Closer Than You Think by Karen Rose

Narrated by Hillary Huber

In Closer Than You Think, we are introduced to Faith Corcoran, a psychologist on the run from a stalker and FBI agent Deacon Novak, a special agent returning to the small Ohio town where he grew up to catch a killer. The investigation brings these two together, but will it also be responsible for tearing them apart?

Dr. Faith Corcoran has spent the past several years counseling sex offenders. Faith has received a fair amount of criticism for her career choice, but she has her reasons for doing what she does. When one of her former clients starts stalking her, Faith turns to local police for help. Unfortunately, members of the Miami PD are sure she’s just getting what she deserves. Finally, Faith can take no more. She changes her name and and heads for Ohio. Once there, she intends to live in the house she’s recently inherited from her maternal grandmother, and work at a local bank. Finally, she’ll be under the radar.

Fate has different plans for our heroine. It soon becomes apparent that someone has been using her late grandmother’s home for his own purposes. Now that she’s come back to town, Faith finds herself in a killer’s sights. Add to this the bad memories Faith carries with her, memories that reach far back into the past, and Faith’s new life seems like the exact opposite of peaceful.

Special Agent Deacon Novak has recently returned to the area. His teenaged brother is in a fair amount of trouble, and Deacon wants to be there for him and for their sister Dani too. He’s very good at his job, so has no trouble finding a position on a joint task force linking the local police and the FBI. Now, Deacon is in search of two missing college girls and the man who abducted them. It isn’t long before his inquiries lead him to Faith, the new owner of the house the killer has been using for longer than anyone realizes.

Deacon and Faith are immediately drawn to one another. Deacon’s colleagues consider Faith a suspect, but Deacon feels differently. He treats her as a witness with valuable information. For her part, Faith doesn’t want to trust the tall, white-haired agent, but his intelligence and kindness soon win her over. Shortly, Deacon and Faith are working together to catch a ruthless predator before more lives are lost.

I’m a long time fan of narrator Hillary Huber’s work. I find her speaking voice pleasant to listen to. Her pacing and character differentiation are spot on. There were a couple of mispronunciations, but this did not detract from my enjoyment of the story.

A portion of the story is told from the point of view of our unknown villain. Some narrators try to sound spooky when they perform such characters. Thankfully, Ms. Huber did not do this. She gave the character a suitably maniacal sound, but it was not over the top. She helped me realize just how imbalanced this individual was, moving seamlessly from rational to insane, as the text dictated.

Ms. Huber does a great job creating believable male characters. Deacon is given a husky sound which sets him apart from the other men in the story. Ms. Huber lets the listener see just how dedicated he is to both his job and his family. As his feelings for Faith develop, this dedication grows to include her. Ms. Huber’s performance endeared Deacon to me in a way I doubt the text could have done on its own.

The story is quite long. In fact, when I first realized that it was twenty-eight and a half hours in length, I wondered what could possibly happen to keep me interested for such a prolonged period of time. However, as I became engrossed in the book, time seemed to speed by. Some of Ms. Rose’s books have dragged for me, but this one did the exact opposite. Ms. Rose did a fabulous job balancing the romance and the suspense, and, when the book ended, I was disappointed. Ms. Huber’s narration was an added bonus, and, now that I’ve finished listening, I find myself longing for more.

Shannon

Narration:  A-

Book Content:  A

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Graphic

Genre:  Romantic Suspense

Publisher:  Blackstone Audio

Closer Than You Think was provided to AudioGals by Blackstone Audio for review.