• City of Fire

  • A Novel (Lena Gamble, Book 1)
  • By: Robert Ellis
  • Narrated by: Renée Raudman
  • Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (249 ratings)

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City of Fire  By  cover art

City of Fire

By: Robert Ellis
Narrated by: Renée Raudman
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Publisher's summary

When a vibrant young woman is found in bed by her hot-shot businessman husband, carved from belly to throat with a very sharp knife, the elite Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD responds in full force. Best-case scenario for lead Detective Lena Gamble: Nikki Brant's husband killed her, case closed, and on to the next crime scene before the ravenous Hollywood media can get their lurid tabloid machinery up and running.

Unfortunately for Lena, though, she knows that best-case scenarios only happen in the movies. The murder is the first in a series of brutal crimes against beautiful women thought to be perpetrated by the same man, a killer dubbed Romeo in the press. It's the case of a lifetime, and promises to either elevate Lena to the upper echelons of a publicity-hungry department in need of heroes, or bring about a very public and painful fall from grace. Lena has been in the public eye before, on the night her rock-star brother was gunned down on a dark street in Hollywood - an unsolved murder so grisly she's never recovered. She knows the score when the press and the LAPD collide.

As the investigation plays out and a massive forest fire blankets the city with acrid smoke, a cloud of conspiracy descends on Lena's investigation, and she knows she'll have to grind this one out...because Nikki Brant's death just breathed new life into more than one closed case...because the web of conspiracy is spun more intricately than she can possibly imagine... and because Lena knows there's only one rock-solid rule to murder in L.A.: The bigger the spectacle, the deeper the horror.

©2008 Robert Ellis (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

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What listeners say about City of Fire

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

incredible

As a longtime listener and reader of mysteries and thrillers this is one of the finest of both these genres combined. Ellis is a breath of fresh air in the congested world of writing. Well plotted, twisty, surprising and excellent character development. Couldn't ask for more.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Robert Ellis is one of my new FAVORITE authors!

I checked out The Lost Witness through my library and loved it. I then did some research on this author and found that he has only written 4 books. I found City of Fire through Audible and was just as pleased with this book. I contacted the author and found that his first two books only came out as paperbacks ): . The narrator does a very good job with character changes. This thriller is for all that love twist and turns up until the last page and enjoy staying up all night to finish. You will not be able to put this one down!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good to the last drop!

Just like a good cup of coffee, this book held you to the very end. You were constantly trying to figure out who was the good guy and who was the bad guy -- and who was the really bad guy.

Great story and excellent narration. I am anxious to move to her next story.

It was interesting to have a man write such a striking novel about a woman -- thanks.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Okay start to a detective suspense series

Think of author Robert Ellis as Michael Connelly without Connelly's writing talent for producing a tightly written novel. The setting is the same as the Harry Bosch series, Los Angeles. The crimes are similar to those Bosch solves. This novel is not a waste of time, but if you like this kind of stuff as I do why not jest listen to the master's novels. Narration is fine.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Too Many Words...

Maybe Robert Ellis got paid by the word? How else to explain the tedious detail that’s like sand in a useful machine? Imagine something like,

“She looked down. There was grass. No… not grass, but green, maybe shamrocks? Or maybe just weeds on the surface wet with dew. Dew? Yes, dew that the LA sun hadn’t boiled from beneath her brown shoes. Dew that meant there was a night before. Dew that covered the world. So she looked up and at her watch and wondered about time…”

Get it? Tedious details that advance neither the plot nor narrative, nor even character complexity. I’m reminded of third grade essay assignments that demanded us to hand in 200 words, words we counted and recounted until they added up.

Pity, since the story is good, the plot intriguing, and the characterizations reasonably deep and resonant. I’ll probably get another Robert Ellis novel in hopes that this was the result of maybe a publisher’s need for length rather than a writer’s intent to engage his audience.

Oh yeah… Reneé Raudman read it OK as long as I could get over her wrestling matches with creating believable male voices. But maybe that’s how men sound to women? If so, perhaps women will like her reading more than I did.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible Reader

I will have to buy the print version as this reader was so poor I could not finish, not even close. Her inability to differentiate between characters made following impossible. Deadpan, monotone inflection left any emphasis flat and meaningless. It sounded as if she had just learned to read.
The book may have some value, but was wasted by this narration!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mediocre

The story is just mediocre. The reader makes it worse. Some of her male voices are truly bad. I might give the author, who seems to be getting so much praise, another chance...but not if it's read by Raudman.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Move Over Connelly

This book is a first for me by this author as l went looking for more reads by this narrator who reads the Catherine Coltuer FBI series, which l now own 2 but have yet to listen.
I listen at 1.1 or 1.2 x speed to get the action the author intended, Some negative reviews could easily be avoided if this speed was tried
Frankly this narrator has grown on me as her skills matured over different reads. I made great use of the members only sale and purchased a string of her reads and found some to be great and others just ok due to author having an Ok but not a great read.
If you are a hardcore fan of Michel Connelly because he writes like his days as a reporter on the crime beat, beware as this author does not write with the same brevity. However, if like me you enjoy a good fast paced mystery with characters you love and hate, then join me on this very entertaining adventure.
The other reads in this series will be on my sale wish list, as Full credits are for mysteries that both Reviewers Shelly and Wayne must love on the same read.
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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A gripping page-turner...

This was a gripping read... the author sends us in multiple directions, daring us to make assumptions... which then turn out to be premature .

Good conclusion, made the more satisfying by the author's style of tying up loose ends.

Highly recommended

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!

Could hardly wait for my commute to work. Very suspenseful, thriller, kept me engaged in story

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1 person found this helpful