Dark Harvest

De: Chris Patchell

Narrado por: Lisa Stathoplos, Corey Gagne

Becky Kincaid ventures out in the middle of a snowstorm to buy a car seat for her unborn baby and never makes it home. When a second pregnant woman disappears, Marissa Rooney and the team at the Holt Foundation fear a sinister motive lurks behind the crimes.

Lead investigator Seth Crawford desperately searches for the thread that binds the two cases together, knowing that if he fails, another woman will soon be gone. While Seth hunts for clues, a madman has Marissa in his sights and she carries a secret that could tear her whole world apart.

Can Seth stop the killer before he reaps his...dark harvest?

©2017 Chris Patchell (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

The Holt Foundation Book 2 Don't Miss This One!

Dark Harvest by Chris Patchell is book 2 of ‘The Holt Foundation Stories’. I highly suggest you read/listened to book 1 ‘In the Dark’ first, it provides the complete backstory and you won’t want to miss anything! The writing is great and the storyline is engrossing all the way through. Once again dual narration by Lisa Stathoplos, Corey Gagne was flawless. Recommended

Good plot and pace but no real twists

Marissa is facing new challenges at the Holt Foundation after Elizabeth's death. And not only this: Brooke is having a break down after what happened to her in book 1, her relationship with Seth is becoming complicated, and they have a new case in which a pregnant woman has disappeared. Time presses because the delivery time is just two weeks ahead.

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, so I was looking to this one. The style is very similar to the previous book: lots of action, interesting characters, a great plot with good subplots. It has all the ingredients to make of this an amazing book. 

I enjoyed how Marissa and Seth's relationship evolved, and how that subplot was woven with the main story. I didn't like the fact that they got involved in the previous book, but I understand that this makes it more interesting for this one and future books.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, but somehow I found it a bit more predicable than the first one, without any real twist, and this is why I give it only 4 stars. Nevertheless, the way Patchell's style traps you makes this worth listening.

About the narration, I have similar feelings to the ones about the first book. Lisa Stathoplos delivered a top notch narration, with an ample voice range and excellent character's interpretations. Corey Gagne was also very good, regarding voices and interpretations, but there were several noticeable audio edits, not enough to be distracting, but sadly unworthy of a 5 star review.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Chris Patchell. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Better than the first book!

Dark Harvest was great!! I enjoyed In the Dark but Dark Harvest was an amazing thriller! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! Chris Patchell really fine-tuned the characters. They were the same characters from book 1 but she really developed them more and made them so relatable. Poor Marissa can’t seem to catch a break with life!

I enjoyed that Patchell really connected some real life medical research into her story. She came up with an original storyline. It was extremely fascinating! Now there was some areas in the book where I shook my head and questioned the characters sanity. I mean, most people don’t do or think how some of these characters did. I loved seeing Brooke and how she was healing, or trying to heal. Again, it was a real-life situation. Not everything is simple and Patchell proves this while taking us through Brooke’s healing process.

This book has it all! We have teen pregnancy with illegal adoptions, kidnapping, and scientific research into a super interesting thought process. I really liked that aspect of it. She took a super interesting idea and really explored the mind of a man who is on the edge! The narrators, Lisa Stathoplos and Corey Cagney did another stellar job! They add great infliction and emotion to a story that packs the emotion.

Rather Girlie

Good story, but the number of chapters or pages on the same feelings. And why such filthy language? I not s prude but I felt like some of the swearing, especially “f” bombs were there to add emphasis but to be “cool” seriously? Why ruin a good story and what can be a good series.

Excellent plot with very intense suspense

In this second novel in the Holt Foundation Stories series a mid 40s physician with early onset Alzheimer's is trying to slow the progression of his disease by treating himself with umbilical cord stem cells. He and his nurse lover are kidnapping late term pregnant unmarried teenagers and taking their babies by C-section. He harvests the cord stem cells and sells the babies for $100,000 each. The time comes that he realizes that cord stem cells are inadequate, so he decides he wants embryonic stem cells.

36 year old thrice divorced protagonist Marissa Rooney, the now single mother of teen daughters, works for the Holt Foundation as does her ex-cop boyfriend Seth Crawford. They are on the case which brings them into danger. Dark Harvest is an outstanding action and suspense thriller. The listener should complete Book 1 in the series (title is In the Dark) before this novel.

The author is appropriately careful to point out that the use of embryonic, cord, and adult stem cells to treat Alzheimer's is being researched, there is no success with such treatments yet.