The Shark

Forgotten Files, Book 1

By: Mary Burton

Narrated by: Christina Traister

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

At the grisly murder scene of a teen prostitute, Virginia state trooper Riley Tatum's past roars back to haunt her. When she was a teenage runaway, she was kidnapped, drugged, and left unconscious on the streets. She has no memories of what happened, only strange recurring dreams of two men playing cards.

Former FBI agent Clay Bowman, Riley's old flame, is Shield Security's newest member. He's plagued by the unsolved case of a serial killer nicknamed the Shark who murdered girls as part of a sadistic poker game. Only one girl survived. With the Shark now bent on evening that score, Clay has a chilling suspicion: Riley is the girl who escaped the Shark's deadly amusement—and she is his next prey.

As the Shark gets ready to play his hand, can Riley and Clay stop him—or will this killer finally claim the one who got away?

©2016 Mary Burton (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Entertaining but predictable

What should have been the big reveal at the end was a let down... Cookie cutter

very good story!

I definitely enjoyed this audiobook... especially after not being able to finish the last 3 I chose put of boredom. I didn't have that problem with this one though.. exciting for sure, and had likeable characters. I did feel it was a bit predictable in places but overall I would recommend.

not as good as her other books

slow moving. repetitive. predictable. few issues at the end which just didn't work. recommend her other work.

Decent but so formulaic...

I get that all mystery/suspense novels have to have certain elements in order to work...and if you only do light reading and/or don't care much about re-inventing the wheel, this one definitely rolls. Decent story line, decent characters, a semi original plot that doesn't call for too much suspension of disbelief...

But the elements all combined were just so cookie cutter. Damaged heroine, check. Equally damaged strong and silent type love interest, check. Obligatory painfully drawn out booty call scene that I literally skipped once it got to be 5 minutes in and I was cringing at the overused language, check. Faithful one dimensional sidekick that gets a bunch of mention but not much depth, check. Evil villain (also damaged), check. A mentor/savior for the heroine, check. Painfully obvious twist, check. Betrayal that I saw coming from a mile and a half away, check. And absolutely worst for me (I've come to the point where I don't care how decent the book was, I will put it down and stop reading): lengthy scene in which the evil villain gets to spill his/her guts in an overly cliched evil voice, beating the reader over the head with his/her motives, methods, and intent...all so whichever good guy/gal who ended up in his/her clutches can stall for time and potentially be rescued, check...

So again, it's an ok book. I didn't hate. But I've read it all before with different details.

Good Story Better to Read Than Listen

What did you like best about The Shark? What did you like least?

The story is good and suspenseful. The performance is irritating.

How could the performance have been better?

Riley's accent was inconsistent and unpleasant. Bowman's voice was a low monotone which was just weird and also hard to hear. The performance was inconsistent to me. All characters had appropriate, believable voices except for the two main characters. Sorry but this did not work for me. I think the producers should have caught the sound problem that the low monotone created.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Definitely! It is a good story with likable characters and creepy villain/s.

Any additional comments?

Mary Burton keeps things interesting. I will continue to read her books.

Bad Narration/Good Story

The story was quite interesting; however, the narration of the male characters made it almost unbearable. I get lowering your voice and making it sound gravelly, but speak faster. No one talks that slowly. It was irritating.

Good story, poor performance

I wanted to know who did it so finished listening. Unfortunately, desire the main character being a woman there were several make characters with significant roles and the performer could not do male voices well. I almost slipped over the romantic scene because it was not romantic to listen to at all.

Good book, horrible narrator

I like the book. And I like most of the books Christina Traister narrates, however, I can't stand how she makes most of the men sound like slow speaking monotone idiots without a brain in their head and the powerful confident women sound like ditzy broads that end every sentence seductively. Can we get a new narrator please?! I'd rather listen to Siri read it.

great

good book for the price. took a while to get use to the narrative. four stars

Interesting story..good!

I’m not sure if I should start at the beginning or the end..? Anyway overall I loved it! Excellent writing, I loved the narration except with one of the characters but it’s definitely a book to listen to and read...

One question I did have was why the Hangman was The Hangman? When you listen you’ll understand why that question is never answered.

Definitely recommend except for under 16 due to the content about women.