Silent Scream

I wish I knew it was a series because the current story needed information from the other books. Too much was revealed about the others so I don't want to read them.

i only purchased this book because it was cheap. not even woth the $5! i couldn't finish listening. too many characters, bad story line and TERRIBLE narration! don't waste your $$$$!

I purchased this book based on positive reviews but I am struggling to get through it. I really don't like the narrator, but I can't tell if it's because she has crap dialogue to get through versus not being a particularly good story-teller. Won't buy another book written by Karen Rose or narrated by Marguerite Gavin.

This book starts out with action and suspense right off the bat. There is a group of college kids about to start an arson fire. Little do they know, there are a more people watching the event than they realize. One of the people watching is clearly planning to use his view of the events to blackmail the group into doing some crimes for him.

There were a lot of fires in this story and it really sounded like the author had researched building fires and fire fighter techniques making the story more realistic. My techie friends will be happy to know that they also used some computer and internet sleuthing skills in this story.

There were a few things I didn’t like about the story. The romance between our two main characters, Detective Olivia Sutherland and firefighter David Hunter, seemed like a whine fest at first. I was happy when they author finally moved past all the old stuff that happened years ago between them and got them going on their current day romance.

Another thing that bugged me was the coroner not figuring out that capsules swallowed didn’t equal the amount of narcotics in the victim’s system. Then deciding that the amount in his system would have made it impossible to function and do things like walk, dance, or drive. Isn’t that a basic thing that coroners do right away? Coroners do blood work, stomach contents, looking for other mysterious injuries and marks on the victim’s body first?

I think what I liked most about the story was that you kept thinking the main bad guy or the college kids were going to mess up and get caught, but they kept slipping through the grid. It was a great game of cat and mice.

The Narration Review
This audiobook as narrated by Marguerite Gavin and she has a very unique story telling style. She does a great job using different character voices that are distinct and easily identifiable during the dialog portions of the story. During the rest of the narration she slips in her crime genre narration mode with a big change in tone, cadence, and enunciation. She sounds very crisp and clear almost like she is going for the ‘just the facts’ type speech.

Suspenseful, romantic, Mystery

Even though the central story is NOT about David and Olivia's relationship, it is this relationship that I found annoying. David pining over Olivia got old....
It was hard to image that this so called

She was great. In fact, she is why I give this audio 4 stars.
Olivia is a tough independent woman who is guarded. She's been hurt in the past and she keeps her emotions tucked in tight. She is fearful of being rejected. David is Mr. I love you, I moved here for you, I'm kinda needy but I'm hot and I will wear you down. M.Gavin does well narrating both emotional characters.

There are a lot of characters and interesting developments throughout the book. It is a very good murder mystery with a nice slice of romance. Give it about 45 minutes and it really starts to pick up. Once I began the audio I used any free time I had to to finish it. It is definitely credit worthy and an enjoyable listen.

Almost too many characters and storylines picking up and dropping off, found it difficult to care about any of them. Not the gripping thriller I can hardly put down or can't wait to get back to.

Probably not. My time is valuable and I'd prefer something really intriguing/suspenseful.

None

A Lifetime or LMN movie perhaps

Maybe I’m bias because Karen Rose is one of my favorite authors, but this was a great book. I was intrigued and pulled in right from the start. I wanted to know right from the start who was behind the camera, who was pulling the strings, and why. Yes, I asked questions nearly throughout the entire novel. I love mysteries, and Karen Rose took me on a pretty good one. Of course, as always, I tried to play detective. I even figured out who it was, but was stumped by the other part of the who’s doing it. There were a couple of twists and turns in this one that I didn’t expect, which was even more of a wonderful experience. I yelled, got angry, and laughed. The romance in the novel was pretty nice too. I liked both characters the lead female and male characters. There was a moment of true sorrow in the novel; I am not a crier, but I nearly shed a tear when the sadness hit. I was shocked to the core and angry enough to start cursing. To say the least, I had an awesome time with this one. I’ll probably listen to it again soon.

The narrator was all right. For the most part, I enjoyed the book more than the narration, but she didn’t destroy the novel or distract from it, so I was pleased with the overall performance.

A more original plotline: It's true that the villains are all the same - this type of read has become quite generic.

Haven't listened to any of her books before in Audio version. Don't really remember reading paper books by her either, to be honest. I'm sure I have.

Before deciding to listen to an audiobook, or purchase one, you get a chance to listen to the narrator’s voice via the sampler, but that sample is not nearly long enough to determine if you will – or - will not enjoy a narrator’s voice. For some reason here this narrator’s voice grated on my nerves more often than not, and that’s a shame really. It makes the listener like the story less, in my opinion. The delivery and variation of intonation for various characters was great overall, but the voice’s color and vibrato didn’t appeal to me.

Somehow there must've been something that kept me listening.