me listening). It's not that I didn't want to know who killed Katie and why, but I really wanted to know what happened to those kids in the woods.

What kept this book from being a five star experience for me was the ending. It's at bit ambiguous to say the least. I'm very interested in following this series and seeing where it goes.

The only thing I didn't like about this particular version was that the narrator was a little breathy. I would like for the publisher to have edited out the bits where you can hear him breathing or swallowing.

This is the first book in a series, I made the great mistake of listening to the last book first "The Tresspasser". IT IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES! Of course being a series I didn't know all the characters backstories, but luckily Tana French wrote that so well I didn't need to. But I decided to go back and read them all.

This is so slow, there is no spoiler that the characters in this are NOT in The Tresspasser. They are in book 2 but I think Tana French wasn't sure where she wanted to go with her writing, because having read her last book I will say she is an amazing author, she can write a thriller that will having you laughing your guts out. But in her early career she wasn't ready or knew how to integrate that into the storyline.

So don't bother, check out her book The Tresspasser or by other authors try Tony & Susan or In A Dark Dark Wood for a mystery thriller.
Happy Listening!

The narrator has a nice voice, makes it easy to stay in tuned. really enjoyed the story.

It took me a while to warm up to Steven Crossley's narration, but once I did I found myself enthralled with the story. Tana French wrote a majority of this book in a way that made even the most mundane parts of a murder investigation seem exciting. She is also excellent at developing her characters and creating an atmospheric plot.

I will say, though, that when I thought French was going to buck convention, she fell victim to a number of typical cliches you may encounter in a normal mystery book. So, this book stands above a number of other mystery series out there, but does fall victim to some of the tried and true tropes that exist in the genre.

Since she was successful at developing characters, there were times throughout the book where the characters made wholly uncharacteristic decisions, which made me question if I could believe they would actually do what was written...

...but still a worthwhile spend of my time.

Yes. Also, I love how the second book, still centering around the Murder Squad, shifts to have Cassie as the protagonist/narrator. I think that's unique and a different perspective I haven't experienced before.

Crossley is an adept narrator, although sometimes I feel like he overacted, namely when narrating the gruff, cliche unit chief O'Kelley. There were also times during the narration when a character would get introspective, and it felt like his voice got so quiet, I needed to increase the volume.

It was a bit challenging to accept his narration of the majority of female characters.

Yes, if done right, it could be well done suspenseful movie that I think I would enjoy.