The Deceiving Look

Shepard & Gray, Book 3

By: Victor Methos

Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon, Bailey Carr

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Sheriff Billie Gray calls on Solomon Shepard once more to tackle an investigation into the murder of a criminal defense attorney in this heart-pounding thriller from the bestselling author of A Killer’s Wife.

When a local criminal defense attorney turns up dead, Sheriff Billie Gray arrives on the scene. At first glance, the lawyer’s death looks like suicide. But Billie knows better: this was murder.

To assist with the investigation, Billie calls on her old friend Solomon Shepard, who isn’t so eager to accept. After a traumatic attack left him mentally in shambles, Solomon is on indefinite leave from the county attorney’s office. But Billie needs him. And he can’t say no to Billie.

As Billie and Solomon hurtle into the investigation, they soon realize the killer may be closer to them than they ever thought possible. Can they catch a killer who anticipates their every move—before they find themselves in the crosshairs?

©2024 by Methos Inc. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Wrap Up for the Series

Oh man, Soloman! This dude is a tragic hero. How many horrific things can happen to one person? Also, this novel is set three years after book two. And, sadly, nothing happened between Solomon and Billie… until the end and, even then, we are not witness to it.
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Chilling and riveting

I have yet to read/listen to a book by Victor Methos that I haven't found captivating. My only criticism for the male narrator of this book is that he gave the female characters a southern drawl. The setting takes place in Utah so maybe I missed something from an earlier book with the same characters. And when the female narrator read her chapters, she did it without the drawal. Might be helpful to be consistent.

Enjoyable, better than last one

I figured out pretty early on who the bad guy was, but getting there was enjoyable. Really liked getting to know Solomon’s backstory more thoroughly, along with some new characters. The story moves along at a good clip.

I thought the second book in this series was contrived and it put me off the series, but I had already purchased this one (on sale). I’m glad I gave it a shot.

The narration was fine for the most part, but in the first part of the book, the male narrator sometimes gave Billy a southern accent. The inconsistency was a bit jarring and made it difficult to distinguish between characters.

Great Book Great Series

The Shepard and Gray series is a great psychological thrill ride! Really loved the back story that book 3 provided! Timothy and Bailey always provide great performances! Cant wait to get to Aruba!!

Great Addition to Series

I enjoyed how Billy, even though she is the sheriff, she knew when she needed help. Although Solomon Shepherd told her the last time he saw her that he did not want her to ever bother him again., she took the chance and went and asked him for his help. He is known to have been the best criminal prosecutor for very difficult cases. She knew if anyone could help catch this guy, it would be him. When he finally agreed to help, he realized that the murders were meant for his attention. There were too many things that pointed at him. They were murdered like his mom was. They deemed her depth of suicide, but he believed otherwise. Don’t miss this book, there are a lot of interesting twists to it!

Story was great. Performance-? Who edited and made decisions regarding the character voices from chapter to chapter?

The only thing I have disliked is when they use different voices per chapter based on which character it’s most about. So the other characters voices never sound the same from chapter to chapter. I love using multiple narrators, but when you go to that expense, why not assign a narrator to a “character/voice”? That way the characters are consistent throughout the story. This was especially odd and annoying for the character, Maize. When the male narrator spoke for her it sounded like she came from the hills of Kentucky or South Carolina, not Florida as the story states. She didn’t have that accent when the female narrator spoke for her. At least be consistent with accents and inflection.

The third novel still has issues!

I have thoroughly enjoyed discovering Victor Methos's novels; the Shepherd & Gray series is no exception. I have the same two questions as I did for the second novel: why was an additional narrator added? did the narrators record their dialogue without knowing the other one was also reading for the same novel?
Timothy and Bailey had completely different voices/accents for Solomon and Billie; Billie was a Yankee and a Southerner in the same book?! Why did the producers allow this to happen?

The story line kept me engaged, but the whole point of an audiobook is having a narrator bring the story to life, not confusing the listener.

Bit of a let down

This was the third book of the series and while the first two were intense this one kinda of dragged and didn’t really have a great story line. Honestly a bit of a letdown

Please stick with one nsrrator

Story was pretty good but the switching narrators was distracting. Just stick with the male narrator as the female narrator's breathy delivery and comical male voices is just distracting.

Good but not great like usual to me

I usually get thru this writer’s books so fast and I love them. This one did drag for me and wasn’t a slow burn to thrill either. This Stanton book was missing the normal thrill and suspense. I read a number of Methos character series and this is my least favorite; it pales in comparison to the rest. It was okay, good but not his best. (In my humble opinion.)