Elevation - Stephen King

I've read everything Stephen King has written and was excited to hear he had a new book coming out. Elevation is newly released.

Fans will recognize the setting immediately. Castle Rock, Maine. Scott Carey has been losing weight. He can see it on the scale. Oddly enough, the number stays the same even if he's wearing clothes. And his body doesn't look any different. But he's definitely lighter....

Even as Scott's weight decreases, a small fracas with his neighbours increases. But it's not just Scott, it's most of the town against this couple. Scott decides to try and turn things around.

Elevation is the perfect listen for this time of the year. It's timely in so many ways. Uplifting I would say. ;0) Elevation tackles intolerance, doing the right thing and simple kindness and decency with a classic King supernatural twist.

I was thrilled to see that King himself was the narrator. There's nothing like having an author read his own work. The emphasis, the interpretation, the emotion, the quirks and so much more are presented exactly as he intended them to be. Listen to an audio excerpt of Elevation.

A bonus short story, Laurie, is included. And will give regular readers a nice little jolt of King horror....watch out for the 'gators.

This listener really enjoyed Elevation. The ending was difficult - sad, but absolutely fitting. A great addition to my library.

Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes: A Short Story - Karin Slaughter

I am eagerly awaiting the release of Karin Slaughter's next book, Pretty Girls. (Sept 29/15) Okay, hopping up and down. And then I discovered this new short story from Slaughter - Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes - a quick fix for the short term. And even better - it's the prequel to Pretty Girls!! (Squee!)

Athens, Georgia 1991. University of Georgia. Although Julia's family lives in town, she has chosen to live on campus - and "reinvent herself, be the person she had always wanted to be: strong, confident, happy, content..." But she's a bit worried too - five weeks ago another young, beautiful girl went missing. And now Julia is obsessed with her disappearance. She pitches it as a story to her journalism prof and her research only serves to ramp up her interest - and her anxiety...." All those pretty girls. All missing. Or taken. Or being kept. Or maybe their bodies just hadn't been found."

Slaughter is a master of building suspense. I found myself tensing up in my chair, not wanting to keep reading, afraid of what was going to happen. But, of course I kept going. As a reader, we're totally caught up in Julia's fears, warning her "no, don't do that...." But as with all good suspense stories (and scary movies) our protagonist goes ahead and does it anyway......And I'll leave you with that - watch for my review of Pretty Girls! You can connect with Karin Slaughter on Facebook

Snatched - Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter is one of my favourite crime authors. I've read every last title she's written.

Slaughter moves her characters along in real time, so start with The Grant County books and then the Will Trent series. You can read them as stand alones, but you'd be robbing yourself of a fantastic series.

The last book, Criminal (my review) finally answered some long held questions about Will's background. I cannot wait to see where the next book - Unseen - takes us. (It's next up on my nightstand)

Snatched was a great little listen before I started in on Unseen.  Georgia Bureau of Investigation  agent Trent has been posted to airport duty - the washrooms specifically. While hiding out in a stall in the men's, he hears a little girl in the next stall say 'I want to go home.' Is the man with her her father? Nothing untoward was said or done, but Will's radar is tingling. He decides to follow the pair, but loses them in the large airport. But he's sure something's not right - and the airport is shut down on Will's intuition. The race is on to find the girl before she is spirited away.....or worse.

Kathleen Early has read the last few of Slaughter's books and I hope they use her for future books. Her voice is clear, with short, crisp tones that mirror the lead character's way of thinking and speaking. The tone is no nonsense and easily conveys the escalating tension of the hunt for the missing girl. She provides believable voices for other characters as well.

As, I said, this is a favourite series and character and the wrong narrator would ruin the image I have of these familiar players. Early hits the right note. An enjoyable listen of an excellent story!
Listen to an excerpt of Snatched.  (From AudioGo - 2 hrs. and 11 mins.)