Hello, Darkness

A Novel

By: Sandra Brown

Narrated by: Victor Slezak

Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

Since moving to Austin to ease the pain of tragic mistakes, Paris Gibson has led a life of virtual isolation, coming alive only at night when she hosts her popular radio show. Then one listener - who identifies himself as "Valentino" - tells Paris that the girl he loves jilted him because of Paris's on-air advice. He intends to exact revenge by killing the girl and then coming after Paris.

Desperate to stop the sinister Valentino, Paris enlists the help of the police - including crime psychologist Dean Malloy, the very man she had hoped never to meet again....

©2003 Sandra Brown (P)2007 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic Reviews

"A gripping story of abduction, betrayal, and murder that could have been ripped straight from the headlines." ( The Early Show, CBS)

"Fascinating.... Will keep you up past your bedtime." ( Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

A Mystery That Will Keep You Guessing...

This is a good mystery using flashbacks which develop the mystery little by little. Subplots involve betrayal between friends and typical family conflicts. Of course there is murder. The story ended very well with plenty of twists and turns along the way, especially in the last few chapters. The story held my interest throughout, wanting to know what happens next. The sexual content is minimum and not over the top, however, the central story revolves around child sexual perpetrators.... mostly older men having and paying for sex with minor girls Child abuse is one topic that I try hard to avoid in my recreational reading, and I was happy that the descriptive passages were limited.

The romantic portion of the story involves a couple who falls in love (in a love at first sight sort of way), but one of them is already in a engaged, ready-to-be-married relationship. This was not a typical boy meets girl love story. It was refreshing that Sandra Brown found a way to bring what could have been a typical romantic triangle to a conflicting point with interest and suspense.

Narrator Victor Slezak is one of the better narrators that I've heard. His voice is smooth which is a 'must have' for me in order to listen for 13 hours.

Another winner from Sandra Brown

A romantic thriller that kept me guessing all the way through. I really enjoyed this book. Never a dull moment.

Perfect Sandra Brown Story.

Easy listening. Great blend of romance, mystery and drama. It is definitely worth the read.

It kept my interest,

but I didn’t feel like it was a good story. Parts were depressing.

It was more about victims than intriguing problem solvers. Somehow things felt contrived. I’m not sure why.

I liked the ending. It was complete.

The romance was good.

One bad guy threatened to kill the loved ones of a good guy if the good guy said what he knew. So that good guy was silent until the very end. That frustrated me. I did not enjoy reading that. It’s a helpless feeling of being blackmailed or held hostage for life.

The story is about sexual perverts: men having sex with underage girls, and underage girls who want sex and give it away or sell it. A kidnapped girl is sexually assaulted.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:
Victor Slezak was excellent. He does female voices well with good emotional interpretation. He also used a good sound editor to remove his breaths.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 13 hrs and 31 mins. Swearing language: Christ plus a sexual slur used once. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Setting: current day mostly Austin, Texas. Copyright: 2003. Genre: romantic suspense thriller.

Sandra Brown rocks another one.

Exceptional listen. Loved it. Has all the usual twist and turns. Suspenseful. I hate when one of her books ends you get so involved with the characters you miss then . Narrator was good easy to follow and to listen to.

Not bad - but not her best

I do love to hear Victor Slezak read Sandra Brown books so it was a fine way to spend a rainy afternoon. It is not in the same league with many of her other books though.

I was riveted to this exceptional mystery especially after unraveling the main characters roles.

The author’s weaving of so many realistic family members and friends kept me on my toes, I actually started keeping a list of who’s who to keep the characters straight in my mind as I read.
I loved the intensity of who could have been Valentino until the very very end!!!

Suspense to the end

Fast read. Story kept you guessing, intrigued and in suspense to the end. Totally worth the read.

A+ development of characters thoughout the book

Victor Slezak is perfect for Brown's books- excellent at all the voices & their point of views.

Brown is excellent at tapping various characters as potentials for solving the mystery of who 'Valentino' is.
She interweaves the book's love story and the main character's past beautifully - using plot incidents to provide one more bit of information. Although this is a very far-fetched plot, all of her characters are believable, which had me sympathizing with some of the 'bad guys'.

Finally the full story.

If you could sum up Hello, Darkness in three words, what would they be?

Hot and Sexy an exciting

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dean, who wants to be a good dad

Which character – as performed by Victor Slezak – was your favorite?

Victor Slezak makes all the Sandra Brown books he reads so great!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Dean protects his son at the police station

Any additional comments?

Waiting for full story of White Hot, all time best story

A little contrived but still engaging enough.

It was simple enough to call the reveal in this story and the added in characters felt like last minute additions. The performance was good enough but at times it was difficult to tell the characters apart.