I KILLED YOU ONCE

A heart-pounding and heart-tugging thriller

By: Dawn Merriman

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Can a dead serial killer still haunt her?
Maribeth has created a safe little world for herself. A cabin in the middle of the woods is perfect for her, her dog, chickens and pigs. Throw in some back-breaking chores and bow-hunting and she has enough to fill her days. She doesn't have to fill her nights. That's when the ghosts of her family visit.
Two years before, the case she'd worked as a homicide detective, didn't stay neatly within her business hours. It ended up following her home, destroying her and her family in the process.
But now, something has invaded her safe space. Or has her mind finally snapped after two years of near solitude?
A haunting mix of adventure and psychological thrills. Explore the limits of what one woman can endure and still triumph. A reading experience you won't forget.
Thriller readers, like you, are saying, “Takes you by the throat on the first page and grips you until the wow of an ending.”
Clear your schedule and delve into a world of secrets and bravery in this addictive suspense thriller.
------
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS "MARKED BY DARKNESS"
------

The masterful first book in the Maddison, Indiana Thrillers series.

Book 1 – I Killed You Once
Book 2 – Inheriting Elyse
Book 3 – Cage of Invisible Bars
Book 4 – 13 Doors
Book 5 - Jars of Things

-------

Enjoy this short excerpt:

My dog, Indy, turns on the wooded path, unsettled and blocking my way like he is spooked by a dead animal.
I push past Indy and jog over the small hill and around the turn in the trees.
I should have trusted the dog. The body propped against a tree is most certainly dead, but she’s not an animal.
Skittering to a stop, I slide down the snowy path and land on my rear.
The young woman sits against the tree, her dark hair, so much like Lilly’s hanging over both shoulders. The hair frames the mark carved on her chest.
The Roman numeral two.
For a moment, I think I'm seeing Lilly. Maybe she’s just playing a cruel trick on me.
But this young woman is really here, and Lilly never is.
My chest hurts, and I gasp for air. Indy paces next to me, whining, urging me to leave.
I crawl to the young woman instead, taking in details with my long-unused detective's eye.
The bloody mark on her chest has already frozen into tiny clinging crystals.
The mark of Jesse Franklin, but Jesse Franklin has been dead for two years.
She wears no shoes, but her socks are soaked and dirty. She'd been forced to walk here through the snow, terrified and freezing. My heart aches for the woman in a rush of emotion that nearly breaks me.
I don’t touch her or get too close, preserve the snowy crime scene. Two sets of footprints lead to the tree from the direction of the access road nearby. Only one set of prints lead out. It was too easy for someone to leave the girl on my path.
My path.
The realization sinks like a stone.
Whoever did this knew where he left her. He brought her here for me to find. A killer has been in my woods. A killer who knows just how to torture me.
I'm on my feet and sprinting back towards the cabin before Indy realizes I'd intended to move.
I run like the devil is on my heels.
Because he is.

--------

Find out what happens next, enjoy I Killed You Once today.

Robot reading

I dislike automatic voice. Needs editing for pronouns. Plot is good. He/She pronouns make it confusing. Marybeth is a star

Great storyline

If you can get past the virtual narration the story is an enjoyable listen! I found the characters interesting and would continue to listen to a series including them.

weird narrator robot

don’t really care for the weird robot. Like narrator voice. Definitely sounds like an AI. A Some gratuitous words were used that I believe were extremely unnecessary. A few uses of the F word for no reason really. There wasn’t any language like this until almost all the way through the book.
Several times the Lord’s name was used in vain, which I’m not crazy about either.
if those were taken out of the story, it wouldn’t be a bad book and probably would have received a higher star rating from me

Great Story

I love the story line but the electronic voice puts me of or I would have given it 5 Stars.

Good Story Line

Good story line, but virtual voice was awful. It took away from the story. I almost stopped listening.

Killed you once

The unemotional read, turned me off, I didn’t finish, I really think the IA reading took the joy our of it

Great book

I loved the story and how she survived the trauma. Would like a second book with her going back to work as a detective.

I just could not get past the AI narrator

The flat, never-changing computer voice was horrible. How can an author who talks about how emotionally connected she is to her characters have a emotionless AI generated voice narrate her book?

Narrator

I do NOT like the virtual voice. For any book. There is a depressing lack of expression and lacks the responsive energy of a real person

terrible narration!

couldn't even appreciate or get past chap 5 due to AI narration. No inflection just dry emotionless reading. sorry for the author with what was done to the story.