The Kill Room

A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Jay Snyder, January LaVoy, Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

It was a "million-dollar bullet," a sniper shot delivered from over a mile away. Its victim was no ordinary mark: he was a United States citizen, targeted by the United States government, and assassinated in the Bahamas.

The nation's most renowned investigator and forensics expert, Lincoln Rhyme, is drafted to investigate. While his partner, Amelia Sachs, traces the victim's steps in Manhattan, Rhyme leaves the city to pursue the sniper himself. As details of the case start to emerge, the pair discovers that not all is what it seems.

When a deadly, knife-wielding assassin begins systematically eliminating all evidence-including the witnesses-Lincoln's investigation turns into a chilling battle of wits against a cold-blooded killer.

©2013 Jeffery Deaver (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Woman narrator emphasizes how little Amelia counts

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

One good narrator can make you believe you are listening to a vast cast of characters with subtle nuances of tone and voice. Listening to the female narrator jump in occasionally with Amelia's lines makes you realize Amelia's window dressing for the story. "Send?" "Now?" "What do you mean by that?" ARGH!

Deaver is too good a writer for this crappy recording.

It was fine but

lacking by comparison to many other Deaver books, or even other Lincoln Rhyme books. The bad guys were not all that interesting and Lincoln and Amelia were not particularly interesting either in this one. But still a solid read compared to many other current authors' works.

A disappointment

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book seems to have been forced into print. Not the usual Deaver style and attention to detail.

Would you ever listen to anything by Jeffery Deaver again?

I have read/listened to all of the Rhyme books and other Deaver books as well and have enjoyed all of them. This was an aberration. If he publishes again, I'll read it, I'm sure.

Could you see The Kill Room being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No. Too boring.

Too Many Voices

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrators?

I would have cast a single narrator. I am profoundly tone-deaf, and not just to music. I lose the first 3 or 4 words when the narration switches; thus, miss some of the story.

Any additional comments?

This is my fault. I was so pleased to get the new Lincoln Rhyme mystery that I did not check the narration. I have only listened to about a hour having started the audio book with my PT - made the PT go by very slowly. I expect that my husband will have a different opinion, but I am finished with this one.

Well done

The three person present or team was great. This listen brought back memories of old radio shows. The cast was great! The direction superb. Well worth your time and money. Great job!

a good sample of production of US propoganda machi

Easy to listening, well desined story, narration is quite good and us kills for a good reason.

Performance

Ballerini is my favorite reader of your books so far. I hope you continue to use him. I listen to hundreds of books each year. I enjoy recognizing a character from book to book by voice. So far you have changed over and over.

How Bad Can it Get?

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Deaver should be a bit more diligent in picking the reader for his audio books. The latest "talent" left too much to be desired. His past readers/performers did a great job instilling the characters in my mind. This new genre of 3 readers is a joke. It makes it hard to listen to and hard to visualize. Rymes sounds like a grade school teacher and Sachs is a joke. Go back to one reader, preferably one you used in the past and dump the triplets. They are horrible.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Not yet

How did the narrator detract from the book?

They were horrible

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

?????

Pronunciation and multiple narrators terrible

Any additional comments?

First, the narrators need to learn that "conch" is pronounced with a hard "ch" like "conk". The repeated mis-pronunciation was distracting and got to be funny after a while. We could even make a drinking game of it. The narrator who voiced Amelia was terrible. It sounded like she read her lines all at one time with no inflection of any kind and then they were spliced in here and there. Also, the repeated reading of the evidence reports was both boring and time consuming. The book could have been 2 hours shorter without that. The characters Jacob and Shreve seemd to be channeled from Dean Koontz except Deaver can't keep it up throughout the book. The development of both characters falls apart at the end as neither fit the character which was developed.

One reader, please.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrators were fine, there were just too many of them. I found it annoying and distracting to have a female voice "break in" on my listening every time Amelia Sachs had lines, especially since all the other characters were voiced by the primary narrator. Neither did a bad job or had a displeasing voice, it was just weird to have them both. (I don't mind audiobooks that alternate character narrators by chapter - but just a line here and there breaks the pace or something.)