Not a Sound

By: Heather Gudenkauf

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

A shocking discovery and chilling secrets converge in this latest novel from New York Times best-selling author Heather Gudenkauf.

When a tragic accident leaves nurse Amelia Winn deaf, she spirals into a depression that ultimately causes her to lose everything that matters - her job; her husband, David; and her stepdaughter, Nora. Now, two years later, and with the help of her hearing dog, Stitch, she is finally getting back on her feet. But when she discovers the body of a fellow nurse in the dense bush by the river, deep in the woods near her cabin, she is plunged into a disturbing mystery that could shatter the carefully reconstructed pieces of her life all over again.

As clues begin to surface, Amelia finds herself swept into an investigation that hits all too close to home. But how much is she willing to risk in order to uncover the truth and bring a killer to justice?

New York Times best-selling author Heather Gudenkauf has been described as "masterful" and "intelligent" and compared to Lisa Scottoline and Jodi Picoult. Introducing her most compelling heroine yet, she delivers a taut and emotional thriller that proves she's at the top of her class.

©2017 Heather Gudenkauf (P)2017 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! Great Book

I am very picky about all my audible purchases and I can say without a doubt I finished this one in a day and a half, Just could not put it down I could not fall asleep without knowing how it ended and it kept me at the edge of my seat! Also 95% of my purchases are based on who is reading them and Julia Whelan is by far the BEST narrator I've ever listened too, She really knows how to bring the story to life! I would absolutely recommend this to anyone I know! Thank you for a great story!

Decent mystery with some execution problems.

This book has an excellent performance and an interesting character in its deaf protagonist, which is a great fit for a mystery/thriller. That said, I wouldn't really recommend this book for avid readers of the genre. The central mystery/killer is telegraphed early in the book and you're left waiting through many chapters for everything else to catch up. The book's progress relies almost entirely on the protagonist making stupid decisions over and over. Multiple times Amelia: debates between two courses, identifies the stupid choice, makes the stupid choice anyway, then says "oh why did I make this stupid choice?" It's a clunky device in addition to her falling hard for every red herring. While the climax is tense and exciting and scary, I'd skip this one if you'd be easily frustrated by the path it takes to get there.

Excellent Suspense Thriller

I have read all of Heather Gudenkaufs novels and have loved them all, with my favorite being The Weight of Silence. This book, Not A Sound, was really, really good! This is now my second favorite by this author and I will continue to buy/listen/read to her novels as long as she continues to bless us with her master storytelling skills. There was a lot of character depth, so much so that the characters seemed like old friends that you haven't seen for awhile! (I miss Amelia and Stich already!!) There was also alot of scenic detail which made the novel have that atmospheric feel that I love without going overboard with every minor detail. The narration by Julia Whelan was absolutely perfect as this narrator is always perfect in my opinion! Overall an excellent book that kept me turning the pages at 1am with the same old, "One more Chapter!" mantra.
I read ALOT of books, at least 10 per month in and around the mystery/suspense genre without the crime fiction portion and this book is definitely the best book I have read in awhile
Definitely Recommend!!

I do NOT like any book where an animal gets hurt

The biggest NO for me was the antagonist hurting an animal. I hate any book that involves an animal getting hurt. Not to mention I didn’t think this book was nearly as good as her others. If you are interested in her books, I’d recommend her others (except I haven’t read/listened to missing pieces yet). The story line of this one was too simple and unrealistic, and I figured out who the killer was very early on in the book.

Good thriller

Another great thriller from Gudenkauf. Amelia is deaf due to an accident a few years before the events in the book and when she stumbles across the dead body of a colleague, she can’t seem to let it go and does some investigating on her own but is the killer now after her? If he is she won’t hear him coming. I thought I had this one figured out a couple times but the reveal totally surprised me. This one kept me guessing and I didn’t want to stop listening but I will admit to driving down the road yelling at Amelia to just tell Jake

I don’t want to give anything away but thriller fans will enjoy this story!

Julia Whelan’s narration was as always fabulous and one thing I noticed was she sounded older, not a teenager so I really enjoyed that.

