• The 9th Girl

  • By: Tami Hoag
  • Narrated by: David Colacci
  • Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,186 ratings)

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The 9th Girl  By  cover art

The 9th Girl

By: Tami Hoag
Narrated by: David Colacci
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Publisher's summary

"Kovac had seen more dead bodies than he could count: men, women, children; victims of shootings, stabbings, strangulations, beatings; fresh corpses and bodies that had been left for days in the trunks of cars in the dead of summer. But he had never seen anything quite like this...."

On a frigid New Year’s Eve in Minneapolis, a young woman’s brutalized body falls from the trunk of a car into the path of oncoming traffic. Questions as to whether she was alive or dead when she hit the icy pavement result in her macabre nickname, Zombie Doe. Unidentified and unidentifiable, she is the ninth nameless female victim of the year, and homicide detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are charged with the task of not only finding out who Zombie Doe is but who in her life hated her enough to destroy her. Was it personal? Or could it just have been a crime of opportunity? Their greatest fear is that not only is she their ninth Jane Doe of the year but that she may be the ninth victim of a vicious, transient serial killer they have come to call Doc Holiday. Crisscrossing America’s heartland, Doc Holiday chooses his victims at random, snatching them in one city and leaving them in another, always on a holiday. If Zombie Doe is one of his victims, he has brought his gruesome game to a new and more terrifying level. But as Kovac and Liska begin to uncover the truth, they will find that the monsters in their ninth girl’s life may have lived closer to home. And even as another young woman disappears, they have to ask the question: Which is the greater evil - the devil you know or the devil you don’t?

©2013 Tami Hoag (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The 9th Girl

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not Fond of Narrator, Characters Sterotypical

Zombie Doe, a young girl who had been tortured and was dead or nearly dead by New Years Eve, is thrown from the trunk of a dark sedan into the path of a party limousine. If she wasn't dead before she certainly was after she fell into a snarl of holiday traffic. Thus begins another of the Nikki and Sam serial killer adventures set in midwinter Minnesota.

Pros: Hoag is a competent writer so I don't regret buying and listening to this novel.

Cons: This is a narrator that I am not familiar with and I don't particularly care for his reading style. His female voices are particularly annoying.

The characters are lacking in development. I really had no emotional attachment to the kids (and Hoag generally does kids well) or to any of the victims. Usually there is a bit of ambiguity about the adult characters in her previous books leading to suspense, but it was clear right off who the bad guys were.

I also think that Hoag made a mistake making this a "message" story. There was a theme involving bullying in high school that sometimes had me skipping pages. I would cheerfully have turned most of the kids over to the serial killer. Georges St. Pierre got mentioned a lot and I finally broke down and googled him while writing this.

I missed the Sam and Tinks' (Nikki) cohesiveness as a Homicide partnership present in most of the other books. Tinks and Sam both seemed tired. The numerous references to the daughter that Sam gave up to his ex-wife as a infant made me wonder if this was foreshadowing a future book.

I don't regret the time I spent reading this book, but I'm certainly not going to reread it like I have many of her prior suspense novels.

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Juvenile and trite

I suppose there is some demand for a book about a tough-but-gentle mom/cop who loves her children but hates people who mutilate and murder innocent-but-misunderstood teenage girls, but I didn't realize I was contributing to it when I plunked down my credit towards this supposed mystery/suspense/thriller.
I'm frankly baffled by the good reviews this book has gotten, so I assume there is an appetite for these ingredients:
1: A corpse nicknamed Zombie Doe by the Minneapolis Police Force, because she looked like a zombie bouncing out of the trunk of a speeding car.
2: A curmudgeonly cop with an estranged daughter about the same age as Zombie Doe and a penchant for introspection.
3: A conflicted female cop who frets she works too hard and long for society at the expense of her fractured family
4: A conflicted female cop's teenaged son who thinks his mother works too long and hard at his expense, but shows real grit in the face of bullying and makes his mother proud because he's actually a great kid even if he's a free thinker and not one of the popular kids.
5: A self-centered mother of a troubled teen-aged girl who cares more about herself than her daughter (Imagine how that's going to end up!).
6: A diabolical serial killer.
7: A psychologist with a weakness for troubled teenaged girls and their mothers.

The recipe this book seems to follow is to combine these ingredients (along with a pinch of schmaltz and maybe a dash of self-righteousness ) and just shake and serve.
More predictable than mysterious, and more pedantic than suspenseful, this audiobook was about as thrilling as a Public Service Announcement.

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32 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Tami Hoag wrote this...

I am a Tami Hoag fan. Read most of her novels and really looked forward to her latest. What a disappointment! can't believe she wrote this novel that seemed to me to be a poor summer read. no intrigue, character study, or personal relationships trials and tribulations. the narrator was a sleeper, who had a metronome cadence that put me to sleep. I tried but could not finish this book. Tami what happened???

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not one of T Hoag's finer efforts!

What disappointed you about The 9th Girl?

The book was incredibly boring, especially in the beginning. Long, lengthy descriptions, "pages and pages" that did not advance the plot at all. Might have worked better reading as a book so I could skip pages - hard to do with a "book on tape".

Any additional comments?

