Vegas Lies

"Lies" Mystery Series, Book 3

By: Andrew Cunningham

Narrated by: Greg Hernandez

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Five teenage girls from a small town in Oregon disappear without a trace.

Were they kidnapped, or have the five friends perpetrated a massive hoax? Nine hundred miles away, in Las Vegas, a woman with a dark secret vanishes on her way to meet friends for dinner.

Those friends are Del Honeycutt and best-selling mystery author Sabrina Spencer in Las Vegas for a book convention. As Del and Sabrina investigate their friend's disappearance, they are convinced that she has been abducted, and they begin to uncover the secrets that might have triggered her abduction - secrets that now put Del and Sabrina's lives in jeopardy.

When clues indicate that the five missing girls might also be in Las Vegas, the situation takes a new turn, directly into the unthinkable.

Once again, Del and Sabrina find themselves in deep trouble and marked for death, and they only have a few hours to solve the case, or their friend and the five young girls will be gone forever.

©2017 Andrew Cunningham (P)2019 Andrew Cunningham

Excellent

Takes an unusual pair as Del and Sabrina are, for a convention in Las Vegas. The stories of 5 teen age girls missing, when a friend is missing. Time and their lives are now in the balance. A tight plot will answers be found as well as those missing.
Given audio for my voluntary review and my honest opinion

Favorite in the series so far

Although this one didn't have really many twists, I liked it more than the first two. This book expanded on a little more background of "Peep". Lots of action and at least the main 2 characters didn't always escape free of harm. It was more believable with this book. Good plat, good characters, and a good ending.

Great read!

Great mystery with great characters and storyline. Excellent read!
I received a free copy and left my honest review

Sex Slave and Child Kidnapping

This book is a bit off the norm for Del and Sabrina like other books they get themselves into deep trouble and again possibly murder. Again they get themselves out of and save the day. The twist in this story is not about any of Dels family it is a story were their neighbor Moe's girlfriend disappears and at the sametime 5 teenage girls disappears from Oregon to be sold to the highest bidder overseas. Del and Sabrina needs to go Los Vegas so she can attend a book conference when they arrive the girlfriend of the neighbor named Peep disappears and now the fun starts. You meet drug dealers, child prostitution, sex slaves and maybe a dirty cop and his captian. You a ride of what the teenage girls went thru to survive. As usual you enjoy watching bumbling Del and Moe and Sabrina who always looking and ready for action and always finds it.

Serious Subject with Humor

I love how you’re able to create a story with a serious and timely subject matter while still being able to interject humor.

Vegas Lies

This was a good story.Five girls go missing snd after everyone blames everyone else,they still aren't found.It will take the team of Sabrina and her boyfriend to figure it out while they are searching for a friend.
I found the narration to be too darn fast!There was not a lot of feeling behind Mr Hernandez reading.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

Better than Book 2

Note: While this is Book 3 in the series, it works fine as a stand alone novel.

So far, this is the best of the series. The first 2 books I was luke warm on, though Book 2 was better than Book 1. The setting is Las Vegas, always a great location for a tale of villainy. Sabrina Spencer is there for a book event, even though she rather be home hammering out the next murder mystery. Alas, she’s having to deal with her fame in Vegas. But she has her trusty sidekick, Del.

My favorite part was the missing teenagers. They were realistic and brave. In fact, I felt their characters were better written than the main characters. However, I do recognize we only see them in small slices. Del and Sabrina get pulled into this mess because their friend Peep (Mo’s girlfriend) has been abducted.

The story starts off smart and sharp but quickly draws itself out diluting the tension. The plot got too big and wonky. Too many crimes were crushed into one tale. Drugs, human trafficking, murder, etc. Still, I love a desert setting. I especially liked the underground facility. It was a little tricky for Del to rush in and save the day but he soldiered on with the few clues he had.

All together, the tale was OK. There’s still plenty of lucky moments where clues are dropped, tripped over, or easily given up allowing our heroes to look a little smarter. Emma, one of the kidnapped Oregon girls, really shined, being brave and a key person in the ultimate rescue. Often the tale is told very plainly, like a news report. Ultimately, I felt it needed a bit of polishing. 3.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Greg Hernandez is great as Del Honeycut. He captures Del’s humor and emotions well. Hernandez’s female voices are nearly non-existent. Hernandez does toss in a few regional accents which helped with keeping all the characters straight. For chunks of the book, the narration is a bit plain, like a news report, but I have to say sometimes the writing is that way too. The pacing is good & there were no technical issues with the recording. 3.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Greg Hernandez. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

ABSO-FREAKIN’-AMAZING

VEGAS LIES is the third book in the Lies series. Though each mystery will stand on its own, the series is a continuing relationship between Sabrina and Del. I strongly recommend reading the series in the order of release.

This review could be written in one word: abso-flippin-amazing! (It is so a word!!)

There are two plot lines that seem to be running parallel to one another, with only a disturbingly twisted connection in the mind…. Until those two roads converge. Beautifully done!

The strength in this book lies in the characters, especially the very strong women. When I lived in South Carolina, my two best friends were both black belts; I was the “Del” when we went out. LOL (Don’t worry; I was training.) Though Del is continuously self-deprecating, I loved that by the end of this book he was showing his strength as well.

Narration: I am fully indoctrinated into the Greg Hernandez reading style. While he is not a “voice actor” in the manner to which my fiancé teaches, his method of reading is comfortable and enjoyable. I have one more book in this series to enjoy this week and truly wish I had more.

Note: While I received this book as a gifted audiobook copy via Audiobookworm Promotions Adopt-an-Audiobook, my opinions are my own and are given freely.

