Fatal Deception

Emerald City Thriller, Book 5

By: Audrey J. Cole

Narrated by: Marcio Catalano, Veronica Pace

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Still recovering from her brother’s murder, Detective Tess Richards transfers out of Homicide, only to find herself in the center of a deadly undercover operation.

When a young woman is found dead after a hit-and-run, all evidence points to Everchange, a high-profile self-help organization renowned for attracting rich and famous members. As Tess leaves Homicide to take a job within the Seattle Intelligence Unit, she is quickly sent undercover into the Everchange castle on Whidbey Island.

What she finds is not what she expected. Surrounded by celebrities and feel-good teachings, Tess has trouble discerning between truth and deception.

Detective Blake Stephenson’s investigation of the Everchange hit-and-run uncovers evidence of their cult-like connection to murder and human trafficking. Embedded in the castle, Tess confronts Everchange’s leader Colton Everett, who is not only charming and strikingly attractive, but he and Tess have a history.

As Blake links more deaths to the organization, he works to arrange a rescue mission to help Tess escape. While inside, Tess witnesses the death of a member and fights to untangle Everchange’s web of lies - before her cover is blown with fatal consequences.

©2020 Audrey J. Cole (P)2020 Audrey J. Cole

Suspenseful, Emotional, and Intricate!

This is the fifth book in the Emerald City Thriller series. This is another great addition to the series. Tess and Blake's story is suspenseful, emotional, and intricate, filled with danger, and twists and turns. This is a great mystery thriller. Marcio Catalano and Veronica Pace did an amazing job with the narration. I highly recommend this series. Looking forward to listening to more books written by Audrey J. Cole.

Good action with some twists

While dealing with a lot of personal trauma, detectives Tess and Blake, who recently married, work at trying to find evidence on a cult leader that has been responsible for many deaths. Putting herself at risk, Tess goes undercover to investigate and find evidence to bring him down.

This was a good action story. It built up nicely and had some interesting twists. I was glued to my earphones listening to it. The narration was good and I liked that there was a male and female voice for the different perspectives, although distinguishing among the various female and male character voices was a bit tricky.

Note. I received this audiobook for free and I have provided this objective review voluntarily.

Outstanding

This was an incredible audiobook. The angst, deception and mystery encompassed unbelievable twists and turns. This book was well written⁸ I appreciate the narrators maintaining their respective recording of the male and female characters.

I LOVE this!!

I've loved every single one of these books. And this one was especially good. I'm pretty sure it's the Story of Nexium, And it was fantastic. I have like 30 minutes left of the book and I'm upset it's almost over. Both narrators did amazing jobs. But I think that Veronica Pace really helped to make the story even better than it already was. But now I have to go and see how this book ends! I hope there are more books in this series!

Heart racing suspense and mind-bending twists.....

Fatal Deception is the fifth book in this mystery series featuring two Seattle homicide detectives, Tess Richards and Blake Stephenson. Although I have read the other books in the series, I think Fatal Deception could be enjoyed as a standalone. The book grabbed me from the opening scene with a young woman running away from some unknown threat. The author continued to build the intrigue and suspense from that point. The story is split between three main focuses: Stephenson is investigating the hit and run murder of a young woman, Richards goes undercover to join a suspected cult, and Richards and Stephenson navigate their personal relationship. The author skillfully uses foreshadowing to build the eeriness factor and ties all three sub-plots into one seamless story. I have loved reading all the books in the series, but I think this one was the most addictive, and I listened to it straight through in one sitting. I was certain that I knew what was happening from the beginning, but I guessed completely wrong in the end.

The excitement of the mystery portion of the story is obviously very important, but one of the main reasons that I am such a fan of these books is the wonderful character development. Tess and Blake have become very real people to me, and I love that they continue to grow individually and together in each book. My heart broke for Tess as she struggled with panic attacks and flashbacks from her brother's murder investigation in a previous book, and, as a fellow suffer of panic attacks, I thought the author captured her experiences expertly. Although there was some tension between them in the beginning of the book, Blake was amazingly supportive of Tess and continues to prove himself the perfect match for someone as tough outside yet fragile inside as Tess. I am already excited to see what the author has in store for this couple in the next book.

Marcio Catalano and Veronica Pace narrate all the books in this series, and I appreciate that continuity. They perform in the duet style, with Catalono reading all the male parts and Pace reading all the female parts. It takes great skill to handle that smoothly, and these two narrators succeed. Their timing is perfect, their delivery is flawless, and the sound recording is of professional quality. I highly recommend Fatal Deception for all fans of mystery audiobooks.

I received a copy of this audiobook at my request in exchange for this honest review.

Gripping suspense

This is a gripping, suspenseful thriller with several twists and surprises and an ending you may not see coming.

I'm sure I would have appreciated the characters even more if I'd been given the opportunity to review the earlier books in this series, but Marcio Catalano and Veronica Pace performed well the male and female characters respectively. Despite feeling a bit lost with respect to the characters background, I enjoyed this story greatly.

Note: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Fatal deception

Once again,I read it out of order.lol It was a good read.A new husband and wife,working homicide are parted by their job and hidden things they can't talk about.Tess goes undercover,but will she stay there? Narration by Marcio Catalano and Veronica Pace was good.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

Great read

So suspenseful and well written! Great read and very reminiscent of what is happening in our world today.
I received a free copy and left my honest review

Wonderful, thrilling and so exciting

Another great listen from a wonderful author and narrator. T was truly a thrilling read full of chills, excitement and few surprises. The plot is outstanding and could be straight out of our headlines. The author spins a tail of a cult and how it effects the people, how they get them to do things, and how it all turns out when one person is in control. I really loved the plot, it is well written, with outstanding narration. I was held on the edge, holding my breath why these three took me on a surprising delightful tail spin. Just when I thought I had it all worked out the author throw a new spin on it that took a different direction.


The narrators did a wonderful job with the character voices, you always knew who was talking and what they were feeling. There are no background noise, no repeating of words and no volume changes, it is a very clear audio that keeps you hanging on to every word. They really put true emotions in to the characters, really showing their pain, passion and anger. I really could feel what each character was going through, when tears where needed they were there, you could hear their voice break. The sound effects were wonderful, it really sounded like they were on a phone or talking through a speaker, even the dispatch sounded real. It is truly amazing how well these two narrators blended well together, going from one character to another is done so smooth and easy like they were in the same room. I really can’t wait to listen to more of their work.

This is a thrilling listen that holds your attention, keeps you hanging on and is a very hard audio to put down. The plot is well thought out, with wonderful twists and turns, thrilling, exciting with a great ending. I have really enjoyed this series and hope there are more coming.

Great Read

Fatal Deception (Emerald City Thriller #5) was another great read by Audrey J. Cole. Detective Tess Richards is still recovering from her brothers murder. She decides to transfer out of Homicide, but ends up quickly in the center of a deadly undercover operation. A young woman is found dead after a hit-and-run, and it points at Everchange, a high-profile self-help organization. Tess is sent undercover into the Everchange castle while working for the Seattle Intelligence Unit. Tess has trouble discerning between truth and deception. Blake continues to investigate the hit-and-run and starts uncovering lots of evidence of murder and human trafficking. I enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more by the author.