Hold Your Breath

A Novella

By: Wendy Walker

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of All Is Not Forgotten and Don’t Look for Me comes a sharp, compulsive thriller about a young woman who narrowly escapes a violent crime and the psychiatrist helping to recover her memory of the suspect.

Gabby Ashford has just survived an attempt on her life. Detectives have connected her story to two other cases in the area: Professional women drugged at a bar, brought to their homes, and drowned in their bathtubs. Gabby, who miraculously woke up in her own bathtub unharmed, could be the key to finding a serial killer on the loose - but she has no memory of the attack.

Gabby admits herself to a high-end rehabilitation center to recover and to seek the help of a psychiatrist renowned for his work with memory recovery. As Dr. Forrester works with Gabby - interviewing not only her but her overbearing fiancée, her emotionally fragile brother, and the local detective working the case - questions about Gabby’s story, her past, and the ethics of memory recovery emerge.

Dr. Forrester, the central voice of Walker’s breakout debut All Is Not Forgotten, is a fascinating and deeply complicated character, barreling toward the truth of the case at hand while wrestling with the demons of his own past. Shocking and succinct, Hold Your Breath will have you on the edge of your seat from the first minute to the last.

©2020 Wendy Walker (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

Twisty Ending

This was one of the best Audible Originals I’ve listened to. It was clever, very original and definitely enjoyable.

It was really good, keeps you guessing.

The narration was good, the plot was interesting, and it cut strait to the chase.

Engaging

Engaging story, unique point of view. a great one-sitting read! Makes me want more from this author.

Hmmmm

I listened to maybe the first 15-minutes and had to turn it off. The writing seemed strutted - lacked depth - and the narrator had an unnatural gait to his speech - it didn’t sound like a regular person but more like an “OK” actor reading lines.

The book may be much better with a different narrator.

Not worth the time

Hold Your Breath was trying very hard to be a psychological thriller, with a psychiatrist as its protagonist. However, the writing is heavy-handed, spelling out the character’s thoughts as well as what is obviously researched information on specific topics in great detail and much repetition. Wish I would not have spent hours of my life with a badly written book. The narrator had little nuance/variety to his line readings; the tempo was darn consistent...do not know why I stayed with it!

Good enough

Knew the ending long before the end, but because the story is short, it works.

Not 1 twist but 2

I typically figure out the twist long before it’s exposed. One of them was not too much of a surprise, the other came out of left field. If I mentioned the name of the movie this story reminds me of, it would completely spoil the twist and ruin the story. :)

Found the stores interesting!

The book was interesting! The main character was was honest in their perception. The main character left with a continuen perception.

Good

It was a good short story, although it seemed longer. It was well-rounded and had enough details to make the story complete from start to finish which from my experience a lot of short stories lack especially thrillers and suspense. I would definitely recommend.

Another favorite writer on my list

Love the writing and the main character, Dr. Forester.
The story unfolded nicely.
Will be getting more books from this author.