Title: VEGAS LIES
Series: Lies #3
Category /Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Recommended for: 18+ due to sexual content
Listenability: NSFW
Received from: Andrew Cunningham (as an Audible gifted copy)

Mystery Author Investigates

3.5 stars

When a friend’s partner goes missing while she’s at a conference in Las Vegas, Del and Sabrina get involved in an effort to help and it’s a good thing because local law enforcement is initially reluctant to see this as anything other than an adult taking a little “me” time. They begin to learn about the darkness in Peep’s background that might have something to do with her disappearance but the choices they make in following leads put them in dangerous positions. Meanwhile, five teen girls have been abducted in Oregon and it’s possible the kidnappings are linked in some way to Peep’s disappearance.

Hands down, my favorite character is Emma, the one teen with the smarts and the gumption to try to escape, and the tension of wondering what would ultimately happen drew me in. As for Del and Sabrina, they are not exactly the brightest bulbs in the box and that’s surprising, at least regarding Sabrina. She’s a best-selling mystery author and makes her living working out the details of investigations so you’d think she’d be a little better at this in real life, wouldn’t you? Also, implausibilities and inconsistencies were a bit too rife but I did enjoy the story on the whole.

Narrator Greg Hernandez does a credible job but I thought he was a little lacking in two ways. First, I couldn’t hear much difference in his characters’ voices and sometimes had to listen for a while to figure out who it was. Second, I didn’t hear much emotion, much interpretation. Still, he has a very clear voice and is easy to understand, a big plus for me.

Ripped-from-the-headlines premise entices

Audio book review. Vegas Lies is the third book in the Lies series by Andrew Cunningham, and I’ve listened to the audios of all three of the books pretty much back-to-back. In Vegas Lies, as with all of the books so far, readers can count on getting a multi-layered mystery with unexpected plot twists and lots of action. Not only are the stories multi-layered, there are typically multiple plot lines that weave in and out of the books and each story that tie the books together. Vegas Lies stands alone, but I think it will be better enjoyed if read in sequence, as part of the series.

This third book has a ripped-from-the-headlines disturbing premise to grab the reader's attention. While I had a little trouble suspending my disbelief with some aspects, others are horribly feasible. Author Andrew Cunningham initially has this plot piece moving parallel to another, but of course, the two lines start veering towards each other and ultimately, there is a creative connection of the parts.

Readers see more growth from main character Sabrina, and in Vegas Lies, we learn more about an interesting side character from previous books, Mo, who could carry a story on her own. The women in this book take charge and provide the muscle and some of the cleverest problem-solving. Men are mostly depicted as base, crass, and piggish – and not the smartest of creatures. This bordered on being overdone even though logically, the men involved in the crimes would have at least half those characteristics. Main character Del is mostly the exception, but some of his choices and his self-deprecating humor cast him as the weak link in the relationship. I’d like to see more balance between Del and Sabrina if the series continues; right now, though the two clearly are deeply in love and passionate about each other, I am not sure they are an intellectual or physical match for the long term.

The strength of Vegas Lies is in its main characters and the menagerie of secondary characters to love or loathe. The weakness in this book is that the author relies too heavily on summarizing to tell readers who is doing what, where, and why. And the epilogue focuses too much on the characters who won’t likely be returning when readers will surely want more about those who likely would. Faults aside, if another book is forthcoming, I will definitely give it a listen as the promise of intricate and high-interest plots are enticing.

ABOUT THE NARRATION: Greg Hernandez is back to narrate this third book in the series, and he has become the voice of main character Del. He consistently voices all the characters and with each of these books, he is moving further from reading and more into performing. There is a subtle infusion of emotion in his narration, and it fits well with Del’s personality, but it's too subtle for some of the others. His even pacing and delivery allowed me to listen at regular speed, which is always a plus.

Thank you to Audiobookworm Promotions and Mr. Hernandez for providing me an audio download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. This full review and other special features on Hall Ways Blog.

the best 1 yet

this is a very sobering book , as this is a real problem in the world today, the book is well written and its a good read

fantastic

another fantastic audio book thriller from the pen of Andrew Cunningham and superbly narrated by Greg Hernandez.

I really can't wait for more in this series xxxxxx

Sheesh, Mr. No Name, that's me.

In Las Vegas for a book convention, Del and his best selling author girl friend, Sabrina, become concerned when their dinner date friend doesn't arrive. When her partner, Mo, flies in to join them, it becomes obvious that Pricilla's ex husband had abducted her: there was a lot of bad feeling there and the man had been thought to have died years before. The three friends had to find her. At the same time, five teenage girls had gone missing from small town Vista, in Oregon, vanishing without trace.

This book is simply written with fairly brief sentences. There is little depth of characterisation although all of the characters come over as fairly stupid, with the exception of one of the girls. In the two woman one man team of Del, Sabrina and Mo, it is refreshing that it is the female duo with the physical fighting attributes, the male being the less than aggressive partner ( though no brighter intellectually, sadly). The very incompetence of all of the protagonists makes the story almost plausible but is rather irritating. The narration by Greg Hernandez perfectly mirrors the entire tale, well read but subdued emotional imput: it has the feel of an old detective series in which 'only the names have been changed to protect the innocent'.

I was fortunate in being freely gifted with a complimentary copy of Vegas Lies by the rights holder, at my request. Thank you. It was a quick and easy read, despite the switching between first person present to third person, and not many protagonists to remember. This is the third in a series but completely stand alone - this is the first that I have read - and I doubt I will read any others. It was fine but just rather bland despite the horrifying subject matter, so suitable for even an easily disturbed consciousness.