Amanda

Disappointed in this one

Revisado: 05-17-20

I am a huge Lisa Gardner fan, but you can tell this one was written early in her career. The story and characters are not developed as well as her DD Warren series. At 18, Tess Becket married "the perfect husband" a well-decorated local cop, then just weeks into their marriage he became overly controlling. Two years into their marriage she suspects the worst ... a local serial killer may actually be her husband. She helps the police lock him up for his crimes. After two years in prison, he kills two guards and escapes and the only mission on his mind is to find and kill his wife. I was disappointed that this book was more romance than murder/mystery/thriller. I pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen between all of the characters 5 chapters in. If you want some great Lisa Gardner books, read the DD Warren series ... those are great!

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Not my all time favorite ... but still good.

Revisado: 05-15-20

30 days ago, a CDC doctor is kidnapped off of her street and never seen again. Faith is hand picked to be on a task force to guard a "high value prisoner" with the FBI. Will is miffed that he didn't get chosen. Sara and Will are enjoying a day with Aunt Isabella's and Cathy Linton when the Earth moves. Earthquake? Boom. Transformer? Boom. Bomb. Will and Sara take off toward the sound when they find a bombing at Emory University and Emory Hospital. They are attending to the victims when the tables turn and they realize they are actually the bombers. In the chaos Sara is kidnapped and Will, Amanda, Faith and the FBI have hours to find her before the kidnappers execute their global plan. Kathleen Early is amazing, but you could hear rough editing on this one.

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Another great thriller

Revisado: 05-15-20

Another brilliant Karin Slaughter book! Mid 1970's. Atlanta. Maggie Lawson is a 5 year veteran on the Atlanta Police Department, when female officers are still new, and not wanted on the force. She gets partnered with first-day-on-the-job rookie Kate Murphy, a young widow whose husband was killed in Vietnam. In the last 6 months, six cops had been killed by the "Atlanta Shooter." Maggie's cop brother, Jimmy escapes being victim #7 after his partner is shot at point blank range and the gun jams when the shooter turns to Jimmy. The good ol boy's club on the force is hunting for the killer who keeps killing their own, but Maggie and Kate run their own investigation on the down low and get in the shooters cross hairs. Non stop thriller. Of course, Kathleen Early is amazing, as always!

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Ugh, this narrator! Please rerecord with K. Early

Revisado: 02-29-20

I LOVE all of Karin Slaughter's books, and love that she uses Kathleen Early to narrate most of them. This is a rare book that is not narrated by Ms. Early and struggled to get through it.

The story itself was great, but so hard to listen to.

Sara and Jeffrey stumble (literally) upon a grave in the woods and they struggle to find leads to identify the girl and then find the suspect. The list of potentials is long, and Jeffery, Sara and Lena all have to put aside their prejudices to accept where the evidence leads them.

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I love Lisa Gardner novels, but not this one.

Revisado: 12-07-19

I've read most of Lisa Gardner's novels and love the DD Warren series. I enjoyed Tessa Leoni #1 (Love You More) and #2 (Touch and Go) but this one really dragged on. I don't feel like the details that were being revealed really led to any revelations along the way. Even Detective Wyatt and Investigator Tessa said several times "we're reacting, we're not getting ahead of this." Yep, I felt the same way. If I heard "Vero wants to fly" one more time .... I swear it was said about 200 times.

I liked the general premise of the story, but it just went on and on and on. I didn't like Christina Traister and Mikael Naramore as the narrators, so maybe that's why I didn't connect with the book? Especially because I REALLY love Kristen Potter as the narrator of all of the DD Warren books. Overall, I'd say this is my least favorite of all of Lisa Gardner's books.

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Could not put it down!

Revisado: 08-30-19

Trigger Warning: There is graphic violent content in this book, as other reviewers have noted. It's on par with Gone Girl - so if you couldn't handle that one, you might want to take a pass on this one.

Karin Slaughter does such an amazing job of character development in this book (the beginning in a little slow) but the development really makes you get in each character's head when they are telling the story from their perspective. I could not put this book down! I usually only listen on my commute, but I even went for walks during lunch and in the evening to get a few extra hours in.

When Julia Carroll goes missing in 1991 and is never found, the story goes through how each person in the family dealt with the loss in their own way. From her mother compartmentalizing and just moving on, to her father's obsessive investigation of the case and suicide 6 years later, to the middle sister, Lydia turning to drugs and alcohol, to the baby sister Claire turning "invisible" and letting someone else run her life.