4 Stars

Spellbinding!

I LOVED this book! As a nurse myself, I was so fascinated and yet horrified at the thought of having an accident that would take away my hearing, but the author did such a great job to let us into the world of the hearing impaired. The book kept you guessing as to the identity of the killer ,although I guessed it about halfway through. It did not take away any enjoyment of the book because I was not sure and the whole story itself is just fascinating! This was my first book by this author but definitely will not be my last! Highly recommend

Disappointing

This is another one of those books like Before The Fall that got a good review by the NYT but turned out to be kind of lame. The writer is no John Grisham by any stretch of the imagination. The story is pedestrian and the protagonist being deaf really didn't have much to do with the overall story. There are so many big and little holes in the story. Here are just a few.

1. If Huntley was prescribing unnecessary treatments how would he come to be renowned? Wouldn't all the unnecessary treatments make patients sicker instead of better? Who would love a doctor that just made them sicker?

2. Why would a dog trained for the hearing impaired be taught the command to kill?

3. It's hard to believe David's password to his appointment calendar and medical records system would be Amelia's name and birth date. It might have been that at one time but most systems require passwords to be changed periodically and they had been apart at that point for at least two years. It's hard to believe David would still be using Amelia's name and birth date as his password.

4. It's hard to believe Gwen caught wind of the scheme just by interacting with one of Huntley's patients. She might suspect that one particular patient was getting unnecessary treatments but how could she possibly know it's happening with all of Huntley's patients? And why would she directly confront Huntley about it? Seems like she would just alert the proper authorities like most people would. It also seems implausible that she would confront him when he was alone. Presumably she would walk into his office during business hours in which case there would be others present. If she did confront him alone, that suggests she wanted to discretely let him know she knew about the scheme and to knock it off! Really, that's as far as she was going to go with what she knew?

5. Not sure how anyone could possibly know for sure, but apparently Huntley tortured Gwen to get her to tell him if she had talked to anyone else about what she knows. Well, wouldn't Gwen falsely cough up some names to give Huntley a reason not to kill her? You would get creative real quick if someone is choking the life out of you. Besides it's unbelievable that Gwen would keep what she had uncovered to herself.

6. It's not believable that David would keep silent about what he knew about Huntley. Why would he be afraid of Huntley? Huntley would be behind bars if David turned him in.

7. Are we supposed to believe that in two years Ameila was able to learn sign language, read lips and modulate her voice all the while being a reclusive and depressed alcoholic? That's pretty impressive!

Those are just some of the things that make the story fall apart in my book. If you're looking for a really smart thriller, look elsewhere.

Good book, but....

The lead character of this book was so bull-headed and headstrong, it became stupid after a while. She's deaf but bumbles right into situations a hearing person would have problems with. She nosed into situations nobody but the police belonged in. It became annoying. Kind of like a horror movie where you tell the silly heroine, noooooo, don't go into that dark cellar! Amelia would head right in. Liked the narrator. And I like the author. But get your heroines under control! At some point, the brave heroine became the silly goof.

Kind of a mixed bag

I haven't read anything else by this author. I think she did a good job of pacing the novel and keeping the story interesting. I liked her writing style. The narrator did a very good job. The main character is a nurse who became deaf after a car accident. In the story she jumps to conclusions that three different people committed a murder. And after jumping to these conclusions, she steals files, breaks into a home, accuses people, and when she thinks she knows who the killer is, she decides she needs to collect more information herself instead of calling the police. She acts kind of brainless but then is set up to be a licensed nurse who is really good at her job. It is hard to believe that anyone with an average IQ would act in this manner. So I was shaking my head a bit in trying to ignore the flaws in the concepts here to stay with the story. I did appreciate that she brought out difficulties that deaf people face in their lives and how they cope and flourish in spite of being deaf.

excellent

This is my favorite Heather Gudenfauf book............so far.

Throw in a deaf female as the lead character, this book was a taut, fast paced thriller. It starts out fast paced and never lets up. The author does a good job of throwing suspicion different directions to keep you guess as to who did it. The lead character was also interesting, nosy to say the least but also resilient.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.