I almost bailed on this book numerous times. Ultimately the last quarter of the book was pretty good.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

3.75 stars - Mystery, Suspense and Drama

HE 9th GIRL is the fourth installment in Tami Hoag's contemporary crime series focusing on the high profile murder investigations in and around a fictional police precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although The 9th Girl is part of a series, each novel is a stand alone story of mystery and crime. The story-lines are graphically detailed and the descriptive narration leaves nothing to the imagination. The 9th Girl focuses on a string of murders all pointing to a serial killer but the latest victim's identity hits too close to home.

Tami Hoag has combined the intrigue of a murder investigation with all the hallmarks of a television episode befitting Law and Order, Dexter and CSI. Add the camaraderie and anxiety of a close knit group of investigators, detectives and police detectives and you have the formula for a story of suspense, mystery and the criminally insane.

The story-line focuses on the recent murder of a young woman and its connections to a series of murders-all with a similar MO. As the investigation moves forward, all clues begin to point to something more personal and familiar.

The story-line also pulls into play the social media and online bullying seen in many recent headline news stories around the world using teen texting, Facebook cyber stalking and the viral propaganda of the powerful and rich. Where once bullying remained in the playgrounds and schoolyards it is brought onto the world stage through social media and shown to be a breeding ground for viral innuendo, discrimination and personal attacks. Even the dead are not protected from abuse and bullies.

The 9th Girl is first and foremost a story of suspense, mystery and criminal intent. Tami Hoag weaves the intricate details of a serial killer with some of today's headline stories and heartbreaking pain. If you love a mystery with a twist, The 9th Girl delivers.

My only complaint was at times there was a lot of internal dialogue especially in the first half of the book. It drives me nuts when you have to hear 20 minutes of this dialogue from a teenage boy or the same about why a mother feels guilty for having to work. The second half of the book redeemed the story and it was a good listen.

David Colacci was good with the delivery of the story.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Extremely Enjoyable Work.

What a wide range of reviews!

Not having read this author before, I am glad I didn't just stop at the first three or four reviews for I liked this book. I am thrilled I took a chance.

It's a police story that I found somewhat believable. It's tough being a working mother, especially of teenagers. I found this to be very realistic of that without being too whinny. Very plausible. The story was engaging in a way that kept my attention to the bitter end. I am looking forward to reading more of the author's work.

The narrator did a decent job - I don't get the beef.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Don't Give Up

I would advise listeners not to give up on this story. It appears to be a little confusing in the beginning with an inference of being a story about a 'zombie.' But, it is not. It took me several chapters to really get a grasp of the storyline. But when I did, I found it to be very interesting. The people involved seemed to be very real and ones that were truly identifiable. I found myself thinking, 'I know people like this.' Unfortunately, toward the end, it became a little too graphic for my taste; but I enjoyed this book.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

It had it all!

What made the experience of listening to The 9th Girl the most enjoyable?

This is the first book I have read in the Tami Hoag series & I so enjoyed it for a number of reasons. First the story line is very good. It is filled with mystery, intrigue & not over the top with continuous gore. I just couldn't put this book down & I was glad my car was in the shop for 5 days so I could keep listening day & night. Second, the characters are so together & interesting & true to life & the twist & turns in the story only add to the unexpected suspense. Three, I especially appreciate a book where I can honestly learn something from the text & this book filled that void very well. It reminded me of the old 'Cat Who Murder Mysteries', by Lillian Braun. Four, the narration itself by David Collacci was worth the listen & was excellent. He made me want to become a narrator - go figure. But there was more than just reading the book, I felt like I was watching a live play on stage with so much talented verbal input. Five, but what was so neat was the wonderful humor cast throughout the book itself. I was glad there was no one around to hear me laughing out loud. When I find a book that can do that without destroying the main jest of the book I am in seventh heaven. I give this book a big Kudo & will be looking for more from this author. To me it had it all.
P. S. And even though I have a recent Masters degree in Psychology there was l lot to chew on regarding how teenages think, act & feel today. Make that a number six reason i enjoyed this book..

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Great Murder Mystery!

Haven't read anything by Tami Hoag in quite awhile and I remember now why I enjoy her books so much. This one starts out so gruesome I almost put it down, glad I didn't. Great plot along with terrific characters makes for one superb read. You won't be disappointed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Teenage Behavior 101

If you could sum up The 9th Girl in three words, what would they be?

Great character study

What was one of the most memorable moments of The 9th Girl?

One of the poems the deceased wrote was heartbreaking

Which scene was your favorite?

At the auditorium

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Bullying at its Best (Or Worse)!

Any additional comments?

I am a middle and high school teacher and would love for all parents and teens to read this book. I've never seen such accurate, spot on descriptions of teen behaviors WITH reasons why, as I've read in this book. Ms Hoag gets right inside their heads and hearts of kids today. Although this was a good mystery with twists and turns that kept it interesting, I really was impressed with her teen characters and their behaviors and reasons for them. Bullying, secrets, being different, trying to fit in-all struggles for kids today. I liked it because it was a good mystery but I think mothers and fathers of teens would learn something from it too-namely what is going on in their child's world today which is far different than theirs! (By the way, schools would never use this book because of "gasp" some sexual content inferred, but never described)

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5 people found this helpful