Shady Palms

By: Allen Dusk

Narrated by: Rose Caraway

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

A sleazy motel, burrowed on the edge of town, is haunted by rumors of dead hookers found between mattresses and peep holes drilled through walls. When Special Agent Daniels targets the motel during an investigation, the nefarious owner, Sanjay, must scramble to conceal evidence of his own dark deeds. Just when he believes things can't get any worse, motel guests begin to vanish without a trace.

Can Sanjay discover the truth behind the phenomena threatening his motel before the Feds get suspicious, or does he risk exposing his own sordid enterprises to seek help from the outside?

Why don't you book a room for the night and find out? At these bargain rates you'll be lucky if you only find dirty sheets and a few skeletons in the closet. Welcome to the Shady Palms Motel. Check out is at 11, if you live that long...

©2012 Carnal Morgue Press (P)2013 Allen Dusk

after years and years of audible why???

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

this is the mosr incongrous piece of literature is have ever heard !!!! mutated bedbugs take over the world dont waste a credit

Would you ever listen to anything by Allen Dusk again?

never

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

anger that i bought in

Sexy and scary

What did you love best about Shady Palms?

Wonderful pacing and good depth of characters. Even people who are in the tale briefly are given some dimension. Rose Carroway brings Dusk's vision to life.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Shady Palms?

The send of wrongness and something lurking in the dark that surrounds the hotel.

Which scene was your favorite?

Candy's death scene.

Who was the most memorable character of Shady Palms and why?

Sanje. Very creepy fellow.

Just not very good

I don't write many negative reviews, but I just can't recommend this book. The story (no spoilers) could have been interesting, but all the subplots and all the characters are dull, cliched, and sometimes even insulting. Aside from that, the reader was pretty awful too. Maybe if she were better I could have looked away about the plots, characters and dialog? Probably not.

Yes, this was on sale for only $3.95, so I won't ask to be credited back, but if I'd paid a whole credit for it I certainly would.

Description is Deceptive...

What would have made Shady Palms better?

A narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The story is very disjointed and many characters, even some main ones, seem to be there as a matter of convenience and do nothing to further the story.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Something that makes me think a little harder.

What about Rose Caraway’s performance did you like?

Given what she had to work with, she was very good.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The narration was good.

Any additional comments?

The description is quite deceptive. The FBI personnel show up in a few disjointed scenes and thats about it. I feel as though it should also mention the intensely graphic sex and death scenes. Personally, I found them tasteless and had nothing to do with the story.

Like a crappy SyFy-movie, in book form.

What disappointed you about Shady Palms?

The story didn't hold up. When the story about the police/FBI was told the story was okay.
The storyline about the radioactive bed bugs was totally ridiculous.
Alot of the characters was boring.
Also alot of the description of the sex and violence was unnecessary.

What could Allen Dusk have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Remove the crap about the bed bugs.
A story about the motel activity and the terrorist plot could have work alone.
I also thought that alot of the description of the sex acts and gore was just put in for cheap shock value and/or padding.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Rose Caraway?

Don't know.
Sure she could make different voices but when she didn't make voices the narration felt bland and monotone.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not really.
Felt like a crappy movie script.

Any additional comments?

Not a book for me, sure some people will like it.

Um, yuck.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Im not squeamish or puritanical but the author seems to revel in over the top gratuitous violence, sexual violence and a love for all things bodily fluid.

In fact the amount of bodily fluids expressed in full detail are of almost super human proportion. After hearing the phrase 'bloody neck flower' more then once to describe a headship I pretty much knew it was time to hang this up.

I'm a horror fan, but this is over the top compensation for lack of writing talent or the authors attempt to be shocking. There is on porn movie scene in particular that is brutal and goes into great detail for what means escapes me, frankly, Basically this book seems nothing more then the sum of it's seemingly endless masterbatory scenes leaving one feeling as if a shower or three are in order.

What aspect of Rose Caraway’s performance would you have changed?

The book she got stuck reading.

What character would you cut from Shady Palms?

The characters had promise, the author couldn't keep his need to attempt to shock in check.

Unusual, Graphic, Hard Edged

I enjoyed the book. I like slasher fiction and nonfiction. I like fantasy and a bit of sci-fi. In my opinion this book takes slasher fiction adds fantasy/ sci-fi and multiples it to the 10th power!

Think of Men In Black meets al qaeda.

It is raw and edgy.

I don’t recommend it for the faint of heart

Nothing works together

I enjoy fun thriller books and wanted to enjoy this. It's very much a "guy" book, which would be fine if the narrator wasn't a woman with a children's story voice. She did not givevthe book a wider appeal at all. Listening to her sing-song through curses and course language was just too grating. Also, she tended to add random emphases and pauses in sentences. At times it was so distracting it would take a moment to understand what she was saying. The characters were flat and one dimensional. They were written with the same "voice" (the author's fault) and as the writing jumps from one perspective to another somewhat randomly and the narrator's voice doesn't distinguish between the thoughts of the characters, they all merge into a mass of narcissism and crudeness. The story line, though totally illogical, could have been okay. But the writing and the narrator made it very hard to get through.

Gross & violent

Excellently narrated monster horror story seasoned with pornographic scenes. Maybe not something for the garden variety horror fan.

So bad in so many ways!

What would have made Shady Palms better?

A more plausable story line, with details that matter.

What was most disappointing about Allen Dusk’s story?

Disappointments were two-fold.The explicit details of adult subject matter were unnecessary and just plain gross, the story line revolving around radiated bedbugs that glow in the dark is rediculous beyond belief.

Which character – as performed by Rose Caraway – was your favorite?

Mary

Any additional comments?

This book was terrible, not so bad that I didn't finish it but I certainly would not recommend it to anyone. The plot was terrible, the explicit sex descriptions were disgusting, and the narrator of this horrible content sounds like a kindergarten teacher. Perhaps if this was read by a man it would have sounded more gritty and believable.