Life or Death

By: Michael Robotham

Narrated by: John Chancer

Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Why would a man serving a long prison sentence escape the day before he's due to be released?

Audie Palmer has spent 10 years in a Texas prison after pleading guilty to a robbery in which four people died and seven million dollars went missing. During that time he has suffered repeated beatings, stabbings and threats by inmates and guards, all desperate to answer the same question: where's the money?

On the day before Audie is due to be released, he suddenly vanishes. Now everybody is searching for him - the police, FBI, gangsters, and other powerful figures - but Audie isn't running to save his own life. Instead, he's trying to save someone else's.

Michael Robotham has created the ultimate underdog hero, an honorable criminal shrouded in mystery and ready to lead readers on a remarkable chase.

©2015 Michael Robotham (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Great Story

An inspirational story of love, loyalty, tenacity and courage.

Best audiobook have listened to in a long time. Highly recommended.

Decent Thriller set in Texas

I have listened to the author's Joseph O'laughlin and have enjoyed them. They are set in England while this is set in Texas. The main character Audie, is serving time in prison for a crime he did not commit. He escaped the day before he is to be released, and the question throughout the book is why. I won't tell you here. The characters are all really good and the criminals are actually much better then the police. It is a good listen and worth the credit.

My only issue is with the narration. It is sometimes choppy with the narrator taking big pauses between sentences. His handling of women's voices is rather weak as well with weird accents and things like lisps. Although this does not detract too much from book since most of the narration is male voices.

If you like the genre of ' " good guy on the run" aka the Jack REacher series you will like this as well.

Best Robotham Yet!

What did you love best about Life or Death?

This was a complete departure from his previous books yet he maintain intrigue and suspense throughout.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Please, make the film.. in fact, as I listened to the book, I kept thinking it would make a great film.

Any additional comments?

My most favorite listen yet. Don't pass this one up.

WOW!

I bought this book because I have enjoyed Mr. Robotham's books before. But this one you must listen to. It starts off a bit slow and you have to listen carefully as the characters are many and complex in their relationships to one another. This book really took me by surprise with many twists and turns. You think you are reading one story and then it totally changes. I love any book that I think about for days after I have read it and this is exactly that type of story. It starts off as a prison story but becomes so much more. If you listen to this book you have a real treat ahead of you. Congratulations Michael Robotham, this is now my favorite of your books!

Okay, but...

Story was good enough. Held my interest even if it was very predictable. The narration, however, was almost unbearable. The way John Chancer reads women‘s voices is almost unbearable. Makes my skin crawl. Almost stopped listening multiple times because of it. He’s a perfectly good narrator and then BAM. It’s almost offensive. I’ll do my best to avoid him in the future.

Nothing here makes sense

First: I'm a fan. I typically await new books from Robotham eagerly, and have been listening since the days of audio CD's.

It's really hard to believe that this canned, corny story emerged from the same brain that gave us nuanced characters like Joe O'Laughlin and Vincent Ruiz, and riveting, believable stories like LOST and SUSPECT. In past books the author's research has felt comprehensive, his medical details plausible, and the lives of the characters rich.

Not here, sadly. While the premise is actually quite good, for some reason the author switched from familiar territory (London et al) to Texas... without apparently bothering to visit the state. There is NO local flavor. It feels like his research comprised of watching American "B" movies and looking at maps. It sort of feels like a historical novel written 200 years in the future, where the author could easily be forgiven for getting some of his period detail mixed up. The prison scenes in particular seem to be a mix of COOL HAND LUKE and bad westerns.

Most of the key back story is completely and obviously nonsense. Prisoners carry cash???? Cash slated to be destroyed doesn't have its serial numbers recorded??? A man with head trauma that put him into a coma and who could not speak 10 months later, is soon thereafter boxing and weaving and glibly conversing while ducking shivs and various attempts to kill him? (Many more examples that would constitute spoilers.) And every character is either saint or stone cold psychopath. None feels like a real person. The glaring impossibilities in the plot were very distracting for me.

Also, the reader was good with the narrative but most of the character voices were whiny and cliched. The accents were just plain bad.

That said, I did listen to the whole book. I'm not returning it. I will buy the next book, especially if it's set in England. I know MR can do better!

Guilty or not?

I love this author and this was a good story but IMHO not up there with his other books I have enjoyed. A man breaks out of prison the day before he is to be released after serving an unblemished 10 year term, for a 7 million dollar robbery. I liked the main character but some of the plot was a bit far fetched. A buddy read with my very good book buddy Mary Beth.

FABULOUS!!

Finally found another author I love as much as Ruth Rendell... This is 2nd book of his I've listened to.... so thrilled he's written a bunch more.
Incredible mind to write these fascinating stories!!

Great story. Wanted more after I finished.

The pace, the story, the characters were all well done. It seemed like the epilogue should have been a last chapter with more about the characters' outcomes dealt with in a different epilogue. Worth the time and would love to see it as a film.

Another Good Robotham Story

As usual for Robotham, good character development and a good story. The reader was not as good as with his other books and it took a while to get into the performance, but the story was worth the wait.