City of Sand

By: Robert Kroese

Narrated by: Jennifer D. Ledford

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

It's the year 2000 and the Silicon Valley city of Sunnyview is abuzz with the possibilities of vast fortunes to be made in the Dot Com boom. But to retired cop Benjamin Stone, who has come to Sunnyview to find his estranged daughter, Jessica, the promise of Sunnyview rings hollow.

Benjamin grew up in Sunnyview in the 1950s, when it was a sleepy farming town, and he finds its modern day counterpart strange and weirdly insubstantial. After Jessica turns up dead in a creek bed, apparently murdered, Benjamin follows clues that suggest a conspiracy involving a startup company and a Silicon Valley pioneer with a disturbing past.

As the mystery unravels, Benjamin must confront the reality of terrible crimes that occurred in the idealized town of his youth, which helped to make Silicon Valley what it is today. But as Benjamin attempts to unravel the conspiracy, all the clues begin to point toward a horrifying possibility: Sunnyview isn't what it seems.

©2015 Robert Kroese (P)2018 Robert Kroese

great story

The story sucks you in and lets you travel along with the main character. At some points i miss the humor of Robert Kroese you can find in his other books, and yes, that humor might be missplaced in this story.

The narration is done very well even if i wonder why there was chosen for a female narrator to tell this from a first person perspective of a 58 year old man.

Detective story takes P K Dick turn, very good

Starts as something like a Sue Grafton Kinsey Millhone mystery, where a retired cop looks for his missing daughter in California, then begins to resemble P K Dick's Ubik where you begin to question reality. Very engaging story, with excellent voice work by J D Ledford.

Rod Serling-Franz Kafka cop mystery

City of sand. Shifting sand, sliding sand, sand that doesn't stay where you put it. Sand running out.

This starts off as a regular police investigation, a retired cop searching for his estranged daughter in his old home town of Sunnyview. The town has changed a lot from the rural peach-growing place of his youth to this new yuppy, Silicon Valley, up-and-coming place. Mixed up in this are his childhood memories, his grief over the loss of his wife, and then the falling out with his daughter. He learns that all is not on the up and up in the modern town. Weird things start happening, industrial poisoning, eugenics, secret studies on children, government corruption, and you gradually realize you are no longer in Sunnyview, but rather have wandered into the Twilight Zone.

Little can be trusted anymore, not your eye sight, the people you encounter, even your memories. As you fall into madness and paranoia, you wonder if those trying to help you really are, or if this is some more conspiracy.

The narration is perfect, although it may be odd to have a woman narrating a middle-aged man's story. This is a captivating, fascinating, disturbing tale that leaves you unsure of the ending. But you will come to believe that Carl Jung's "collective unconscious" is a bunch of hooey, and you'll never dare go to a psychiatrist!

I expected some satire

I really liked this book. It kept me engaged and listening, even more so towards the end as the answers are to be revealed. I thought it was going to be funny like Rex, but none of that was evident. it was a serious story similar to a Phillip k Dick tale like Total Recall (the author gives a short editorial at the end where your go, ahhh, ok, ok.) I just can't say enough good things about J.D. Ledford, she is amazing. If I ever get a book published, I would feel honored to have her read it, she's that good. So all in all great story well worth the credit, You'll never want to quit on it (like the last 3 out of 5 books I've tried listening to.)

You WILL be surprised

My favorite mysteries are the ones in which the ending is a complete surprise but makes perfect sense when I look back over the story and see the hints and clues the author left. City of Sand by Rob Kroese is one of those stories. At it's heart, it's a novel about a retired police detective looking for his estranged daughter who has gone missing, and you really need to read it or listen to the excellent narration for the full story.
That leads me to the narration. One reason I don't like movies or audiobooks of things I've read is that the actors just aren't as good as the voices in my head. Jennifer Ledford's characterizations replaced almost all of mine. I started listening while I was at work thinking I wouldn't have to pay as much attention since I had already read the book. When I realized I was just listening and not getting any work done, I changed to listening while I didn't have anything else to do.

Engaging Noir Reality VS Illusion

“City of Sand” is a pleasant and welcomed change from your standard piece of contemporary science fiction found today on Audible. The book is written by Robert Kroese who currently has authored nearly twenty books at the time of this review; most appear to be well received. The audiobook’s narration is decently performed by Jennifer D. Ledford. This audiobook appears to be her premiere piece and I look forward to hearing more from her in the future. The book is mostly a procedural mystery story revolving around a father attempting to find the person who murdered his daughter. What he finds instead are conspiracies and cover-ups that hit him like a wall in every direction. I’m not one who often gravitates towards detective stories, yet this book’s writing kept me engaged and wondering what I have been missing by not listening to more of this genre. If you are a fan of gumshoe crime fighting books with some quite interesting and fun bits of science fiction woven in, I think you will enjoy the almost 10 hours of audiobook listening this provides.

