The Earth Bleeds Red

By: Jackson Baer

Narrated by: Dan Carroll

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Scott Miller has everything he's ever hoped for. He has a successful marriage to Jessie, a stunningly beautiful, creative woman. His 17-year-old daughter, Ashley, is both gorgeous and intelligent, and has just been accepted to the University of Notre Dame, where Scott received his PhD. He has a comforting home in the woods, and a fulfilling career as a college professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis. He's blissful, and at peace, until it all comes shattering down.

Ashley is kidnapped. The scene of the abduction is horrific and bloody, and the police are convinced she couldn't have survived. They accuse her boyfriend, Brandon, of Ashley's murder. He declares his innocence, and claims that a masked man who entered his house and overwhelmed them both took Ashley. No one believes Brandon.

Then the bodies of three other missing girls are discovered, all bearing the mark of a known serial killer the FBI has been hunting for years. Evidence mounts. As Special Agent James Duncan tracks the Hail Mary Killer, Scott and Jessie try to move on with their lives. But they can't shake the feeling that Ashley may still be alive, and that the time for saving their only daughter is quickly running out.

In the best tradition of literature and suspense, Jackson Baer has weaved a heartfelt tale of one family's struggle to survive after a despicable evil wrenches them apart.

©2013 Jackson Baer (P)2018 Jackson Baer

Not my cup of tea

The synopsis is intriguing and the genre isn't my usual read, so of course I was excited to try something new and out of my norm. This isn't an easy review for me to write if I'm being completely honest. There were aspects of this story that I loved and then there were some that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Let me start off with what I loved about this story. I loved that Scott, the father, talked a lot about his faith in God and why God allows horrible things to happen to good people. I believe many people, including myself, have asked this many times throughout our lives. Without getting into any spoilers, the events that happen in the story, make it easy to empathize with the characters and they are very easy to relate to. You are left thinking, what would I do if this happened to me and my loved ones?Would I question God the same? Why does horrible and unimaginable things happen to good people and those who are guilty seem to get away with so much. The Premise of this story is amazing, yet fairly predictable.

Now on to the things I didn't like. TOO MUCH DETAIL!! The beginning seemed to drag on and on with unnecessary details about the family. I understand it was giving us a backstory and look into how happy and close they are as well as the other characters that the background was provided for. Transitioning from scene to scene, character to character was choppy. It would jump from one thing to another and there would be no transition whatsoever. There was so much going on throughout the last half of the book, it was hard to keep up with at times.

Last, but not least, I hated the ending. With so much talk about faith throughout the story, the ending was heartbreaking.

As I said in the beginning, this wasn't an easy review to write. Not knowing what is too much and what is not enough. I can't say I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't read the genre. If you are into mystery and phycological thrillers, this may be your cup of tea. With this being the authors first book, I won't rule out this author until I've read more of his work.

this was interesting

ive never read this story so it was new for me.. it was really interesting story.. the writing is amazing.. and the narrator i think did a good job with it.. not the most energetic one i've heard but he did really good with this story so it worked. i enjoyed it a lot

Jackson Baer knows how to suck you into his story,

You will feel remorse, pain, sadness, and happiness.
I enjoyed the audio-book of The Earth Bleeds Red. It was full of suspense and mystery, Dan Carroll did a superb job with expressing all the different emotions, it really sounded like he was in the story and truly going through what the characters were going through... I am a sucker for suspense and this story was right up my alley.

Blown Away

OMG!! The story is one that as a parent you will never want to face. The plot is well-written and the characters are beautiful. I could not believe the outcome of this story and the narrator was perfect. This is definitely one you should listen to!!

Good Thriller; Flat Narration.

This is a good thriller with family emotions and light faith elements.

Scott Miller loves his wife and his 17-year-old daughter, Ashley. They live in a nice home in the woods of Oregon and Scott has a good job as a college professor. Ashley has been accepted into the University of Notre Dame. She is a lovely young woman who attends church and lives a good live. Live is good for the family until one night when Ashley doesn’t come home.

