The Body Reader

Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries, Book 1

By: Anne Frasier

Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A Thriller Award winner, Best Paperback Original Novel.

For three years, Detective Jude Fontaine was kept from the outside world. Held in an underground cell, her only contact was with her sadistic captor, and reading his face was her entire existence. Learning his every line, every movement, and every flicker of thought is what kept her alive.

After her experience with isolation and torture, she is left with a fierce desire for justice—and a heightened ability to interpret the body language of both the living and the dead. Despite colleagues’ doubts about her mental state, she resumes her role at Homicide. Her new partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, doesn’t trust her sanity, and he has a story of his own he’d rather keep hidden. But a killer is on the loose, murdering young women, so the detectives have no choice: they must work together to catch the madman before he strikes again. And no one knows madmen like Jude Fontaine.

©2016 Theresa Weir (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

A Psychological Thriller

This is a good suspense/ psychological thriller of women being abducted from all over the region. I was on the edge of my seat waiting, wanting to hear more of the protagonist police woman's "body reading" abilities. ... her ability to read and put into words what other characters are thinking and feeling....

This story's focus is about the escape of a police woman from an abduction and her work on other abduction cases. How she was abducted was not delved into very deeply because, I assume, there would be too much to explain such as where was she and where was her gun when the abduction happen and where were her police skills during the abduction... an explanation was briefly given near the end by a statement that another police officer "arranged" the abduction. The love-hate relationship with her family members is also a central part of the story.

I read/listen to lots of novels and across a few genres. I like this type of "light" read to take a break from my usual. It's easy to follow and understand, but there are a few (2 or 3) places in the story that had my eyes rolling or me asking what?, huh?

Superb narration by Emily Sutton-Smith which made listening easy-peasy.....

excellent!

Fantastic audio. The narrator did an excellent job and the story line was one of the best I've listened to. It was creepy and the mystery was surprising. I loved Jude and uriah! I'm not into "series" books, but I must say I hope there is more to come from this duo!!

A so-so read..

I’m not even sure how to rate this book. I guess a 3 since I didn’t hate it but I wasn’t crazy about it either. I mean, really, Jude is held prisoner, and tortured, for 3 years then goes back to being a homicide detective in 4 months’ time? I find that impossible to believe.

This was a very good mystery but some things just didn’t make sense. Jude thought she was crazy, and she was a little, but that did not negate her skills as a cop. She and Uriah made a good team until what happened at the governor’s mansion happened. That was about 75% and then I hated the road she traveled until 80%. If that crap had continued much longer I would not have finished reading this book. But, she pulled her head out of her butt and I totally enjoyed the rest of the story.

Even at the end I wasn’t even sure she was really better and she was going back to work.

One other thing that was disappointing to me was there wasn’t an ounce of romance, zip, zilch, nada, nil, in this book. Not a thought, a feeling, nothing. It talked about how pretty Jude was and how handsome Uriah was but that’s as far as it went. It would have been nice to have some kind of thoughts that Jude might be tired of her “I don’t like to be touched” attitude. That would have showed some kind of evidence that Jude was getting better. She was just left a little screwed up.

There was a little swearing and the F-bomb was used 6 times. Sex...NONE..

As to the narration: It was barely OK for me. The men and the women sounded pretty much the same to me. The only man who had the only deep voice was Will, the perverted building manager. I could not recommend this narrator, I don’t care what the 4 and 5 star reviews say.

Great book.

I hope author will consider turning this into a series. Have read the "Play Dead" books and I think that has run its course. Seems to be lots of opportunity with this storyline/Jude's abilities to make for a long run as a series.

great book

this is a very good story and very engaging. I like the main character alot.

Not what I thought, plus a great ending.

I really enjoyed this story. I was hooked from the beginning and flew to the end.

Very Cliche

Has the main tropes you find in police procedurals- not very creative in that aspect e.g. so-called loner cop begrudgingly partners up with someone to solve a crime, attraction ensues, they screw up and get thrown off the case by their boss, but continue on their own eventually solving the crime in a fight to the death end. This format is so common in this genre and I am so over it, if you don't mind these tropes then I would say you would enjoy it as it was entertaining.

Good Read!

Loved this audible. Suspenseful and kept me interested. This book was also free to listen to.

חח חח יי חגחחןמ עכם. יימיע מציכ יםט.

יןעצ לעת. עעןע טם ילחיע יוגקקמ חללנ ימ מחחמ ץצצל יע הכטוי דררעי ח י

Well written - I hope there is more in the series

The author took what could have been a grizzly experience and turned it into a well written story. I cared about the history of the main character and how she turned a horrific ordeal into motivation to help solve crime and those affected by it.