Quiet River

By: Natasha A. Salnikova

Narrated by: Denise Kahn

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

A woman kills a man. She doesn't regret it. She thinks he deserves to die. Who is she? Why did she do it?

Lisa and Matt Collins spend a weekend at the small town of Quiet River, where their son, Evan, meets a woman who says he looks like her son, and gives him cookies. The next morning a hotel clerk gives them another bag of cookies and explains that somebody brought it from the kitchen for Evan. Lisa sees something change in the clerk's eyes but ignores it.

The family goes back home to Seattle, where Matt returns to his job as a magazine editor and Lisa finds out she is pregnant second time. After a short while, Matt's personal assistant dies in a car accident and Matt and Lisa get involved into a violent store robbery where Lisa loses her unborn child. They think it was their worst nightmare but how little did they know. They have to return to Quiet River to learn what the darkest dark is and what face it can wear.

Quiet River is a small town and people are friendly. But remember - evil lives in quiet water.

©2011 Natalia Salnikova (P)2016 Natalia Salnikova

Meh!

Story very much like other books from this author.

Narrator sing-song. Detracts from listening experience.

A bit slow but the core story is good.

Set in and around Seattle, Washington, the Collins are learning to deal with tragedy and move on. Lisa and Matt work at a small magazine and were expecting their second child until tragedy struck. In recovering from such a loss, Matt buys a small place in Quiet River. They recently had a lovely vacation there and Matt hopes that Lisa and Evan can be happy their during the week while he visits them on the weekends. However, there’s a quiet evil in this little town.

There was much to like about this tale, though it did drag on a bit at times. The story started off very happy happy. Lisa, Matt, and young Evan are all happily expecting a baby. Evan looks forward to being a big brother and Matt is great at tending to Lisa’s crazy food cravings. While they do have an odd experience while on vacation in Quiet River, it wasn’t much. Eventually, the plot does get a kick in the pants when Lisa unexpectedly loses the baby. She’s suffering from depression and pushing her loved ones away. Matt feels a lot of pressure and also sadness and loses himself in an affair.

This too goes on for a while becoming a bit dull. Then Matt decides that Lisa and Evan would probably be happier out in Quiet River, so he makes it so, and indeed, it does seem to help Lisa. She even makes a friend with a lonely neighbor, the elderly Trouby. Meanwhile, Evan has made a few friends with the local kids. They like to play by the river, which makes Lisa nervous but Mandy (one of the other parents) doesn’t seem to be that concerned.

During this time, there’s a lot of suspense being built up even if it drags for a bit. There’s definitely something odd about Trouby, but she might simply be a bit socially awkward. Then there’s Kristine, the woman who Matt had an affair with. She’s rather territorial and needy. Matt called off the affair some time ago, but Kristine is having trouble letting it go. Then someone very unexpected shows up in Quiet River and we have a body! Yes! The plot moved forward once again!

Nearly all the action happens in the last fifth of the book. Because the majority of the book was pretty mellow, having all that violence at the end was a little shocking and it was definitely a shift in tone. I would have liked to have things evened out a bit. All around, the story was OK with the best bits being the scenes that got the plot to move forward.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Denise Kahn was really good at imbuing the characters’s voices with emotions. She had distinct voices for all the characters and accents for a few of them. Her recording does sound a bit tinny here and there and the volume does go up and down throughout.

A thrilling read!

A woman kills a man...
She doesn't regret it...
She thinks he deserves to die...
Who is she?
Why did she do it?

A well written that kept me engaged throughout the reading of this novel.

Such a great thriller read!

Perfect for readers of thriller novels.

The narrator was perfect! I loved how the voices were brought to life. Excellent job!