Narrated by Wyatt Baker
It’s not often that I get gushy about my reading and/or listening material but… OMG, Cordelia Kingsbridge’s Seven of Spades series is one of the best things I’ve read all year!! This is romantic suspense at its very best; superbly-conceived, twisty-turny, high-stakes plots featuring two utterly compelling, flawed, complex central characters with off-the-charts chemistry and a superbly developed romance that isn’t all hearts and flowers, but which more than adequately proves the old adage about what doesn’t kill you making you stronger.
So far only book one, Kill Game, is available in audio – the series is five books in all; 1-4 are out, with the fifth due to follow next Spring – but I’m hoping the other books will become available in due course. The stories really are terrific and Wyatt Baker – a new to me narrator – acquits himself fairly well, although I there are some aspects of his performance I felt could have been stronger.
Kill Game opens with Las Vegas detectives Levi Abrams and Martine Valcourt at a murder scene, debating whether this killing is similar enough to another recent one to start thinking about the possibility that Las Vegas has a serial killer on its hands. The victim – a successful businessman – has had his throat slit from ear-to-ear; there’s no sign of a struggle and the scene is pretty clean, but the kicker is the seven of spades playing card that has been carefully placed in the pocket of the man’s jacket. This is the second time Levi and Martine have found that particular card at a murder scene, and that, together with other things common to both murders make the serial angle even more likely.
Bounty hunter and former Army Ranger Dominic Russo becomes inadvertently entangled in the case when one of the people he’s looking for turns up dead – throat slit, seven of spades playing card glued to his hand – in an abandoned house. He and Levi have crossed each other’s paths a few times over the years, but Levi is generally stand-offish, seeing Dominic as a bit of a nuisance and someone who just gets in the way of the police doing their job. But now, Levi can’t brush him off so easily, and reluctantly gives him an idea of what’s really going on while warning him not to involve himself further. The trouble is that Dominic can’t leave it alone; it’s as though he was specifically tipped off as to the victim’s whereabouts, so he ends up following up on leads and looking at angles the police might not have covered. And then he finds a seven of spades card tucked under the windscreen wipers on his car…
I’m not going to say any more about the plot – it’s brilliantly constructed and perfectly paced, with a number of clever twists and turns that inch the stakes higher and higher as the book progresses. The enigmatic Seven of Spades –as the killer is dubbed by the media – is a worthy opponent; I have no idea who it might be (I’ve read the first four books and I’m still in the dark!) and whoever it is is playing a long game and really knows what buttons to push, setting themselves up as a vigilante for justice. And for some reason, they’ve singled out Levi for their twisted attention; he’s the one they contact and he’s the one it seems they are prepared to go to any lengths to protect and even help. And in the midst of this chaos, Levi and Dominic find themselves seeking each other out and gradually re-thinking their previously conceived ideas about one another. Their relationship and burgeoning romance is as much an integral part of the novel as the search for the serial killer and both plot elements are very well balanced. During the course of the story the pair finally admit to (and act on) the hitherto unacknowledged attraction that has simmered between them for a while, and by the end of it, they’ve agree to explore options, so it’s a strong HFN ending that promises more in future.
Levi and Dominic are both flawed, charismatic characters, opposites in some ways, and alike in others. Dominic is big and brawny where Levi is all sinuous grace – “you’re built like a fucking panther” ; Dominic is affable and charming, with a ready smile, where Levi is tightly wound and often abrasive, a mass of seething rage and anger beneath his elegant, controlled surface. His recent involvement in an OIS (officer involved shooting), where he had to take out a suspect who was using a child as a human shield, has rattled him more than he cares to admit, making him question his motivations as he struggles to fight the anger that seems never far away from the surface these days. Like Levi, Dominic is dedicated, clever, and intuitive – and he also fights his own demons every day as he battles a gambling addiction.
Narrator Wyatt Baker seems a relative newcomer to the world of audiobooks and has around a dozen titles to his credit so far at Audible. As I said at the outset, he does a fairly good job here, although I can’t help thinking that someone like Greg Tremblay or J.F. Harding would have been a much better fit (of course, if I had my way, Greg Tremblay would narrate ALL THE AUDIOBOOKS, but I suppose the man deserves the odd day off now and then!). In terms of the basics, like pacing, enunciation and character differentiation, Mr. Baker clearly knows what he’s doing. His pacing is perhaps a teeny-bit on the slow side, but it wasn’t something that bothered me at all, and other than a couple of odd pronunciations, his diction is clear. His voice is fairly deep and resonant, and it’s pleasing to the ear; he differentiates effectively between the characters, raising his pitch a little bit to denote the female characters, adding a touch of an accent to portray Dominic’s friend, Carlos, and doing the same where indicated to portray a couple of minor characters. I really liked his interpretation of Dominic; on the page, he’s a charming, sociable guy, always ready to laugh and joke, and this comes across in the performance where there really is a smile in his voice when called for. I’m conflicted, though, over his portrayal of Levi, who is generally quietly spoken and whose dialogue is performed in a low-key way almost throughout, which doesn’t always fit the tenor of what’s going on. On the one hand, this acting choice makes perfect sense. Dominic realises Levi is so tightly wound for good reason: “Levi had to keep himself strapped down so he didn’t boil over and burn everyone around him.” – so Levi’s matter-of-fact delivery is an accurate reflection of the way he is constantly keeping himself reined in. But there were a few times I felt Mr. Baker should have… let rip a little. Not often and not too much, but still. And I also found the delivery of the narrative rather unemotional and lacking vocal colour at times and wished for more of a sense of engagement on the narrator’s part.
In spite of those criticisms, I did enjoy the listen and hope that if Mr. Baker continues to narrate the series, he’ll settle more into the characters and general ‘ambiance’ of the books. I should also say that Kill Game ends on a cliffhanger (each book does), so if you’re considering listening to the series as opposed to reading, you might want to wait until it’s clear as to whether the other books will follow. In any case, if you’re a fan of romantic suspense in general and haven’t tried the Seven of Spades series yet, it’s one that should definitely be on your radar.
Caz
Buy Kill Game by Cordelia Kingsbridge on Amazon
