Fateful Mornings

Henry Farrell Series, Book 2

By: Tom Bouman

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

A woman's chilling disappearance haunts a rural Pennsylvania county in the eagerly awaited new Henry Farrell mystery from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dry Bones in the Valley.

Tom Bouman's Dry Bones in the Valley won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The New York Times hailed it as "beautifully written", and the Washington Post called it a "mesmerizing and often terrifying story".

In Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, summer has brought Officer Henry Farrell nothing but trouble. Heroin has arrived with a surge in burglaries and other crime. When local carpenter Kevin O'Keeffe admits that he shot a man and that his girlfriend, Penny, is missing, the search leads the small-town cop to an industrial vice district across state lines that has already ensnared more than one of his neighbors. With the patience of a hunter, Farrell ventures into a world of shadow beyond the fields and forests of home.

©2017 Tom Bouman (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Feels like it should be better!

First, anything by Joe Barrett is worth the time. Being from west/ central Pa I really wanted to like this book and series. I have listened to the first two and they are alright but not great. They seem a bit long and the story is “scattered”.

Sad tale, not always easy to follow

Not a police procedural, exactly, but not a rom com fer sure. Sort of a lyrical, depressed tale of rural decline. And chemical dependency, haphazard violence, and whatever is the opposite of resilience. If you can follow the numerous characters & half-submerged plot (missing in action for whole chapters at a time) you've got me beat.

Very well read, though.

Great story, great writing!

Let me start by saying that the author excels at creating a sense of place and culture. The way he described his characters often left me thinking, "I know exactly what he means, but I've never thought of it that way before." As an example, the description of a ne"er do well, drug addicted character riding his bike through town as "looking both younger and older than he actually is."

This is a long story arc (for a mystery) and the characters evolve (or devolve) as the story progresses. Just as in real life, some of Henry's pursuits fizzle out or are proven wrong; I appreciated that these felt representative of what an officer would experience when trying to do his job.

This story delivers--a great mystery with lyrical descriptions of rural Pennsylvania and the characters. I hope there's another book with Officer Henry!

More please.

Though I found following the story a little difficult, with so many complicated characters, I loved the descriptions of the settings and emotions, as voiced by Joe Barrett. I’ll listen again, and try to figure it all out. It’s just poetry.

Bouman's 2 Farrell books

A awesome phenomenal writer and Joe Barrett is fantastic. Read the first one and listened to the second. More... more!!!

I have no idea of what this story was About

I very much like Joe B as a narrator. His vocalization of a couple of characters crack me up. However, he sounded like he was just rambling on…Despite, multiple rewinds, I just couldn’t get into this one. I never understood who was missing and if she was ever located. There are subplots related to lost loves, infidelities, dreams, affairs, animal abuse, bar fights, humor about rotten teeth, mean school teachers…Just a mismosh of trashy stories. Unfortunately this story only served as background noise as I did other things. I would ask for a return of credit, but I think that I returned two books within the last two weeks. Save your credit or money. Wait until it is free if you are a fan of HF. I won’t be following this author or series.