The Profiler's Daughter

Sky Stone, Book 1

By: P. M. Steffen

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir

Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A grisly murder. A six-year-old eyewitness. A gun from the grave.

The Profiler's Daughter is a psychologically haunting thriller that combines murder mystery, love triangle, and family intrigue in one satisfying page burner.

Sky Stone was born into the wealth and privilege of Boston's oldest Brahmin family but chooses instead to follow in the footsteps of her deceased father, legendary FBI profiler Monk Stone. In the chilly morning hours before the Boston Marathon, when a beautiful university student is found strangled and mutilated, her body left at the base of Heartbreak Hill, Sky returns from self-imposed exile to investigate. Thirty-six hours into the investigation, Sky's world turns upside down when she is fired from the Homicide team. They pin the murder on an innocent man, forcing Sky into a life-threatening game of cat and mouse with the real killer. From the stately mansions of Beacon Hill to the flat scrubland of central Texas, Sky keeps the reader on a razor's edge, culminating in a no-holds-barred shoot-out.

The Profiler's Daughter, the first in the Sky Stone Thriller series, introduces a moody, enigmatic, and brilliant female sleuth with the fierce bite of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. As adeptly written as Martin Cruz Smith's complex Arkady Renko novels, this thriller offers an intriguing plot, richly detailed characters, and an astonishing conclusion guaranteed to leave the listener begging for more.

©2012 Paula Moser Steffen (P)2014 Paula Moser Steffen

Cliche characters ruined it for me...

Would you ever listen to anything by P. M. Steffen again?

Probably not

Would you be willing to try another one of Gabrielle de Cuir’s performances?

Maybe

Any additional comments?

None of the characters were particularly likeable or three dimensional in my opinion. For example, the heroine is super smart and accomplished, super rich (but doesn't care about money), super gorgeous and intuitive to the point she is the ONLY one who isn't taken in by the sociopath. Every man who meets her falls in love with her. When she effortlessly beat the chess master and could pound out Chopin on the Steinway from memory, I almost quit listening. I like a heroine I can relate to. The other characters were every bit as cliche - the nasty rich grandmother, the macho cop, blech!

Bad writing, plain and simple.

What disappointed you about The Profiler's Daughter?

The characters are shallow and stereotyped; the dialog is glib at times and clunky at other times. They all have "cool" names like "Sky Stone" , etc. - many with alliteration - what's with that?? "Magnus Moriarity", etc. They are too "cool for school" - and the main character is just so perfect that it's nauseating. The discussions among cops are totally unbelievable.

Would you ever listen to anything by P. M. Steffen again?

NOPE.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

yes.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment that I wasted a credit on it.

Any additional comments?

I will try to finish it, since I spent a credit on it, but it's a hard slog...

Bought it on sale and still paid too much

The story is weak with random tangents that do not support the story or build the character at all. The main character is supposed to be smart and independent and strong but then doesn't know simple things like what a Sadie Hawkins dance is. I guess maybe the author is setting this up as a series and wanted to get some ground work out there but I'm not the least bit interested in reading more about Sky Stone.

The narration was bad. The speech of every chapter was long, drawn out and over exaggerated. The story is set in Boston yet every character has a drawl. All the characters sound the same too. Not a fan of the narrator at all and will likely avoid any of her other work.

Overwrought narration very tiresome to listen to

This one just wasn't for me but I did finish it.
I listened to the audiobook edition and a lot of the problem was the narrator who over-exaggerated the accents of various characters making them all unlikeable. The narration was performed in an overly dramatized way that was simply tiresome to listen to for extended periods. The audiobook edition is almost 20 hours long, but the story content didn't seem to merit that length.
The story was dragged out and didn't really grab hold until about halfway through when a prime suspect became evident. There was some excitement during a sideshow investigation trip to Texas and then at the very end.
I'll admit that I was taken in by the promo for this one that promised a protagonist of the calibre of Lisbeth Salander (of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series) and Arkady Renko (of the Gorky Park Soviet & Post-Soviet Russia series). Sky Stone was nowhere near as interesting or compelling as the kick-ass aspy character of Salander or the solitary moral detective vs. a totalitarian realm of Renko. So don't be taken in by that sort of promo like I was.
This might be ok for those who like a drawn out book, but the thrills were few and far between.