Imagine retiring from the police force and coming back to the town you were born and grew up after nearly fifty years. When you arrive, what used to be familiar has been replaced by the unrecognizable. A few of the old hangouts and streets remain, but much of the farming community has been replaced with new and modern corporations in the likes of Silicon Valley. The place is called Sunnyview and it is where our main character’s estranged daughter heads when seeking a job. (The next sentence is not a spoiler) When he attempts to reunite with his daughter, she is discovered dead in a creek and the story begins to unfold like a paracord bracelet. And, let me say that this story is multi-faceted. Just as you think you have things worked out, the author throws you a curve ball. If you were anything like me growing up, a curveball was one that I could never hit, it was always a swing and a miss. As this ex-detective works alongside the local Sunnyvale police force, Mr. Stone begins to unravel much more than he expected. His daughter’s murder is only the tip of the iceberg of what is hiding in this town. In many ways, he wants to solve the murder, but I also think he did not think he would get in this deep and stumble upon the truth behind it.

As its title suggests, Sunnyview is a city of sand. One can imagine spending the day at the beach and how sand is able to get into nearly every nook and cranny of your body. Like water, sand flows, moves, and shifts unpredictability. This is exactly what you will get in this audiobook. The story moves, flows, and shifts just like sand, and for me, this is what made it unique and enjoyable. The author also does a good job of including many items that may be nostalgic for older readers such as Cingular Wireless, Blockbuster, and the ever-present Starbucks. I had to smile as the name of these places alone brought me back to parts of my childhood. Where the science fiction comes into place is around technology and components of time travel. At times, the story made me feel like the TV series “Travelers” but in reverse. Each well placed and timed. I do not want to give away too much as this is a core aspect of the storyline, so if this whets your appetite, I suggest you pick up the book and give it a listen.

Throw in bits and pieces of pre-cognition, dreams, and a military clandestine project called GLARE (one has to love acronyms), and you have a procedural science fiction book that actually works. I did like the continued use of the public library by the main character when doing his research. As with Blockbuster, these are sadly becoming less funded and, in some places, disappearing completely. I also found the main character’s continued heavy use of aspirin alarming, yet you discover why later in the book. If I were to sum up the book, it revolves around answering the question of what is real and what is simply an illusion. At times, it reminded me of the original Twilight Zone series.

The audiobook’s narration by Jennifer D. Ledford was good overall with only a few things I would call out for listeners. First, her reading was well paced, and I enjoyed her voice. It was clean, crisp, and she did well articulating. It felt it a bit odd at first having a female narrate a male character role, yet it worked as I was able to quickly adjust. Not sure it was the author’s intent, but it made me feel the story was really being told from another’s perspective. I guess this add to the mystery. If I were asked for any changes or recommendations around the narration, I would give two. The first was the narrator’s ability to distinguish the characters while reading. At times I would get confused who was speaking and maybe using an accent or other means of distinguishing characters could have helped. Secondly, the audio at places of silence, such as between chapters, had a tiny white noise sound which can be caused by compression during post-production. Neither of these would prevent me from listening to the book, however, I point them out for people who have very high standards in audiobooks. I also wanted to point out at least two places where a sentence was repeated and not edited out. These take place around the 3h25m and 3h35m mark. Again, nothing that would stop me from listening to this book again. I’m certain over time, the narrator will correct these items in future books.

For parents and younger readers, this book does contain vulgar language at times. Much less then I would have assumed for this genre but be aware it is there. Other than this, I do not recall, nor did I make note, of sexual subject matter or other adult content. Going into this book, remember it does deal with murder and at times can be graphic; but not simply for shock value. At times the book can get complex and confusing, so I would not recommend it to younger readers unless they have a limited understanding of time, physics, etc.

In summary, for a book whose action takes place mostly during the last chapters, the writing style and storyline kept me focused and engaged the entire way. The characters felt real and multifaceted and I can tell the author made sure to focus attention on this element. I would say if you are a fan of mysteries, this is a great book to listen too. I would also say that for those who, like me, are more science fiction focused, give this book a try as you may be surprised at the direction it takes you. It truly is a blending of these two genres and it works.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.
Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.
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Simply outstanding

I bought this on the strength of Kroese's supernatural comedies and, to be fair, I wasn't expecting this book to be as good. I was wrong -- it's better. This is not only the best of Kroese's writing -- and that's a high bar in itself -- it's one of the best books I've read in a long time.

This is a story about things not being what they seem. Having a female narrator telling a story from the point of view of a middle-aged cop adds a certain weirdness to proceedings, but it seems to make sense by the end. As much sense as anything does, anyway. There are elements of Kafka, Lovecraft, and Chandler, mashed together in an entirely plausible way.

It's pretty much impossible to describe the story without giving the whole plot away, so I won't even try. It's started to figure out what was going on by about half-way into the book, but the ending still came as a surprise.

My only regret is that, because the story relies so heavily on its unexpected conclusion, there's probably no reason to read it more than once. Which is a shame.