Say You're Sorry

The Sacramento Series, Book 1

By: Karen Rose

Narrated by: Joel Froomkin

Length: 24 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A serial killer terrorizing the women of Sacramento meets his match in this pulse-pounding novel from New York Times best-selling author Karen Rose.

There is a serial killer on the loose preying on vulnerable women. The only identifiable mark the killer leaves are letters - sometimes one, sometimes two - all carved into the torsos of his victims. Together, they spell “Sydney”.

When he grabs Daisy Dawson, he believes he has found his next victim. But despite her small stature, she fights back with an expertise that quickly frees her. Before fleeing the scene, Daisy also manages to grab what proves to be crucial evidence: a necklace from around the killer’s neck.

The necklace is more than a trivial item - it is a link to a cold case Special Agent Gideon Reynolds has been tracking for 17 years. With Daisy’s help, Gideon finally has the opportunity to get closer to the truth than ever before.

But they might not get the chance, as the serial killer has a new target: Gideon and Daisy.

©2019 Karen Rose (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Fans of Lisa Gardner and J.D. Robb will enjoy this outing and be on pins and needles waiting for the next installments.” (Publishers Weekly)

"Complex, thrilling, and impossible to put down... An engrossing and exciting start to a new series, and one that busts genre stereotypes along the way." (BookPage Top Pick)

"Chilling and remarkably complex, this is a thriller that, for all its length, will keep minds sharp and nightlights burning. An excellent series start." (Library Journal)

"Rose’s Say You’re Sorry delivers on the promise of a pedal-to-the-metal thriller with plenty of developed characters and converging mysteries...to call this book a page turner is an understatement." (USA Today)

Good, Bad, and Ugly

The good -- Karen Rose is one of my go-to authors. Her stories are complex, detailed, and yet she pulls it all together logically. I'm always amazed at how well-written her stories are. They draw you in and keep you enthralled until the very end. The story and how well-written it was is the only thing that kept me listening through the bad and ugly.
The bad -- The narrator is one of the worst I've ever listened to, and I promise I will NOT be listening to him again. So, I hope they find a different narrator for sequels.
The ugly -- Again, the narrator's voice characterizations were beyond bad. He made the females sound whiny and snarky. The males all sounded so similar it made it hard to differentiate between them. All the characters came off as unlikable when you listened to the tone of voice used for them, but if you listened to the actual words, it wasn't how the character was written. His narration kept me from being as enthralled as I usually am by a Karen Rose novel.

Edited to add: I'm so upset that they again got Joel Froomkin to narrate the next book in the series, "Say No More". I won't be buying it. I'd hoped someone at the publisher would check the reviews here and other places and see how many people disliked Joel Froomkin's narration style, and they would choose someone else. Wrong.

not what I had hoped it would be

it was not horrible and had possibly, but the sappy, soft core porn nonsense like you find in a romance is not what I am looking for when I buy a thriller...I am looking for a thriller and not a dime store romance. Book could have been cut down multiple hours if that had been left out.

the narrator was annoying. trembling, wavering kind of voice throughout the entire book, which did nothing to make it any more tolerable.

I am struggling to understand the high ratings

Issue with narrator

This was my 1st book by Karen Rose and I enjoyed the story very much, however I found the narrator flat and even distracting in some cases. I felt his protrayal of the female characters was actually better than that of the male characters. They all sounded like they were suffering from severe congestion most of the time.

Poor narrating. Hated the way he made the men’s sound like they were crying when the spoke.

Long and drawn out. Narrating was horrible. I fell asleep for three hours and didn’t miss much.

The Narrator was awful!!

I could not stand the narrator Joel Froomkin...I will never listen to anything he reads again!!

different narrator

I am sorry but this narrator was just not for me the story was pretty good but the narrator for me ruined it at times.

The narrator

Omg. I just got the book and may return it or get a paperback this narrator is horrible!!!!! It sucks because the book seems good

The over all story was entertaining

The overall story was entertaining the characters were interesting. Some of the relationships and the story seemed to have formed very quickly. And some of that just didn't seem realistic. The audio performance was good for some of the characters but not all.

Very good book

I enjoyed this story but the narrator was not great. Everyone sounded so old to me. It was hard to picture any of the characters being anyone with energy. If the story hadn’t been so intriguing, I would have traded it back.

narrator is difficult to listen to...

Narrator is just barely tolerable. Finishing the book was extremely difficult. While I enjoy Karen Rose as an author narrators can ruin good books... I don't know if I'll listen to the rest of the series or buy the books on Kindle and read them that way.