A Trace of Death

By: Blake Pierce

Narrated by: Elaine Wise

Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

Keri Locke, Missing Persons Detective in the Homicide division of the LAPD, remains haunted by the abduction of her own daughter, years before, never found. Still obsessed with finding her, Keri buries her grief the only way she knows how: by throwing herself into the cases of missing persons in Los Angeles.

A routine phone call from a worried mother of a high-schooler, only two hours missing, should be ignored. Yet something about the mother's voice strikes a chord, and Keri decides to investigate.

What she finds shocks her. The missing daughter - of a prominent senator - was hiding secrets no one knew. When all evidence points to a runaway, Keri is ordered off the case. And yet, despite pressure from her superiors, from the media, despite all trails going cold, the brilliant and obsessed Keri refuses to let it go. She knows she has but 48 hours if she has any chance of bringing this girl back alive.

A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, A Trace of Death marks the debut of a riveting new series - and a beloved new character - that will leave you listening late into the night.

©2016 Blake Pierce (P)2017 Blake Pierce

Narrator is all wrong

I couldn't really get into the story due to the narrator, she's British and Keri Locke is a detective at LAPD. I actually listened to half of the story thinking that I could get around the narrator but I just never could. I think the narrator would be wonderful with the right story as she was spoke very clearly, just not this story at least for me. I wanted to finish the story so I bought a Kindle edition.

2 people found this helpful

Very disappointing

Blake Pierce has written a book that is way out there, totally unbelievable to say the least. I can't go into any details without there being spoilers. There was nothing redeeming about this story, except possibly the narration. I did have one problem with the narration, the British accent. Tell me why in the world would a British accent be used in a story that took place in Southern California? Elaine Wise did a nice job with what she had to work with. I do not recommend this book to anyone, unless of course, to see how not to write a mystery/thriller.

4 people found this helpful

British narrator; story set in LA?

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The story held my interest, but the narrator was pretty bad. Every statement by the characters was over emphasized making the non-urgent action difficult to follow. Not only that, she has a British accent. Why the heck would a story set in Los Angeles with American characters be narrated by a British narrator?

If you’ve listened to books by Blake Pierce before, how does this one compare?

I haven't listened to Blake Pierce before. The story intrigued me, and the characters were engaging enough that I chose to read the second book in the series.

What didn’t you like about Elaine Wise’s performance?

Every statement by the characters was over-emphasized making the non-urgent sections difficult to follow. Not only that, she has a British accent. Who the heck would select a British narrator for a story set in Los Angeles with all American characters? It was constantly confusing to remind myself that the story was in LA, California.

Any additional comments?

I hope I can return this book. I couldn't bear to finish listening to it despite my interest in the outcome of the story.

1 person found this helpful

Good story

Basically having a person with a British accent read the book ruined it for me.

1 person found this helpful

Odd choice of narrator

The book takes place in California, but the narrator has an English accent. The accent made it difficult to imagine the location.

1 person found this helpful

Bobbys in LA

Extremely off putting to hear Los Angeles police with English accents. Reader's occasional screeches actually hurt my ears.

3 people found this helpful

Not fond of English accent

I loved storyline and it was very exciting definitely want to read the rest of them. But when you have a cop from LA it would be much better on audible to make sure that you have someone that has a similar accent to what the storyline portrays.

3 people found this helpful

a Brit reading a book set in CA? heavy accent. te

Narrator was terrible. blah, blah blah blah iz did enough words? i hate these review

The story was formulaic, but the narration....

The story itself was more formulaic than original, but still did a good job to pulling me in, and I ended up satisfied with it. The bigger issue comes from the narration.

Normally, I could do with having a nice British narrator. In this case, with the heavy use of American police procedural, as well as place and product names specific to the US, the British accent simply ended up pulling me out of the story, needing to translate what they were saying while going through the book. I imagine this could be fixed with a decent pronunciation guide, to tone it more to the region, but it remains separated by a common language.

Didn't like accent<br />

loved story but not the British accent, taking place in L.A. should not be British