Narrated by Wyatt Baker
Note: The Seven of Spades series has an overarching plotline, and all the books need to be listened to in order so as to get the most out of the story as a whole; there will be spoilers for book one, Kill Game, in this review.
Trick Roller is book two in Cordelia Kingsbridge’s gripping Seven of Spades series, which follows the hunt for a devious and enigmatic serial killer exacting vigilante justice in Las Vegas. At the end of Kill Game, the killer was apprehended, committed suicide in custody – and the case was closed. Homicide detective Levi Abrams is convinced that they got the wrong guy, but his boss refuses to listen to his protestations and has warned Levi not to attempt any further investigation; the Seven of Spades is dead and that’s an end of it.
Three months later, life goes on much as usual and Levi and his work-partner, Martine, are investigating the murder of a doctor who was in Vegas in order to attend a major medical conference. Given that the man was known to use escort services, their initial thoughts are that he was probably the victim of a trick roller, a prostitute who drugged and then stole from him. But when Levi and Martine track down the woman whose ‘company’ he’d paid for that night, that scenario begins to seem unlikely; she works through a very high-end escort agency that pays well, and certainly wouldn’t have needed to steal from a client. Once they’ve completed their interview, the detectives are sure the woman is innocent – until a stash of Rohypnol is discovered in her house, and even though she swears it doesn’t belong to her, Levi and Martine have to arrest her for the murder.
Levi’s new (maybe) boyfriend, Dominic Russo, has begun to work towards getting his Private Investigator’s license, and is interning with a prestigious firm, impressing its owner with the skills he’s gained over the years as a bounty hunter. He’s working on what his boss terms one of their “bread and butter” cases, that of a woman convinced her husband is cheating on her and who wants proof. This shouldn’t be difficult to obtain, and Dominic and the senior investigator partnering him are on the verge of getting the evidence they need when their target leads them to a casino – and Dominic has to bail. He’s a compulsive gambler and although he’s been on the wagon for two years, the impulse to give in to his cravings is incredibly strong. He manages to get out, but his reaction disgusts him; he sees his addiction as weakness rather than illness and hates it. Even more, he hates the thought of appearing weak in front of the one person he desperately wants to talk to – but he calls Levi anyway. I loved that Dominic was able to set his pride aside and ask for help, and that Levi was the one he wanted to ask for it; it really shows the way the strength of the bond between them and how their relationship is developing into something far beyond physical attraction.
But Dominic isn’t the only one with demons to fight. As established in Kill Game, Levi is a man who keeps himself on a tight leash because he’s afraid of what he might do if he ever loses control. He’s tightly wound, he’s abrasive and although his colleagues respect him, he knows he’s not widely liked – not like Dominic whose charisma draws people to him like a magnet. And in spite of his boss’s warnings, Levi can’t let the Seven of Spades case go; unbeknownst even to Dominic, he’s been continuing the investigation in his spare time, his frustration over the department’s refusal to believe the killer is still out there fuelling what has become an obsession.
While the Seven of Spades plotline takes a bit of a back seat in Trick Roller, there’s still a lot going on and much to enjoy, not least of which is the romance between Levi and Dominic. In Kill Game, the couple’s incendiary chemistry boiled over into a hot one-night stand, but both agreed that at that time, neither of them was in the right place to pursue anything further, especially as Levi had just come out of a long-term relationship. Now, though, they’re seeing each other regularly and getting to know each other better, and the author builds on the strong connection created between them in the previous book.
She also draws together her two seemingly disparate storylines with incredible skill, lands an amazing twist and then ramps up the action, carrying us into dizzying, breath-taking finale. The plots in these books are complex, brilliantly executed and heart-poundingly exciting, but there’s no question Levi and Dominic are the stars – and heart – of the show. They’re two of the most engaging and compelling characters I’ve come across in recent years; their flaws make them seem that much more real and the author (who has a background in social work) clearly knows her stuff when it comes to the way she deals with Dominic’s addiction and Levi’s anger management issues.
Wyatt Baker returns to the microphone for this instalment, and while, as in Kill Game, he delivers a solid performance, I had a few issues – pretty much the same as before – with it that mean I can’t rate it more highly. His pacing is okay, but he often leaves long pauses at the ends of sentences, phrases (and sometimes between words) and he has a tendency to wander into “Movie Trailer Voiceover Guy” territory in the narrative portions of the story. It’s not that he goes over the top all the time, it’s more that it feels like he’s… forcing the words out rather than speaking normally, which makes it sound rather wooden. He differentiates reasonably well between the various characters, although the females are performed in pretty much the same register as everything else, and Martine’s Flatbush accent (which is referred to in the text) is largely absent. I don’t know what sort of accent he was trying to give to the character of Leila Rashid, and I’m sure there was a female character early in the story whose voice was deeper than most of the men’s! I do like his portrayal of Dominic; he’s a big guy with a big personality who just oozes charisma and Mr. Baker does a good job in conveying those qualities through his voice – but his interpretation of Levi is less successful. I said this in my review of Kill Game; while it makes sense that Levi’s dialogue is performed in such a low-key way, there’s no sense of what’s always bubbling underneath that controlled surface, and on the very few occasions Levi does let rip in the story, it doesn’t come through in the performance.
The Seven of Spades series has become one of my all-time favourites, but I’m not sure at this point if I’m going to be continuing with it in audio. Wyatt Baker isn’t a terrible narrator, but his voice doesn’t have the richness or variety of timbre necessary to really do justice to these characters and stories, and once again, I found myself wishing for a greater degree of expression and emotional engagement in his narration.
Caz
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