At First Sight

A Novel of Obsession

De: Stephen J. Cannell

Narrado por: Scott Brick

Meet Chick Best - a middle-aged, self-absorbed, disaffected, California dot.com millionaire. Other than his house and high-priced foreign cars, Chick's most expensive possession is his trophy wife, Evelyn.

Evelyn is good at spending Chick's money, money that has pretty much run out. His other personal possession is his drug-addled 16-year-old daughter, Melissa. Though concerned about his life and family, Chick resigns himself to a miserable state of acceptance.

That is, until he, Evelyn, and Melissa take a Christmas vacation in Maui. With this, Chick's life changes. He experiences unrequited love at first sight when he observes Paige Ellis. His obsession, exceeded only by his need to possess her, isn't diminished when he learns that she is happily married. Instead, he befriends Paige and her near-perfect husband, Chandler.

A short time later, Chick's obsession compels him to drive to Paige's house, where he runs down and kills Chandler in a drug-store parking lot. He attends the husband's funeral, feigning compassion for Paige. Several months later, with his lust for Paige in high gear, Chick stages a carjacking and murders Evelyn. Evidence that Chick has planted in and around the car implicates an ex-convict.

When he calls Paige with the news of Evelyn's murder, she returns the favor and comes to comfort Chick in what she thinks is his time of need. Chick, however, has other ideas. Will Paige learn the truth before it's too late?

©2008 Stephen J. Cannell (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Quirky & Fun

An easy listen. Good for filling in the gaps, with Scott Brick up to his usual best in audio performance.

Very good book!

This was a great read. I always enjoyed Cannell's TV screen plays. Am looking forward to more of his books. I highly recommend.

Excellent book

Very dark and twisted humor. But captivating. I couldn’t stop listening. Chick was a great main character. You felt bad for him but were rooting for him in a weird way.

Good story, great voice actor

I have great admiration for the late Mr. Cannell. As a man who suffered from dyslexia, the fact that he created dozens of TV shows and many novels is admirable.

The premise of the story was fascinating to me, and it was interesting to see it from the perspectives of two distinct characters.

My only real beef is with the structure. The fact that each character's perspective is told from both first and third person is illogical, and it is especially confusing when they are together. When Chick's actions are described in the third person, there is no way of knowing if it's his perspective, or if it's Paige telling us what she sees him do.

The narrator, Scott Brick, was brilliant, and every time I come across his name when browsing a book that seems interesting, I feel lucky to know that if I buy it I'll get to enjoy his voice again.
Mr. Brick's voice is captivating, and to me he is one with the protagonist.

That is why, in my opinion, there should have been at least 2 voice actors, just like, for example, in Gone Girl.
Sure, it's easy for me to tell other people they must hire a second actor for a book (it's not coming out of my pocket), but in this case I think the story called for it.
And yet, Brick did a wonderful job, even on his own.

Another issue that comes to mind is the political and personal choices of the author.
In many stories one side of the aisle is presented as humane and the other side as vermin.
Cannell, who was a conservative, has given us sympathetic characters from each side of the aisle. That is something we need to see more often.

Strong start, and something different from Cannell

The author begins this book with a forward explaining he was inspired to try to write a "different" sort of novel after reading Andrew Klavan's "Man and Wife". M&W is a brilliant book, and a worthy model for this multi-perspective analysis of two marriages. I enjoyed the writing, found the author's management of my empathy masterful, and was very intrigued for about 4/5ths of the story. The ending was disappointing, but honestly, how else could it have gone? Stephen J Cannell was a Hollywood Guy, and this is a very Hollywood ending. I thought the whole package was worthwhile. Scott Brick's intense, deep, quavery voice suited the intensity of the emotions in the telling, and I always find him easy to listen to. Anyway, Cannell does what he set out to do - writes a very different, more-disturbing novel than his Shane Scully series, and I'm pleased to have found it on Audible!