Orient

A Novel

By: Christopher Bollen

Narrated by: Michael Rahhal

Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A gripping novel of culture clash and murder: As summer draws to a close, a small Long Island town is gripped by a series of mysterious deaths - and one young man, a loner taken in by a local, tries to piece together the crimes before his own time runs out.

Orient is an isolated town on the north fork of Long Island, its future as a historic village newly threatened by the arrival of wealthy transplants from Manhattan - many of them artists. One late summer morning, the body of a local caretaker is found in the open water; the same day a monstrous animal corpse is found on the beach, presumed a casualty from a nearby research lab. With rumors flying, eyes turn to Mills Chevern - a tumbleweed orphan newly arrived in town from the West with no ties and a hazy history. As the deaths continue and fear in town escalates, Mills is enlisted by Beth, an Orient native in retreat from Manhattan, to help her uncover the truth. With the clock ticking, Mills and Beth struggle to find answers, faced with a killer they may not be able to outsmart.

Rich with character and incident yet deeply suspenseful, Orient marks the emergence of a novelist of enormous talent.

©2015 Christopher Bollen (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

Slow going

Well written but overly long, especially for a story that is trying to build and maintain suspense. If you have time to invest, enjoy literary writing, and are a patient listener, this is a good book. If you are looking for a page turner, this is NOT for you. Good narrator, but somehow lacking in emotion, although he does a multitude voices quite well.

Great read and rear

Although this book stated off very slow once I got into it I tried to listen to it every chance I got. It is well written with a very engaging story line that will keep you guessing until the very last chapter. The characters are well developed and the main male (Mills) character pulls at your heart strings more and more as the story progresses. I highly recommend this book. The reader is fantastic. I would definitely listen to books where he is the narrator.

Good story plot

Struggled to get through it. Good story plot but to much description.
Unfinished plot ending.

The Bore-ient

I had high hopes for this book in the beginning. it started out interesting and suspenseful but then became so drawn out and boring. once they killed off one of the only two characters I cared about in this book I really struggled to listen to the end of it, which turned out to be pretty disappointing what could have been suspenseful was just so farfetched. It left too many unanswered questions . II would not recommend this book at all

Masterfully written

Masterfully written with suspense until the very end. There are sentences that brought me inside the characters with a insightful, metaphorical ease. Must read for lovers of literature and mystery alike.

Not what I expected

The book was too long. The ending was vague and very disappointing. Glad it was over

Surprised this was reviewed so highly

I was surprised that this book was rated so highly. The writing was beautifully crafted but many details in the plot were not believable. I put it down several times out of frustration but did manage to finish it. It was almost as if the author wrote a series of painterly scenes and then pasted them together, hoping they would hang together as a cohesive believable unit. This book had the potential to be excellent if it had been run by a judicious editor with an eye for continuity.

The author nailed the intellectual art scene. Cudos. The reader was excellent.

A talented writer

Mr Bollen writes beautifully and knows his way around a metaphor. I think this could have been more tightly edited— there is a lot of excess that doesn’t move the story forward. As others have noted, the ending was far-fetched and borderline sloppy, certainly not satisfying.
I read this on the tail of A Beautiful Crime which I found considerably better.

It had potential

This novel has potential but never lived up to it. The narrator was great but the story was just dull.

Only in Chap 2, but will return

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I can tell already that I won't make it through this book, especially considering it's so long. Bigoted neighbor, long descriptions, nothing happening - no action to make me want to keep listening. At this point I don't care about these people and in fact dislike them. Not a good sign.

Has Orient turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not necessarily the genre but definitely the author.