Lying Next to Meby Gregg Olsen
(Edited) Blurb:
It's a husband's worst nightmare: Adam Warner watches helplessly as his wife is abducted from their vacation spot in Washington State’s Hood Canal. A hundred yards from shore, in a boat with their three-year-old daughter, Adam struggles to get to Sophie, but by the time he reaches land, she's nowhere to be found.
For Adam, at least there’s comfort in knowing that Mason County detective Lee Husemann is an old friend of his. She’ll do everything she can to help. She must.
But as Adam’s paranoia about his missing wife escalates, Lee puts together the pieces of a puzzle. Lee suspects that not everyone is telling the truth about what they know—or they have yet to reveal all the lies they’ve hidden from the strangers they married.
My Reaction:
It's probably damning with faint praise, but I'd say this is a "serviceable" mystery. There isn't much out of the ordinary for the genre, and nearly all the characters are unbearable in one way or another. Even the most sympathetic character (Lee) is sometimes frustrating. (I'd go into the details of why, but they're fairly spoilery...) The emphasis on fertility (or lack thereof) and parenthood is a bit wearing, too. All told, it wasn't a bad story, but it also wasn't a standout.
I chose this book primarily because it was free through Amazon, with the audiobook version also available for free. I listened to maybe a third of it, at random points in the book, and confirmed that I tend not to like audiobooks.
I do like being able to progress through a book while my hands and eyes are otherwise occupied, but apparently I don't enjoy the experience of listening to other people read. (I am fond of reading aloud myself, however, and sometimes read aloud when I'm alone, simply because I enjoy it... That's probably strange, but oh well! You may be thinking that I just like the sound of my own voice, and that might be true, but I'm generally very quiet around other people. It's mostly only to myself, my dogs, and my husband that I may "jaw" a bit too much. ...Anyway, back to the review, such as it is...)
So often, audiobook narrators emphasize things differently than I would or use an irritating vocal affectation for certain characters... I know that many listeners enjoy readers who "do all the voices", but most of the times I've come across it, it just bugs me!
I'll probably keep trying audiobooks, every so often, but I may be too persnickety for the format.
