Audiobook Thoughts

You're Next by Gregg Hurwitz

Mike Wingate had a rough childhood – he was abandoned at a playground at four years old and raised in foster care. No one ever came to claim him and he has only a few, fragmented memories of his parents. Now, as an adult, Mike is finally living the life he had always wanted – he’s happily married to Annabel, the woman of his dreams, they have a precocious 8-year-old daughter Kat, and his construction company is about to finish a “green” housing development that will secure a solid future for them all. Then the unimaginable happens – something from Mike’s own past, a past he doesn’t even remember, comes back to visit terror upon him and his family.

Menacing characters show up and begin threatening Mike and, when he reports them, the police seem more interested in Mike’s murky past than in investigating or protecting the young family. Now, with Mike, his wife and their daughter suddenly under attack from all sides, Mike must turn to Shep, a truly dangerous man – and Mike’s only true friend – from their childhood days together in foster care. Together, the two of them will do whatever it takes to protect Mike’s family against the hidden men behind the terrifying warning, “You’re Next!”

This audio book was narrated by Scott Brick. A multi-layered story that shocks as each layer is revealed.  I discovered Gregg's book this year and he has quickly become an author that will keep me looking for his books.

Back of Beyond by C.J. Box

Cody Hoyt, while a brilliant cop, is an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety when his friend Hank Winters is found burned to death in a remote mountain cabin in Montana. At first it looks like the suicide of a man who’s fallen off the wagon, but Cody knows Hank better than that. As Cody takes a closer look at the scene of his friend’s death, it becomes apparent that someone murdered him and tried to make it look like something else. After years of bad behavior with his department, he’s in no position to be investigating a homicide, but Cody will stop at nothing to find his killer.

When clues found at the scene link the murderer to an outfitter leading tourists on a spectacular multi-day wilderness horseback trip into the remote corners of Yellowstone National Park—a pack trip that includes his son Justin—Cody is desperate to get on their trail and stop the killer before the group heads into the wild. Among the tourists is fourteen-year-old Gracie Sullivan, an awkward but intelligent loner who begins to suspect that someone in their party is dangerous.

In a fatal cat and mouse game, where it becomes apparent the murderer is somehow aware of Cody’s every move, Cody treks into the wilderness to stop a killer hell bent on destroying the only thing in his life he cares about.

I love it when I pick up a new to me author and find a gem. Cody is a mess, but pulls it together enough to realize something is not right. The suspense takes off and does not let up until the end. I look forward to more of Box's books. Holter Graham did a great job reading all the different voices in this book.

Iron House by John Hart

An old man is dying. When the old man is dead they will come for him. And they will come for her, to make him hurt. 

At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn that life isn’t won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is fearless and fiercely protective. When tensions boil over and a boy is brutally killed, there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.

For two decades, Michael has been an enforcer in New York’s world of organized crime, a prince of the streets so widely feared he rarely has to kill anymore. But the life he’s fought to build unravels when he meets Elena, a beautiful innocent who teaches him the meaning and power of love. He wants a fresh start with her, the chance to start a family like the one he and Julian never had. But someone else is holding the strings. And escape is not that easy. . . .

The mob boss who gave Michael his blessing to begin anew is dying, and his son is intent on making Michael pay for his betrayal. Determined to protect the ones he loves, Michael spirits Elena—who knows nothing of his past crimes, or the peril he’s laid at her door— back to North Carolina, to the place he was born and the brother he lost so long ago. There, he will encounter a whole new level of danger, a thicket of deceit and violence that leads inexorably to the one place he’s been running from his whole life: Iron House.

Another new to me author that did not disappoint! It is not often that you root for a stone-cold killer, hoping he will redeem himself.  I was riveted to this audiobook and was blown away by how all the characters were connected.  Scott Sowers is quickly becoming a favorite narrator of mine.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Years ago, Marina Singh traded the hard decisions and intensity of medical practice for the quieter world of research at a pharmaceutical company, a choice that has haunted her life. Enveloping herself in safety, limiting emotional risk, she shares a quiet intimacy with her widowed older boss, Mr. Fox, and a warm friendship with her colleague Anders Eckman. But Marina's security is shaken when she learns that Anders, sent to the Amazon to check on a field team, is dead-and Mr. Fox wants her to go into the jungle to discover what happened.


Plagued by trepidation, yet propelled by her sense of duty, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the unknown, down into the Amazonian delta, deep into the dense, insect-infested jungle to find answers from the company's research team. Led by the formidable Dr. Annick Swenson, the scientists are looking into the development of a new drug that could have a profound impact on Western society. But the team has been silent for two years and the daunting Dr. Swenson does not like interlopers inserting themselves in her work, as Marina well knows. The eminent and fiercely uncompromising doctor was once her mentor, the woman she admired, emulated, and feared. To fulfill her mission, Marina must confront the ghosts of her past, as well as unfulfilled dreams and expectations-a journey that will force her to make painful moral choices and take her deep into her own heart of darkness.

I was riveted to this audiobook, expecting something wonderful, awful and heartbreaking to happen all at once. What does happen is awesomely surprising!  Hope David does a fantastic job reading.

Creed's Honor by Linda Lael Miller

Conner Creed knows exactly who he is: a hardworking rancher carrying on his uncle's legacy in Lonesome Bend, Colorado. Maybe a small-town cowboy's life isn't his dream, but he owes the man who took him in as a kid. Until the identical twin brother he's been estranged from for years reenters his life.

Conner struggles with identity issues as he gets to know his wilder brother. And then he meets Tricia McCall, a beautiful woman who knows a thing or two about living someone else's dreams. Together, they just might find their own dreams right here in Lonesome Bend.

A quick, enjoyable (if predictable) audiobook. Jack Garrett is a new to me narrator.

The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo

The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married—and that the groom will remain a secret until the wedding day—she may finally be able to bring them home for the holidays.

But the wedding isn't Gaby's only surprise—she has one more gift for her children, and it could change all their lives forever

Unfortunately, this is a very forgettable audio book. The readers Susan McInerney, Kathleen McInerney, Ax Norman, Allyson Johnson, and Eileen Stevens did a good job, but the story was not interesting and the characters unlikeable.