Just One Look

By: Harlan Coben

Narrated by: Angela Dawe, Luke Daniels

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

An ordinary snapshot causes a mother’s world to unravel in an instant. After picking up her two young children from school, Grace Lawson looks through a newly developed set of photographs. She finds an odd one in the pack: A mysterious picture from perhaps twenty years ago, showing four strangers she can’t identify. But there is one face she recognizes—that of her husband, from before she knew him.

When her husband sees the photo that night, he leaves their home and drives off without explanation. She doesn’t know where he’s going, or why he’s leaving. Or if he’s ever coming back. Nor does she realize how dangerous the search for him will be. Because there are others interested in both her husband’s past and that photo, including Eric Wu: A fierce, silent killer who will not be stopped from finding his quarry, no matter who or what stands in his way.

Her world turned upside down, filled with doubts about her herself and marriage, Grace must confront the dark corners of her own tragic past as she struggles to learn the truth, find her husband, and save her family.

©2004 Harlan Coben (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

I hope I never have to hear another book narrated by Angela Dawe

The story was great, but the female narrator was almost intolerable. (Luke Daniels was great.) She ended every single sentence with a drawn out vowel in a downward cadence. Her voice was often screechy. I would only recommend this book to a diehard Harlan Cobeb fan. If you are just trying him out, find a different book without this narrator.

Buy the book instead; poor reader

The story itself was good, and Luke Daniels was a good reader. Unfortunately, Angela Dawe was not. She approached the narration in a harsh, almost shrill, sing-song tone, with the pitch of words (even singe-syllable words) and sentences going up and down. I actually had to lower the volume when she started reading, as it felt like she was almost shouting the words. Her dialogue "voice" was better, but I nearly stopped listening only a short way in as overall she was so hard to listen to. I would recommend just buying the book and read it yourself.

Narrator is awful

The female voice is slow and monotone. Story is great. Read don’t listen to the book.

Meh

I’ve listened to a few of HC’s books and all the stories have been great. The readers aren’t always the best. In this book the woman’s reading style sounds like a Kristen Wiig impersonation of her character Mindy Elise Grayson . Super annoying.

bad narrator

horrific female narrator. she had the most annoying tone and the way she would end each sentence. the only reason I could stand the listen was because of the story.

Narrator

Not a fan of narrator. She read each sentence and had a long pause. It was annoying. Good story

Great book by Coben!

How could the performance have been better?

The women Narrator is horrible! I have never come across someone who was so bad! She has a weird accent when she isn't doing actual dialog.

Just One Look has a major blemish....

I love reading Harlan Coben’s intriguing books, however this one was an exception. Angela Dawe’s low-pitched, quirky and strange “inflection” distracted me the entire time. I almost returned the book, but decided that the storyline was worth pursuing despite the distraction. I’ve made a note to check the reader before buying the audible book, just to make sure I don’t have to hear that reader again.

Worst narrator ever

That's really all that needs to be said. The story was good but hard to get past that womans voice but I bought it so had to listen to it all

Great book, issues with narration

What did you love best about Just One Look?

The plot was good, it was easy to care about the characters, twists were unexpected, didn't figure out the end ahead of time.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Angela Dawe and Luke Daniels ?

Luke Daniels is fine.

Any additional comments?

There have been plenty of comments about Angela Dawe. On the positive side, when she does someone's voice in dialogue she's fine. Even when she slips and stretches out an occasional one-syllable word. She does other voices well. They don't have the strident, sing-song, monotonous quality of the narration. Outside of the dialogue, her voice doesn't change to match the emotions in the story. She uses the same tone and inflection to describe picking up the children from school as she uses to describe a situation where someone is in danger. This is distracting.I listened to the abridged version of this book and liked it enough that I bought the unabridged version. I like hearing all the bits that were cut out and it's easier to tune out the narrator because the plot is familiar. I think it's unfortunate that the sample doesn't give you a fair earful of the narration. And I understand she does better on other books. And her dialogue and voices are quite well-done. If you can manage to not get distracted by the narration, the book is worth listening to.