A Reason to Live (Marty Singer Mystery #1)

By: Matthew Iden

Narrated by: Lloyd Sherr

In the late 90s, a bad cop killed a good woman and DC Homicide Detective Marty Singer got to watch as the murderer walked out of the courtroom a free man. Twelve years later, the victim's daughter comes to Marty begging for help: the killer is stalking her now. There's just one problem: Marty's retired...and he's retired because he's battling cancer. But with a second shot at the killer - and a first chance at redemption - Marty's just found…a reason to live.

©2012 Matthew Iden (P)2013 Matthew Iden

Great detective story

If you like good old fashioned detective books this one is for you. Nice plot and it doesn’t have so many storylines that you can’t keep up. The narrator has the character down pat, he sounds just like you would expect a detective to sound.

Excellent detective thriller; great narration

This is the first novel in the three novel Marty Singer series. I have previously written reviews of the other two books in the series. Marty Singer is a 53 year old retired Washington DC police detective who is fighting colon cancer. A young woman is concerned that the man who murdered her mother 12 years ago is trying to kill her. A Reason to Live is a solid and worthwhile modern detective mystery/suspense thriller with some unexpected twists.

wow!

Would you consider the audio edition of A Reason to Live to be better than the print version?

The voice is a perfect fit. This audio book had me from the beginning!

Very entertaining

I don't read much fiction but happened to stumble upon this. It was a perfect book to listen to while on vacation and I can't wait to download the second in the series.

A good detective story with a great narration

Would you consider the audio edition of A Reason to Live to be better than the print version?

No, I wouldn't consider it better. I both listened to and read the book and also whispersynced it. There are good aspects to both just reading and just listening. I get a bit more of the urgency of this type of story when I just read and I can certainly read faster than the narrator. But the narrator does bring the words to life. So, it's really fifty-fifty for me.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the character of Marty Singer the best. Julie and Jim were good characters, too. Amanda, although the story centered around her, was not as dramatic for me as the other three. But Marty really tops them all. He's not so much the cynical ex-cop as a man on a mission. It's what he's been doing for over thirty years and forced retirement along with chemo and cancer are not going to change that..

What does Lloyd Sherr bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Lloyd Sherr's voice and expression were so perfect for this story that I was drawn right into it. He's also the voice for Modern Marvels on The History Channel, but once I knew that, I didn't find it distracting at all. It actually added to my enjoyment of the narration.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If my time wasn't so limited, I would like to have listened for longer periods.

Any additional comments?

I see the next book isn't available on audio yet. I'm assuming it will be so I will watch out for it.