Stone Groove

By: Erik Carter

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

An entire town kidnapped. A 400-year-old mystery. And one chance to save dozens of lives. Special Agent Dale Conley specializes in the unusual, and he's seen it all. Except for this....

An entire community vanishes overnight - just like the fabled Lost Colony of Roanoke. The only clue is a single word chiseled into a blood-spattered stone. As Dale discovers more stones with cryptic messages, he’s faced with a series of riddles related to the Roanoke disaster - riddles that he must solve or the hostages are killed.

Dale soon realizes that the kidnapper knows the details of his past, including his dark secrets. Now, as he races to find the stones, Dale must come head-on with his own demons to have a chance at saving the lives of the missing people.

Stone Groove is the first book in the Dale Conley Action Thrillers Series.

If you like fast-paced action, sinister conspiracies, and loads of humor, then you’ll love this page-turning series, perfect for readers of Lee Child and Dan Brown and for fans of Indiana Jones and James Bond movies.

Unlock Stone Groove to begin the Dale Conley adventure today! 

©2017 Erik Carter (P)2018 Erik Carter

A mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.

An interesting Mystery with elements of a thriller with well crafted characters and a good plot.The Narrator puts it all together
to give you an entertaining read.


This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Complete waste of time.

I forced myself to listen to entire book and feel a lot dumber for it. Decent plot idea, but just terrible writing. If I could give zero stars I would.

It just droned on

That says it all-boring and predictable- couldn’t wait to finish it-not suspenseful at all

Great start to series

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a great mystery/thriller. The story was action packed, interesting and avoided being predictable. The narration is great as well. The main character is likable and cool. All in all, this was a great start to a series.

Delivers where it needs to

This is exactly the kind of book I like to read – or in this case listen to; a killer reenacting or otherwise parodying history must be stopped by the intrepid expert. The history in this case is the disappearance of the Roanoke colony. To parody the disappearance, a psychopath has kidnapped an entire commune and left clues etched into rocks, a callback to the mid-twentieth century “discovery” of stones supposedly left behind for the returning governor of the Colony. Of course, those turned out to be a hoax, but it made enough of an impression on the zeitgeist to warrant a caricature here.
The hero is Dale Conley, an FBI agent living with an assumed identity and working in an elite and secretive esoteric crimes squad. And I’ll stop right here to say that this actually represented two of my main problems with the book. For a guy who is supposed to be hiding his former identity and keeping a low profile about his line of work, Conley sure does seem to overshare. He visits his mother at home in plain sight of the neighbors who supposedly think he’s dead. He drops in at his old job. He even hands out business cards and brags about his position in the FBI to a waitress he keeps flirting with throughout the account.
Another minor quibble is with the superfluous and mandatory sex scene in the middle of the story. I mean, yes, I know it’s a trope and expected; but the sudden and out of character amorous encounter just felt forced. To the author’s credit, he uses the escapade to advance the story later, but IRL it never would have happened. It was too contrived, like the sex scene at the end of Moonraker.
My last hairsplitting objection is with the revelation and denouement when the villain is ultimately exposed. I had it figured out from early in, but that wasn’t the problem. The issue I had was the overuse of the narrow escape trope.
That aside, there was a lot to like about the book. The writing is solid, the characters likable, the idiosyncrasies abundant. The action scenes were exhilarating. The mystery and puzzles were tantalizing. The settings were fascinating. It’s everything you could want in this kind of story. Set in the mid-seventies, a period where the word “groove” still had a double-meaning and muscle cars had not yet become a metaphor for toxic masculinity, Stone Groove delivers where it needs to. I highly recommend.

AN INTENSE BLOW YOUR MIND MYSTERY!

Wow, this was interesting. Very intense & creative plot & characters, very well done. Loved the narration also, really did a great job and brought the words to life. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, really great! I'd definitely recommend this one! And, would definitely be up for reading more in the series, fantastic job!
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Captivating Listen!

