The Butterfly Forest

By: Tom Lowe

Narrated by: Michael David Axtell

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

He hid the old pencil-drawn map for 40 years.

The guards never found it.

After 40 years in San Quentin, Luke Palmer leaves with a state-issued suit, $100 dollars to buy a bus ticket, and a map that will lead to a promise and into the heart of a dark forest.

College graduate student Molly Monroe is about to release rare butterflies not far from where the FBI used 4,000 bullets in a shootout to kill Ma Barker and one of her gangster sons in 1935. Molly snaps a picture that will frame something she never sees coming.

Sean O'Brien does see something -- a predator. Between the sea of cars in a Walmart parking lot. Walking quickly. Stalking two women.

As O'Brien tries to prevent the abduction, he opens the door to a new relationship. And he opens a dark door to a horror that is secluded within the forest. He follows veiled tracks that lead him farther into the woods where an evil from the past intersects with a frightening presence to form a volatile trap with only one way out.

©2011 Tom Lowe (P)2014 TomLowe

Exciting book

Really nerve racking! I wanted to help him so much. Absolutely a great and exciting book.

Good Listen but Predictable.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The main character's (Sean) desire and drive to be the good guy. I enjoyed the fact that he pursued what he thought was right without becoming a vigilante.

Any additional comments?

It was a good listen but I would not listen to it again just because it was predictable. I did enjoy the characters and the story line though but prefer a little more mystery. Good suspense story though.

Highly recommend

this book is intense with a smooth flow in the story. I loved the excellent descriptive pictures and highly recommend this book.

LOVE THIS SERIES

This is the most captivating series I've listened to in a very long time. The narration deserves a 10-star rating. I can't wait to finish one of these books to get to the next one. Tom Lowe is a fascinating author.

Laughably cliche!

Would you try another book from Tom Lowe and/or Michael David Axtell?

Nope. I bought this on sale for $3.99, Heard it on a roadtrip with friends and we had fun laughing at the sheer awfulness of the story. The narrarator does his best, but there's only so much he can do with what he's reading.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Anything but another Tom Lowe novel!

Which character – as performed by Michael David Axtell – was your favorite?

None! The entire story is like every cliche 1980's detective TV show cliche rolled into one- like something from the Steven J. Cannell mail-order school of hack stories.

It's NOT Michael David Axtell's fault though- he's really good, but all the frosting in the world won't make a turd into cake. I'd buy another performance from him- but not this author!

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It was good for an unintended laugh.

Any additional comments?

Dont waste a credit on this one.

You Could Drive A Truck...

through all of the holes and weakness in this plot. Pretty uninspired, not plausible, etc.

The recording quality was poor if you like to listen through a car system, as the narrator lapsed into low volume when he did a female voice. I got tired to turning the volume up and down to hear a dialog.

While I did finish the book, I really didn't care about the ending.

The women in these books need to have more substa

The women in these books need to have more substance. They need to have more depth/development than to just be there and be so enamored by the main guy. A little more background of the women would be nice. The story (excluding the women) is actually quite good.

Awful

What would have made The Butterfly Forest better?

Real characters. The widowed, ex-cop, ex-military protagonist who happens to be at the right place at the right time to save a beautiful mother and daughter in a Walmart parking lot. Blah, blah, blah.

Has The Butterfly Forest turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, absolutely not. Another book in this genre, Acid Test, has more thrills and suspense in the first chapter-- well there is no comparison. The Butterfly Forest is a waste of time. I tried to finish the book-- down to the last few chapters, but I was just OVER it.

What didn’t you like about Michael David Axtell’s performance?

Michael David Axtell's performance of Nick the Greek was lacking. Nick's accent sounded like a cross between Italian and Mexican.

What character would you cut from The Butterfly Forest?

I didn't find any of the characters compelling.

Any additional comments?

The book was hokey. The prose was sappy. There was no mystery. There were no compelling characters. It was eye-rollingly predictable. A kindly ex-con searching in the forest for Ma Barker's treasure so he can help a niece he's never met get a new kidney. The beautiful, butterfly-loving daughter of the even more beautiful mother-- the beautiful mother who also happens to be a widow (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). The "impotent villain" was laughable. Just when I didn't think the story could be even more impossibly over the top, enter the native American sidekick with super shaman powers. The "grieving" widower babe-magnet protagonist seems to be a dominant theme in this genre. Really?

Will it ever end

I have not listened to a Tom Lowe book before so I cannot compare it to any of his other works. But if this is typical, I will not be listening to anymore. The female characters were overly dramatic and pitiful. I do not blame that on the narrator. It was definitely the way the characters were written. I did however have to lower the stars on the narrator because the female voices were really bad. Way too wordy and just not a good story. No action and definitely not a thriller.

Gripping and irritating.

Another book in this series that makes you ask yourself why at a few points in the start. I found this book more gripping than the previous two. I still asked myself where the friends and editors were that should point out: Alex, when Sean back slams that dude so hard into the car that the guy drops out cold, isn't it weird how he pops up and bashes Sean and runs away? Sean took on that total bad ass in the last book after being sapped, and there was a little crowd forming. Wouldn't some one say "Hey, he's moving". Maybe you could have have Sean twist an ankle or have the guy run away without being KO'd, so it makes more sense...

We have to suspend disbelief to give authors a little space to work. We should also be able to expect a book series to have attention to detail. The authors descriptive flow is good. No need for these little things to be tripping up his stories. The artist can be too close to his work, but I see it as the editors job to ask for a rewrite when a scene is too forced.