The Stolen Ones

By: Richard Montanari

Narrated by: William Hope

Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

In Richard Montanari's chilling new suspense tale, a sealed-off network of secret passages connects all of Philadelphia to the killer hidden within.

Luther Wade grew up in Cold River, a warehouse for the criminally insane. Two decades ago the hospital closed it doors forever, but Luther never left. He wanders the catacombs beneath the city, channeling the violent dreams of Eduard Kross, Europe's most prolific serial killer of the 20th century.

A two-year-old girl is found wandering the streets of Philadelphia in the middle of the night by detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano. She does not speak, but she may hold the key to solving a string of murders committed in and around Priory Park.

As the detectives investigate, more bodies are found at Priory Park, and they're drawn closer and closer to the doors of Luther's devious maze and the dark secrets of Cold River.

©2014 Richard Montanari (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Not one of his best.

The story was along the same vein as other books in this series and the story was pretty good but the narrator killed it for me.

The Reader's Voice

The story was overall good. Not to much rehashing over Colleen & Jessica's lives. However, how in the world could every single character sound bored in the story. Another, thing that bugs me about the character Colleen is they never said she was a deaf mute....so why not gave her some type of voice. Yes, yes I do know how someone's voice sounds that was born deaf but if she could have said some things as a child growing up that would have been really cute. Since, every book had to rehash her life. Overall, the series did bore in certain places when characters went on monologues however, the series all together deserves a 4.

Balzano and Byrne continue to be great

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

Yes. I found this storyline to be different, which kept me interested throughout

What does William Hope bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His narration was flawless. He brought the different characters to live, which is one of the reasons I prefer audiobooks over books.

luv

author and narrator team is superb! another great murder whodunnit kept me guessing until the very end!

Confusing but decent

This is my first read from this genre. I found it a Little confusing to follow, and the narrator wasn’t great, but I appreciate the difference between the voices of characters. This is definitely a library check out read, and not a I want to buy it read

Narrator and Producer ruin this one

What did you like best about The Stolen Ones? What did you like least?

Story best, performance least

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Story is fine

What about William Hope’s performance did you like?

Little

Did The Stolen Ones inspire you to do anything?

Stay away from this producer

Any additional comments?

The narrator is capable, but the producer allowed him to pronounce words like City as "Sit-tee" (sometimes - other times he got it right), Conshohocken as "Chonshowken" and compost as "compahst". If you are going to take a producer credit, then that's your fault. The narrator shows he is capable and his various accents are good, but such blatant inconsistencies really take away from the story. It's the narrator's job to read ... not to be smart. That's the producer's job and this one failed.

Good Story - Poor Narration

I enjoy this series and during this pandemic I'm listening to many of my books again. This is a good story but the narration is terrible. Scott Brick had been reading the series and it was fine. Not only is this narrator slow, he has mispronounced so many words...it just makes me crazy. Other than that a good book; glad Scott Brick is back for the last 2 in the series.

Narration was a problem for me

The narrators voice for Burns drove me crazy. Had trouble listening for long periods of time. Rest of narration was okay. Prefer Scott Brick like all the rest of the series. Otherwise the story was excellent.

Really, really awesome.

Would you listen to The Stolen Ones again? Why?

I would 100% listen to this novel again. It was as I said, totally awesome. Twists at ever turn, and you are guessing until the end. The narrator in my opinion is also very good-- he actually does the voices of the characters pleasingly AND when he speaks as the criminals, he is haunting!

What did you like best about this story?

I could almost guess what was happening, but then I would be wrong. It was highly entertaining and creepy. You could also relate to the characters on an emotional level since they are quite likable which makes the storyline even better.

Which scene was your favorite?

The end! The last three sentences. Just great.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was in shock! And it kept me up some nights since the thought of how the murderer reached him victims was just utterly terrifying to me.

Any additional comments?

Read it! But maybe not when you have to get to bed early.

Listen closely

This story line is good but very hard to keep up with. I kept having to go back and listen over parts of this book. So concentrate when you listen or you will get lost in the background of this book.