Lately l have been drawn to action, suspense, thriller, mystery listens instead of my typical genre of romance. I really enjoyed this action packed story. I love a complicated plot, which this book had. Erik Carter is a new author to me, while I have listened to Adam Verner before. I thought this audiobook was well produced and did not have any sound quality issues. This book is a standalone listen and a new start of a series. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review.. I would definitely listen to more books by this author and narrator.

Interesting premise.

I've always been fascinated by the story of the lost colony of Roanoke, so I have to say I was intrigued by the premise of Stone Groove. It starts off pretty good, but unfortunately ends up suffering from an overly convoluted plot that requires way too much suspension of disbelief on behalf of the reader/listener. Beyond the plot issues is that fact that I didn't find the main character to be likable at all. I can forgive a lot of things, even wildly unbelievable plot twists, but you've lost me if I don't like the hero of the story, and I did not like Dale. I know he was supposed to come off as this cool badass, but IMO he comes off as an aloof jerk (and that's putting it nicely) I'd have definitely rated the book higher if I'd like the hero despite the issues I had with the plot.

The book narrated by Adam Verner and I have to say I just didn't feel any energy from him. For an action/suspense book I found his narration to be too relaxed.

I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

my mind is still reeling

oh my freaking God this book was absolutely extraordinary it was so very good I loved every single millisecond of this book my heart oh my God I can't even explain how good this book is I love it it's genius the narrator did an amazing job as well but the book The Story The Mind Games it was fantastic go ahead and listen to this book you will enjoy
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Disturbingly great!

This listen is not for the faint of heart. It deals with mind control and really bad people doing really bad things. Loved it!

Dale Conly was an incredibly sincere and sexy man. His position with the DOJ makes him even sexier. Conley has a dark past that collides with his current investigation. His struggle is real but he had this great ability to problem-solve. That made for a great mystery and intense thriller.

The storyline was incredibly interesting. It involved a bit of US history that I was not aware of but I enjoyed googling and discovering.

The narrator was OUTSTANDING!! I loved his delivery of Conley. He was able to convey all of Conley's rough edges but kept him smooth. I definitely loved how he conveyed Conley's love of his car. That was worth the price of admission alone.

I'm always hesitant to start the first book in a series since you always risk not getting a complete story. That was not the case here. There was a beginning, a middle, and an ending (it actually came full circle, so that was cool). I look forward to book two.

Call me Father.

Before his life was re-invented some two years before, Dale Conley was first a reporter for his university friend's rag, the World Wide Weekly Report then left after an especially traumatizing investigation, to become briefly, a best selling author specializing in mystery stories in which the reader had to unravel cryptic puzzles before being able to continue with the book. Now he is a Special Agent working for the secret B.E.I. - Bureau of Esoteric Investigation - part of the Department of justice. So he was obviously the man to call in when, without any apparent reason, a whole village goes missing. No sign of violence or any outside influences and no sign of the 147 inhabitants. Just a blood covered stone with the single word, Roanoke, scratched into the surface. Where did everyone go?

Stone Groove is an intriguing, action packed mystery thriller which links to an historical disappearance of the Roanoke community when America was first being settled. Vividly written, there is a real feeling of presence in the various locations visited as Dale struggles to unravel clues to the locations of the missing people as well as finding out the why and the who of what was going on with some shocks along the way. Interesting little tidbits of history, too. Although not written in the first person, the reader is given clear insight into Sales thoughts, fears - and terror. The characterisation of the lead protagonist is excellent and other of the characters are also well developed.I

Dale is an easy going, sarcastic agent, "a mezs" according to certain of his more conventional bureau colleagues and narrator Adam Verner captures his personality beautifully in his excellent reading. His pleasant, melifluous voice is well cadenced, with a slowish delivery and a touch of whimsy, fitting the character of Dale, but which adjusts to the speed of the text. All the protagonists are distinctive and. individually voiced. A good performance.

This is one of those, 'can the reader unravel the clues first? ' type of thriller, with the occasional gasp out loud reaction to events unfolding. A deep word of thanks to the rights holder who, in response to my request via Audiobook Boom, freely gifted me with a complimentary of of Stone Groov. It was exciting, enthralling and I loved it.
I sincerely hope that the next Dale Conley book, Dream On, will also appear in audio format soon. Highly recommended