{Audiobook}Review: Mr Mercedes

Mr Mercedes
by Stephen King
 
Genre: Crime fiction
Date Read:  13 June 2014
Reading with my ears
Narrator:  Will Patton   
Unabridged audio - Length: 14 hours 21 minutes

A cat-and-mouse suspense thriller featuring a retired homicide detective who's haunted by the few cases he left open, and by one in particular - the pre-dawn slaughter of eight people among hundreds gathered in line for the opening of a jobs fair when the economy was guttering out. Without warning, a lone driver ploughed through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes.

The plot is kicked into gear when Bill Hodges receives a letter in the mail, from a man claiming to be the perpetrator. He taunts Hodges with the notion that he will strike again. Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing that from happening. Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. And he's preparing to kill again. Only Hodges, with a couple of misfit friends, can apprehend the killer in this high-stakes race against time. Because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim hundreds, even thousands.

My thoughts:
Mr Mercedes is the journey of Bill Hodges, a police detective, with nothing to live for after his retirement from the force.   He puts away his father’s gun (and thoughts of using it) as he begins to tract the one crazy killer he was never able to catch. 

Brady Hartfield is very sick.  It is scary to think that he lives in real life too.  People blending nicely into society but with grandiose thoughts of being famous as the greatest killer. 

I loved how King revealed only little bits of the support characters at a time.  We never really got to know the the other characters in the book, just enough to give us glimpses into the reasons for Brady’s psychosis. 

One of these characters is Freddy, Brady’s younger brother.  He is only mentioned a few times in this book but I felt such empathy for him.  A poor little lost soul, born into a family that ultimately killed him.  Freddy was always slow and suffered brain damage during his short life which made caring for him a huge burden on the family.  I understand the frustrations that the family must have felt but poor little Freddy did not deserve his life.  Thankfully he would not have understood all that went on.

If you are looking for a scary horror by the great master, then you will be disappointed.  Mr Mercedes is only scary in the way that an insane person can be scary.   And Brady is scary . . .
This is instead a great detective story, defining the phrase “cat and mouse games”. 

Will Patton once again showed why he is such a beloved narrator.  He did an excellent job and the story flowed beautifully from scene to scene.  He is a true professional.  Love him!

Audiobook Review: The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling 

by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) 
 
Series: Cormoran Strike #1 
Publication date: 18 April 2013 
Genre: Murder Mystery Detective Novel 
Source: gift 
Date Read: 20 August 2013 
Narrator: Robert Glenister 
Length: 15 hours 53 minutes 

When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case.

A war veteran, wounded both physically and psychologically, Strike's life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model's complex world, the darker things get - and the closer he gets to terrible danger . . .

A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London - from the hushed streets of Mayfair, to the backstreet pubs of the East End, to the bustle of Soho - The Cuckoo's Calling is a remarkable debut. Introducing Cormoran Strike, it is a classic crime novel unlike any other book you will read this year.

My thoughts: 
This was really a great surprise for me. I am not a Harry Potter fan and the first adult novel by JK Rowling (Casual Vacancy) did not blow me away although I felt compelled to finish it.

I was not sure if I should be giving it another shot, maybe JK Rowling just wasn't for me.  But I love detective novels, so I decided to give it another go.  And The Cuckoo's Calling hit the right spot at the right moment. I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery.

 
Our hero detective is Cormoran Strike Together with titbits from his temporary secretary, he tries to solve all the conflicting leads in this twisting murder mystery when he is hired by the victim's brother to find out the truth about her death.

Cormoran has all the usual hangups that we have come to expect from our favorite detectives but this just makes him seem more human and easy to like. He is a disabled military veteran and I hope to see a lot more of him (and his secretary) in future. The ending gave us an inclining that this might be the first of a series . . . 

I enjoyed this detective murder mystery and would recommend it for a nice and relaxing holiday read.  I look forward to future cases in Cormoran Stike's career.

Audiobook Review: A B C D is for . . . Kinsey Millhone PI

My thoughts:
Kinsey Millhone is a private detective with a good heart.  Unfortunately she will never be rich as her clients have a tendency to turn up dead.  

The ABC murder books are light crime fiction with a female lead character that is hard not to like.  She is a twice divorced tough cookie that finds it hard to let go even when her minds tell her it is a bad idea.  

The stories are set in the 1980's  -  all before cellphones and the internet became part of our lives.  

This is definitely not going to win any literally acclaim but it is very enjoyable (maybe just because of that fact).  Sometimes you just want to loose yourself in the story without too much thought about anything else.

W is for Wasted was published this year, so I have a few letters to go yet.