Fast forward 24 years, Julia has been estranged from her entire family for the last 20 years. Claire married her college beau, Paul, an architect who became a multimillionaire. One night Clair's husband gets murdered in a random robbery (who wouldn't target them for a pair of $24,000 Tiffany earrings and a $100,000 ring). During the funeral, her home is broken into and the local police and the FBI question everyone. Claire wonders why the FBI is involved in a simple break in. Paul's business partner asks her for files on Paul's computer called "work in progress" so he can continue to give their client pitch on Monday with the files Paul had been working on, while searching Paul's computer ... she comes across some disturbing videos. Hundreds of disturbing videos. The newest videos look just like a local girl who went missing a few days ago. And Claire's entire perception of her sweet and loving husband falls apart.

Claire doesn't know who she can trust, so she calls her sister, Lydia and they end up in the race for their lives while going through the darkness of each of their pasts and how losing their big sister has impacted every aspect of their lives.

The way Karin Slaughter makes you get into the hearts and head of every family member, how they all dealt with grief differently, but how it changed every one of their lives by 180 degrees. Even 24 years later, it's still just under the surface of everything they do every day. The book includes an additional short story called "Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes" which was the story from Julia's perspective. It recounted Julia's day on March 4, 1991. Wow. I literally couldn't put it down.

Kathleen Early has a phenomenal performance narrating this book. I will definitely seek out other books she has narrated.

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Had higher hopes

Revisado: 07-29-19

I read If Angels Fall and really enjoyed the story and the performance. I was sadly disappointed in this one. I was half way through this book (about 6 hours in) and felt like it was REALLY dragging on. It didn't have a lot of twists and turns (I basically knew what the last 4 chapters were going to be by chapter 10). There were a lot of needless details in this one. Things that were brought up for no reason, didn't have a purpose in the story and characters (unneeded characters) seemed to pop in and out without purpose. One example was details of a medivac nurse, who will be getting married to her fiance in two weeks; and the pilot, who has been friends with her since college .... those details didn't have any impact on the story or even the character development. They were mere blips in the story line. Walt Sadowski was expedited from SFO to Montana (you're booked on a flight, you need to get to the airport NOW!) and was not even a minor character in the story.

I have already purchased the rest of the Walt Sadowski/Tom Reed series, so I hope the others live up to the drama of first story.

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Listening to a tv show from the other room

Revisado: 05-07-19

This felt like it was 10 episodes of a tv show that you were only listening to because your tv picture was broken. There was a lot of background noise and intro/outro sounds that feel like it's supporting the video, but was more distracting to the story. It did not feel like a podcast or book at all. The story itself was fascinating, but I didn't like the way it was presented.

For example, Dinklidge attacks a prison guard during one scene ... and all you hear is scuffling noise. I had no idea what was happening until 10 minutes later when the police are talking to each other saying he was moved to maximum security because he attacked a prison guard.

I'm betting it would have been a GREAT tv or Netflix series; but didn't love the "audio only" version.

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That was a twist I never expected!

Revisado: 03-12-19

This was my first Lisa Jewell listen and downloaded it looking for some new thriller/mystery authors, this book had good reviews from other audible listeners, so I took the chance.

This book was GREAT! It was a little confusing at first (until you got to know each of the characters) because each chapter is written from a different character perspective. Initially I was confused as to who the character was ... finally I realized she was writing from the missing girl's perspective. Once I had that a-ha moment, I was all in on the plot!

Great character development, and some great unexpected twists and turns that I never expected. I even sat in my car in the parking deck at work when I only had 15 minutes left because I just HAD to listen to the end ... with my mouth hanging open! Well done Ms. Jewell, I look forward to listening to another book soon!

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Must read for ALL entrepreneurs!

Revisado: 03-12-19

This book was recommended to me as I am in the process of purchasing a franchise. The book gave me A LOT to think about, as well as a lot of great questions to ask the franchisor to ensure they have all of the systems and processes needed for me to be successful already built -- and tested.

Gerber does a great job of storytelling his philosophies and concepts by talking through a "real life" example of each of the phases of the entrepreneurial cycle with a bakery.

The biggest parts that I took away were 1) the balance between the entrepreneur, the manager and the technician; 2) building an org chart from the very beginning, even when you are the only employee. Work the role in the lowest box (e.g., sales rep) and process document everything from that role so you can replace yourself in that box with your first hire; then move up to the next box up and do the same thing over again, then hire your replacement, then move up to the next box, etc. 3) the difference of working IN your business and working ON your business. 4) build systems, manage systems

I have already recommended this book to three of my friends; one who has owned his own business for 15+ years, one who is starting her own business and one who is a vice president in a large corporation; but the philosophies of building systems and documenting process will help his team be much more successful - even in the constraints of Corporate America.

I HIGHLY recommend this one for ANYONE who is looking to start (or who has already) started their own business.

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