Wings of Mayhem

The Mayhem Series, Book 1

By: Sue Coletta

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A serial killer stalks the streets....

Shawnee Daniels - computer forensics specialist/hacker for RPD by day, cat burglar by night - always believed her "fearlessness rules" mantra would keep her on top and out of jail. When she hacks a confiscated hard drive at the Revere P.D., she focuses on a white-collar criminal accused of embezzlement. To teach him a lesson and recoup the funds she breaks into his massive contemporary in Bear Clave Estates. Jack has even more secrets, deadly secrets, secrets worth killing over.

A cat burglar picks the wrong house to rob....

Shawnee thinks she made it out clean until a deadly package arrives at her door soon after. He's found her. As a glowing eagle taunts her Skype screen, Jack tells her she stole his precious trophy box - and he wants it back!

Their lives collide....

When her "helpful" best friend convinces her to date charismatic Detective Levaughn Samuels, her two worlds threaten to implode. Ordinarily Shawnee keeps a firm line between her professions, but dating Levaughn might help her get this psycho off her tail.

And now, no one is safe....

In this lightning-fast-paced psychological thriller of secrets and lies, Shawnee juggles being stalked by a serial killer, dating the lead detective on the case, and tap dancing around her librarian best friend.

©2016 Sue Coletta (P)2017 Tirgearr Publishing

Lost In Execution

I've been loving a lot of the fiction that Crossroads Press has been releasing to audio lately and this one was a little different from my normal reviews -- but it caught my eye. Sadly, it wasn't as good as I was hoping.

The story revolves Shawnee - who is a forensic specialist and "hacker" (I hate that term) during the day and an accomplished cat burglar at night. The irony is that I know someone who has her day job and some of what she did was correct but most of it was incredibly foolish or just... childish.

This was one of those stories that got lost in a good synopsis. The synopsis really draws you in but the execution isn't there. There were a lot of things that just bugged me and I won't go into all of them but just know that this is one of those stories like a horror story where you find yourself yelling at the screen things like "Why are you doing that?" and "wait, did they really just totally miss that?" It was frustrating to say the least.

Thankfully the narrator really kept me interesting in the story. This isn't the first story I've listened to by Emmes and it won't be the last. She really helped keep me interested and listening.

I was voluntarily provided with a free copy of this book. It has not affected my review in any way. If you enjoyed this review, please vote for it! Every vote helps.

What a ride, they had me from the first page

From the first page to the last you are captivated from one page to the next as the story unfolds with a cat burglar on the prowl breaking into a home of a man that steals money. She plans on steal from him selling what she takes and giving it back to those innocent people. What takes place next will leave you spellbound, shock, horrified, screaming for her to put it all back and run, run as fast as you can. She thinks she is safe, making it out alive with no one the wiser but she is very wrong. He knows who she is and he is on the hunt to get back what she took playing a game of cat and mouse this is one cat burglar who is scared out of her wits. Those she loves and hold dear are now in the sights of a very evil man. It is anyone’s guesses who will be left standing when he gets done what he is doing.

Ms. Coletta narration was great, I loved her northern accent it really fit Shawnee. I have listened to other audios of hers but I think this one is the best so far. She really knows how to pull you in making you buy into the story, leaving you hanging on the edge, making you feel the danger, leaving you with her heart in your throat, yelling at the characters demanding they get their act together. I love her character voice, you always know who is talking and what they are feeling. I love the emotion you can hear in her voice as she pulls you in holding you spellbound waiting for the next shoe to drop. The volume never changes, if any breaks were taken I could not tell. There were no repeating of words, no background noises just a very clean and clear audio that I got lost in. I do not think I would have felt the same way had I read it because the narrator really pulls out all the stops given you an emotional listen, making you feel the excitement, pain, sorrow, scared that each character is going through.

The author really gives a wonderful read with a very well thought out story covering everything. When that camera flashed I could picture each thing she saw in my mind. I set there with my mouth wide open asking myself what in the heck she had gotten herself into now. There was no way for her to come clean and lord my heart went out to his victims. There is one that I wanted to grab and pull right out of the book. I kept saying no no no you can’t do that no no no go back oh lord that poor women. The suspense, danger, and excitement just about killed me. I couldn’t put this book down I had to know what was happening. Oh those poor bodies oh the things he did what a mess. I really liked the ending how it all played out. I loved the mystery and thought when it was over why didn’t I think of that. I felt the killer deserved it and so much more. This is one story that will keep you spellbound until the end. I know I will not forget it for some time to come. It is also one I most likely will listen to again.

Meh!

I was excited to read this because of the many glowing reviews, but I think I read a different book than everyone else because this was.... meh!

Shawnee is a police hacker by day, cat burglar by night. One night she tries to rob the wrong house! What she finds will turn her life upside down! Now the premise sounds awesome, right!! But it wasn't, there was so many things that niggled me about this, it made it very hard to enjoy.

My main problem was Shawnee herself. She does an awful lot of extremely foolish things. There was a lot of eye rolling on my part. A big problem for me was the fact that she found out the identity of the killer early on in the book, but SAID NOTHING!! Even when he continued to kill, she SAID NOTHING! She was more worried about the potential for herself to go to jail, than the lives of others. I just couldn't wrap my head around this fact. Also, she is supposed to be this amazing hacker, yet she couldn't do something to finger the killer? Why couldn't she have done something to point the police to search his house? It frustrated me no end!!!

There is also a part where Shawnee breaks into the police station to acquire something, but she lets someone come along with her. Why would she??? This person had absolutely no need or reason to go with her. Then this person seemed to make an awful lot of noise, but nobody heard?? THEN, a detective sees something in the grate, and doesn't investigate!!! In a police station!! It was actually really silly.

There is quite a few more things that I found irritating, but I'm not going to list them here. It's not all bad though, the plot is fairly fast paced and kept me reading. I did finish the story, which was also a plus!! Other than that, I just found it a slog to go through. The many eye rolling and silly moments made it extremely hard to thoroughly enjoy.

Now onto the only thing that really kept me listening, and that was the narrator. I have listened to a few by this narrator, but I have to say, she blew me away on this one!! The emotion she put into this was phenomenal!! She performed this flawlessly and really put her all into it. Highly recommend her narration!!

I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.