Narrated by Carol Schneider
I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of evil. I want to know what it’s capable of and how it shapes people. So, when I heard about Obsession, the first book in Debra Webb’s Faces of Evil series, I jumped at the chance to review it.
In Birmingham, Alabama, four young women have gone missing. There’s nothing to link these disappearances, but chief of police Dan Burnette can’t help but keep looking for a connection. He’s formed a task force but the investigation is going nowhere. There’s only one person Dan can think of who can turn things around.
Jess Harris is an FBI profiler with a stellar record. However, due to some improprieties in a recent investigation, her reputation has been damaged. So, when Jess receives a call from Dan, the man who broke her heart some twenty years before, she decides, against her better judgment, to head back to Alabama, the place of her birth, and the place where her romance with Dan blossomed and died.
Because the story is set in Alabama, I expected most of the characters to have southern accents. I knew Jess wouldn’t, as references were made to how hard she had worked to remove all traces of the south from her speech, but characters like Dan, other police officers, the victims, and their families should have had at least some trace of an accent. Carol Schneider wasn’t able to pull this off. In fact, she was quite inconsistent about who had accents and who did not. Sometimes, Dan spoke with a bit of a drawl, but, other times, he sounded like a lower, huskier version of Jess. I do give Schneider props for her ability to pull off Hispanic accents, which she did quite reliably for two characters.
Schneider’s voice is in the lower range for a woman. She has no problem deepening it for the male characters, and raising the pitch for the women. However, a few female characters, especially teenagers, tend to come across as shrill, which doesn’t fit the author’s depiction.
It’s easy to see why Jess and Dan were once so deeply in love and, as I heard their interactions, it was more than apparent that those feelings hadn’t completely died for either of them. Their romance is believable and they indeed make a good couple. Jess tends to be rash, headstrong, and incredibly focused on what she thinks is right. Dan, a little more levelheaded, and way less willing to bend the rules, is a good balance for her.
Webb does a fine job with both the romance and the suspense. Although I had some suspicions about the villain’s identity, I certainly didn’t have it all figured out and appreciated the twists that were thrown in. Evil is definitely examined and Webb has a knack for writing some pretty twisted characters. In my opinion, this sets her apart from many who write in this genre. Her characters are far from run-of-the-mill, which made listening to their story all the more enjoyable.
We see two separate cases unfolding in Obsession. One involves the missing women and the other is the case that has caused Jess so much trouble with the bureau. One is solved by the end of the book, but Webb leaves us hanging with the other. So, if you aren’t a fan of cliffhanger endings, make sure you have access to the second in the series, Impulse, which is also available from Tantor. I definitely plan to read it, and, although I would prefer a different narrator, Carol Schneider won’t make or break the next book for me.
Shannon
Narration: C+
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Graphic
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Obsession was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.
