Chill Factor

A Novel

By: Sandra Brown

Narrated by: Stephen Lang

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seeing Red comes a suspense novel about a woman trapped in a remote cabin with a man who may be a serial killer.

Five women are missing from the sleepy mountain town of Cleary, North Carolina, and a blue ribbon has been left near where each woman was last seen. Lilly Martin has returned to Cleary to close the sale of her cabin. But when her car skids and strikes a stranger, Ben Tierney, as he emerges from the woods, they’ve no choice but to wait out a brutal blizzard in the cabin. And as the hours of their confinement mount, Lilly wonders if the greater threat to her safety isn’t the storm, but the stranger beside her...©2005 Sandra Brown; (P)2005 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division.

Cartoonish hillbilly accent ruins a lead character

Sometimes an actor's interpretation of a character is merely distracting; in this particular instance, it's wrong to the point of making me regret that I didn't read Chill Factor instead of listening. Stephen Lang does a credible job with characters that are meant to be 'played' for grins, like a just-the-facts-ma'am FBI director. But with one of the key protagonists, he couldn't be farther from the mark.

I'm talking about "Dutch," the ex-husband of the heroine. This is the character that sophisticated Lily is said to have found so charming and "erudite" when they met that she fell for him immediately. But as voiced by Lang, Dutch is cursed with a specific variety of overdone Southern accent that screams "inbred backwoods moonshiner." You can't even call it a drawl; it's as if Dutch is a slow thinker who struggles to speak; the polar opposite of anyone that magazine editor Lily would ever have found attractive.

In fact, until I got to the part of the book where Lily reminisces about their early relationship, and how Dutch captivated an audience when he spoke at a fundraising event, I actually there to be a backstory that would explain the horrible mismatch between the sophisticate and the yokel. He isn't written dim-witted, but he certainly SOUNDS it here.

If Dutch were a minor character, this off-the-mark performance wouldn't matter much. But if Sandra Brown meant to create the tension of a possible three-way love triangle between Lily, Ben Tierney, and Lily's ex-husband, Lang's portrayal of the ex makes it impossible to even imagine Lily and Dutch together in anything but a shotgun wedding.

Tight writing by Brown, and a suspenseful plot. Too bad the audiobook misses the mark.

A Pleasant Listen

Sandra Brown always comes through with a suspenceful story that is easy to listen to and follow. The narrator was a little off on switching voices but all and all a good listen. You won't be disappointed if you enjoy suspence and romance.

Couldn't stop listening!

Loved the story but hated several of the characters. Felt like I knew them all!

One of the best

I think this is one of the best books I've heard froom Sandra Brown. Much better than some of her other books I've read/listened to.

Makes you want to keep listening

Stephen Lang is an excellent reader who makes the story even better.
The story is good with lots of twists and turns and guessing at "who's done it". I would recommend this book.