Phantom Prey

By: John Sandford

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lucas Davenport has had disturbing cases before - but never one quite like this, in the shocking new Prey work from the #1 New York Times best-selling author.

©2008 John Sandford (P)2008 Penguin Audiobooks

Another great "Prey"

I'm a big fan of the this series. I find time just flies when I"m listening to a good detective novel. I like Sandford's characters and Lucas seems like an old pal by now.
I don't really get the negative comments about Ferrone's reading. I like his voice and his characterizations. Those saying that he can't do women's voices....seriously? The guy has a deep baritone so I don't know what you expect. His interpretation of the women in this book are spot on if you ask me, so I guess it's all a matter of opinion. If you like Sandford and the Prey serious, don't let negatives about Ferrone put you off. I think he is the perfect voice for the character.

29 of 29 people found this review helpful

Get off Richard Ferrone's back!

I thought that the spacy voice of the Fairy character was right on. I have heard women speak like that. Really. Whiny, self-indulgent types. Ones who would have to retreat somewhere "to heal," after stress. And I could easily tell which was Fairy and which were the other females. Also, I got a kick out of Weather bossing Lucas around, and him feeling like it was his duty to indulge her.

25 of 25 people found this review helpful

FERRONE DOES IT ALL

I wish the mewling about Richard Ferrone's so-called "inability" to do female voices would cease. He can do women, children singing, and multiple male character voices. Get a life!
You already have one of the top tier mystery/thriller writers working today.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Story was good and so was Ferrone

I'm amazed at the reviewers who had a problem with Ferrone's rendition of Fairy and other female characters. Fairy's voice was "over the top" because Fairy was "over the top." Her character was crystal clear because of the voice Ferrone used. The voices he used for other female characters were as good as they get for a gravelly voiced man doing female voices. You always new who was talking without attribution. That's the mark of a good narrator. This story was interesting, if not a little unbelievable. It had Hitchcockian elements that were revealed a little earlier than may have been the case with the director of Psycho fame. Bottom line: Fans of Sandford and Ferrone will like this listen. Keep the Prey series coming.

28 of 30 people found this review helpful

THE MASTER

The Prey Series is what got me reading books to begin with. I am married to a police sergeant/internal affairs investigator. John Sandford is the only author that truly gets the dialogue accurate. It's amazing. I get so upset when I finish one of his books. I can't wait for the next one to begin. The entire prey series is amazing. Lucas Davenport is delicious. Keep them coming!

17 of 18 people found this review helpful

Halloween read

I always try to find a holiday-appropriate read, just for the heck of it, but have trouble with Halloween as the holiday annoys me. I mean, really, what nonsense. So I end up disappointed every year, since I just don't get off on ghosts. Face it, there are no evil spirits. But there are evil people, so these more realistic stories are much spookier to me. That said, I am annoyed with some of the reviewers who put me off this book, complaining about Ferrone's voice. Glad I had Halloween this year to give me an excuse to add this book to my Davenport collection. I think Ferrone did quite a creditable job at his valley girl accent, and have to wonder what those reviewers were expecting. Nobody likes valley girl speech, but please, that's hardly Ferrone's fault.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Candy

I enjoy the Sanford Prey series and find Ferrone's narration perfect for Davinport. While not highbrow, Sanford's Prey series are completely entertaining - Candy.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Not Sandford's best effort

As a Sandford and Ferrone fan I was disappointed in this novel. Way too much time spent in the madness of multiple personalities. Frankly it just got boring and I finally skipped ahead to what I knew was to be the predictable ending. Unfortunately I can't recommend this title.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Good Story - scary voice over

So what really was a pretty quality story was nearly destroyed every single time the narrator spoke one of the woman's voices. I mean I really wanted to pull out my own fingernails with tweezers rather than listen to that voice any more!!!

I really love John Sandford's work. His detectives are not 'super geniuses' so gives the work more believability than some authors and this story was very intricate, if not a bit 'over-the-top'. I have to say though, the never ending sing-song voice was really killing me. I almost had to stop 3 hours from the end.. and again, let me say, I liked the story, so it was honestly and truly the voice-over acting.

Maybe the actor just doesn't feel comfortable doing multiple women's voices in the same work, so he went so over the edge with this one to make sure you knew it was different than the other one, that it was pure torture!

I would have given a better score, but this is an "audio" book review, not a 'paper' book review - which undoubtedly would have gone over so much better. That voice over acting really killed it for me. The story became secondary as I was literally wincing every time that one female character's voice was spoken.

15 of 18 people found this review helpful

The Least of John Sandford's Works

I thought folks in earlier reviews may have been overly-sensitive to Ferrone's female voices. I've listened to entire series of work read by Ferrone and never heard a glimmer of what they complained about.

Now that I've dragged myself through this painfully awkward story, I agree entirely with their opinions. Fairey's character was like Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars I--an annoying character that dragged a 3-star story down to 1-star.

Note that I LOVE Sandford's stories. I've read or listened to everything he's written. Some, like Rules of Prey, more than 6 or 7 times...some, like Heat Lightning and Broken Prey, I replayed as soon as I'd finished to see if they were as good as I thought---and they were.

So if you want to try Sandford for the first time, skip this one. It doesn't do justice to Sandford or Ferrone. If you've enjoyed other audible's by the duo, re-listen to something you already have or find something else by them. Pretend that this one never happened.

13 of 18 people found this review helpful