Silence

By: Thomas Perry

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Six years ago, Jack Till helped Wendy Harper disappear. But now her ex-boyfriend and former business partner, Eric Fuller, is being framed for her presumed murder in an effort to smoke her out, and Till must find her before tango-dancing assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner do. With masterful plotting and unnerving psychological insight, Thomas Perry delivers another mesmerizing thrill ride.

©2007 Thomas Perry (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Great until the ending.

The characters were pretty well developed and the story was interesting. Ending was too abrupt.

This one sort of rambled on.

The audio was 13 hours and if felt like should have been wrapped up much earlier.
The guilty parties were obvious.
The “expert” killers bungled their way through the book.
It is unfortunate because the story had some promise. This felt like a draft that the editor should have sent back for revision.

Longer is better

The action in this novel, and there is plenty, could fill a third of the space Perry takes to tell a layered, rich tale. You think you know most everything, but more gets revealed, and the characters are people you want to know more about. When one of the characters is crazy, the author reveals it by showing us her interior dialog in a convincing and scary way. Surprise revelations right up to the last page, the last sentence. Clearly written and a pleasure to read.Perry hasn't lost a step.

Remarkable talent, impeccably read.

It is almost impossible to say enough good things about Thomas Perry. Silence is just one of his amazing accomplishments. His Butcher Boy series set the bar very high; and yet, he has written a number of stand-alone books which are just as enjoyable and just as thrilling. Silence is about a woman named Wendy Harper. Jack Till, a retired cop and now private detective, teaches Wendy how to completely disappear. His methods are very thorough and very clever. The plot thickens when Wendy's old partner, Eric ( they had run a very successful restaurant in LA named Banque) is on trial for her murder. Till tries to convince the DA that Wendy is not really dead. Like Perry's other books, this plot is so inventive that it allows the author to take us down a number of pathways. We get to meet a psychopathic couple named Paul and Sylvie. I won't spoil the rest for you. Michael Kramer is the perfect reader of these books, his voice driving the plot, picking up the pace to the point at which your heart is pounding by the end. Mr. Perry has used his skills to write about a dozen of these, and each is as outstanding as any of the others. The Butcher's Boy series is a good place to start. It is about thirty years old, but it shines as if Mr. Perry had written it six months ago. Give yourself a treat. If you are a fan of thrillers, as I obviously am, you will find no greater master of the genre.

Great story -- funny narrator.

It's true, any book by Thomas Perry will be terrific -- interesting characters, full of fascinating tidbits about how to disappear ( who among us hasn't thought of that, at least once?) and hard to put down plot lines that keep you listening or reading. This book is no different -- maybe a little more complicated in plot than some, with everyone trying to kill everyone else. But a great book -- I've listened to it twice and probably will again some day.

So what's the downside? It's not a biggie, but this narrator drives me nuts. Here's a shout-out to all narrators out there: when you come across a Spanish-looking place name in California ("Ventura" "Sepulveda" "San Rafael", etc etc) they are NOT locally pronounced as they would be in Spanish. San Rafael is just plain San Ra-Fel -- not the proper Spanish, San Ra-fa-eyl. It's NOT 'Sep ul VEY da' as it would be in Spanish, but just the simple Sa PUL va da.

What was really funny, though, was that as the narrator gave perfect (and totally wrong) pronounciations to the names of places in California, he pronouned the name of a Spanish tree -- jacaranca -- as its written in English, with a hard "J". Whereas that's one thing that DOES have the Spanish pronounciation.

Honestly, there outta be a book for narrators on how to pronounce local names, in California or wherever they are. Nothing is more distracting that hearing some reader really massacre the pronounciation of names of places and streets we know so well.

Is that asking too much? Maybe. I suppose. Still, it's really off-putting.

I Felt Cheated at the End

Unless there is a follow-up to this book -- I Felt Cheated at the End. It seemed like a really good book, things were going well, then it just ended abruptly. I felt cheated and somewhat violated. Just another chapter or two could have ended it nicely. Perhaps there is another book coming, otherwise I feel there was NO closure. I can't sleep at night now, I am not eating well, I can't perform in the bedroom any longer, I feel cheated after giving it so much.

Just okay

I think it was the narration that threw this off for me, Kramer wasn't bad he just wasn't the right type of narrator. This was still a deal at $4.95.

The story wasn't too much of a stretch, mild suspension of reality. I don't think Perry's characters are as timeless as Connelly even this books feels a little dated and it is set in the last few years. What really bothered me though is the ever so slight chauvinistic take on women. I am no feminist I love Harry Bosch and he is an outright chauvinist, my objection was to a kind of underlying nudge and a wink women are all the same view. Not part of the protagonist's treatment, but the overall view of the writer.

However, the story was a decent listen if not entirely engrossing.

Good Read

I really enjoyed this book. the main Character was human. it was a different story - the PI looking to help one on his former clients. the whole story kept me entertained the whole time

Interesting Story

This story held my interest from beginning to end with it's interesting plotline and the interesting way it "tacked back" in later chapters to refresh listener's memory of the important previous actions by the central characters. While the listener always knew "who did it" but the man behind it and the "why" was developed very slowly so the listener's interest was always at a very high and intense level. The publisher's summary provides a very good synopsis of the story so there's no way I could say more without giving too much away. I loved the ending to this story. I'm hoping to find that Thomas Perry has written a follow up story that picks up where this story left off.
Narrator, Michael Kramer is top notch! He is an excellent performer. Highly Recommend this story .

Couldn't stop listening!

Thanks to Audible for listing this book for $4.95, and to Richard from San Anselmo for his review! This is one of the better audiobooks I've tried lately, and Kramer is now my favorite American narrator.