Awful.

The author attempts to make up for her pathetic story writing abilities with length. Long and drawn out the book is also punctuated by an overly breathy and downcast narrator that makes you feel like every word should be out of a sad adult film. If that weren’t the worst of it - her attempt at any kind of male voice is comical. Almost every male character (except for the ones with foreign accents) sound the same. And don’t get me started on the horrible excuse for a main character the author attempts to make into a likable person.

The plot is far-fetched and impossible to believe to the point I wanted to yell at the main character: “who in the world goes for a run, alone, telling no one where she’s going after a murder...SERIOUSLY?!” And unfortunately that wasn’t the only point in the book I wanted to yell at her. Plot. Holes. Galore.

I’m not sure how this was published but I do feel that reading a dictionary would’ve been more spell-binding and definitely more exciting.

I’m sorry I wasted so much time with it - maybe this review will help you. Save your credits for a read that is worth it.

Could have been good

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The narration ruined much of this book for me, it was overly dramatic, and oddly breathy at points making me think the narrator was ill. Additionally the voices given to a couple of characters were poorly chosen and distracted from the story line.

Would you ever listen to anything by P. M. Steffen again?

Possibly with a different narrator, on the most part I liked Sky though it seemed like her backbone fled at the oddest times, she became a little to "victim". The story of the murder was pretty good but the personal relationships distracted and that may be the first time I have ever had that thought. It could be because I detested the Jake character and the narrator contributed to that dislike.

What didn’t you like about Gabrielle de Cuir’s performance?

Pretty much every thing, her voice when speaking "normally" seemed fine and maybe it is the director I should be blaming but I doubt I would waste a credit on another book narrated by her.

What character would you cut from The Profiler's Daughter?

Part of me wants to say Jake but he was needed at least initially, but if he had gone away I would not have complained. The added layer of his girlfriend seemed unnecessary.

Any additional comments?

In some ways I wish I had read this book, I don't think I would have loved it but I think I would have appreciated the story. I stopped listening a little over half way through and jumped to the epilogue just to get an idea of the ending, it opened up questions that I wanted an answers to, about how they got to that point but not enough for me to listen to the rest of the book.

Are they all teenagers?

How could the performance have been better?

The performance is terrible! The reader has a pleasant voice, but she seems compelled to do all these strange accents and inflections. One or two characters have a Boston-type accents, so I know she can do them, but other have strange Southern-ish drawls or accents that make them sound like Valley Girls (and those are the men!).

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

The story may have merits, but the dialog is so ridiculous that it overwhelms any redeeming qualities. The characters relate to each other on an immature, teenage level. They are supposed to be police officers, but they are continually either flirting or sexually harassing the others that they work with.

Any additional comments?

I tried to like this book. I kept at it for a while, then I discovered that after suffering through over four or five hours I still had another 15 to go. I gave up.

couldn't finish it!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story is ok but the narrator completely ruins any enjoyment of this book.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Gabrielle de Cuir?

Anyone! The accents are deplorable and the only explanation I can come up with for the breathless narration is she plans on using this as an audition tape to become a phone sex operator.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Extreme disappointment

Disappointing.

Would you try another book from P. M. Steffen and/or Gabrielle de Cuir?

Maybe - but not with this character.

What character would you cut from The Profiler's Daughter?

Sky. I found her to be most unlikable.

Any additional comments?

Usually I like a measure of oddness or weakness in a character but I found Sky Stone grated on my nerves. There is a difference between oddness/weakness and pathology. There are also inconsistencies such as a semi-automatic pistol turning into a revolver in the next chapter.
YMMV

Whiny Main Character, Rambling Story, Too Long

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If you enjoy a dysfunctional central character and a police station where the male officers talk to women using the endearment "Darling", then this book is for you.

What was most disappointing about P. M. Steffen’s story?

Story was disjointed with too many plots.

Would you be willing to try another one of Gabrielle de Cuir’s performances?

NEVER! Reader puts the strangest emphasis on every single phrase. If she were reading entries out of the phone book you would think it was the end of the world. Dialogue most distracting

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointed. What a wonderful title.