Ashley disappears from her boyfriend Brandon’s house, leaving a pool of blood behind. Scott and the police don’t buy Brandon’s story of a masked attacker who knew Ashley by name and knocked him out. They are convinced that Brandon is guilty.

No ransom call comes and time goes by with no trace of where Ashley has disappeared. Scott and his wife have tried to accept that she won’t be returning but they don’t want to give up hope.

Months later bodies of young women have surfaced and the FBI is intently investigating a serial killer. They find clues that make them tie Ashley’s disappearance to the Hail Mary Killer. Tension mounts along with personal conflict for Scott and his wife.

This story had an interesting mix of styles. It starts with a cozy family picture that shifts into the suspense of mystery and trauma of the missing daughter. The strong, emotional family elements continue to weave in and out during the tension of the mystery. I liked the light faith comments that were lightly shared. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy a thriller with twists and emotional drama.

Audio Notes: This is one time that I don’t think the story was helped by the narration. I found Dan Carroll’s narration to be flat. The only effort to provide voice characterization consisted of awkward accents. There was little emotion or suspense shared which would have been appropriate. This was little more than a flat reading. Sadly I found this distracting and almost abandoned the audio to pick up the Kindle version. I only continued with the audio for the convenience of listening with my MP3. I suggest listening carefully to the sample before deciding to pick up the audio version.

I received this audio title from the author for an honest review.

Just when you think there's a happy ending.....

Where does The Earth Bleeds Red rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very high up. I loved the story very much, the characters were easy to like and the love between the parents in this story reminds me of my parents

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

He had a way of not mentioning what you wanted to hear and weaving it into the storyline drawing it out as long as possible until you were yelling at the radio.

Which character – as performed by Dan Carroll – was your favorite?

The father

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

A family's strength is tested to its limits.

Any additional comments?

Baer really has a way with words that makes you want to listen to the story in one sitting. From my daughter hearing chapter one of this book she made me swear not to listen to it without her so that says a lot right there for the storytelling. We are both avid readers and enjoyed this story very much. Baer is a new to me author but his work is out of this world. Just when you think they're going to find a happy ending he throws another twist in to send you reeling till the next one. This book had us on the edges of our seat from chapter one and the banter between the family sounds real and just like my family at times. The killer in the story is a really well written sicko that Baer must have really done some great research to make this character so multi faceted and conniving. This is probably one of the best written evil characters since Cassandra Clare's Sebastian Verlac. All in all I would totally re read the book over and over the story is that good. I could easily see this being made into a movie one day.

Good book, flat narration.

I read the blurb and it sounded like and interesting plot: a daughter that goes missing and a father that won’t stop searching for her. I needed to know more.

The descriptions in this book are incredible. They so detailed that you can’t help but feel as if you’re transported into this world or feel what the characters are feeling. This felt like a true thriller with all the twist and turns the story took with bits of family drama intertwined, which I enjoyed. The story does seems to have a slow start and kind of lulled for me for about the first third of the book after which the plot picks up and the story takes off running. Overall it was a good audio and I enjoyed a change from my usual dose of romance.

Narration for this book was low going. Dan Carroll’s narration of this book fell flat for me. He seems to narrated a bit to slow for my taste and it made the story seem to drag on. I fixed that by setting the narration speed at 1.25x. Still, there was really no depth to the narration. It seemed flat throughout even when there should have been plenty of emotions especially during suspenseful scenes. Overall I think this is a story that should be read and experienced that way.

The Earth Bleeds Red

The Earth Bleeds Red is a story that will certainly stay with you for a long time. I definitely recommend it for mystery lovers who are looking for something character driven,

A gripping, suspense filled novel

What made the experience of listening to The Earth Bleeds Red the most enjoyable?

The flow and the reader's voice

What did you like best about this story?

The suspense along with the surprises

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes...but just couldn't because of time issues. But picking back up with the audible, was easy and convenient.

Any additional comments?

Good book with characters you can identify with, and enough suspense to make you have to hear it all to the end. Kudos to the Author.

Slow start but very suspensful

Slow to start, but once it picked up it sucked you in. The suspense with all of the twists and turns thrown in kept you on the edge of your seat.

Dan Carroll did an excellent job on the narration.