Narrated by Nelson Hobbs
Out of Control was the first full length Shannon McKenna novel I read back in the day. It remains my favourite. As the title suggests, it’s a wild ride and the action doesn’t really let up for the entire book. So much is going on that it is easy to forget that mere days pass before the grand finale. Even so, then and now, I didn’t have a problem believing Davy and Margot belonged together.
The book begins with Mag Callahan, LA web designer, coming home from a business trip to find a pair of panties in her bed that definitely do not belong to her. Her biometrics engineer boyfriend, Craig Caruso, has clearly been cheating and, after turfing all of his belongings out of her house, she heads to his office to give him a piece of her mind. However, when she arrives at his office studio, he is in the process of being brutally murdered. Mag is rendered unconscious by an unknown assailant and wakes up sometime later, alone and naked except for an ugly gold snake pendant, in a hotel room with no idea what has happened. It quickly becomes clear that Craig and his assistant have been killed and she is the No. 1 suspect.
Nine months later, “Margot Vedder” (that’s her name, she paid good money for those documents) is living and working in Seattle. Strange things are happening – someone left rose petals on her porch, the web design business she worked for briefly burned down, a skinned dog was left on her doorstep and she has that creepy feeling that someone is watching her. One of the many part time jobs she has is as an aerobics instructor at a local gym which shares space with a dojo run by Davy McCloud. Davy’s brother Sean works out in the same gym where Margot works. He suggests to Margot that she speak to Davy about the problems she’s been having because Davy is also a private detective. Sean has ulterior motives of course – he thinks they’d be great together.
Davy is the eldest McCloud brother and raised his younger siblings from the age of 14 when his mother died and his dad went completely off the rails. He is a born protector and those instincts, as well as his libido, are raised by Margot. She is beautiful and feisty and very, very scared.
Margot is initially reluctant to tell her story to Davy and, as he is getting out of the detective business, she doesn’t see why he would want to help her. She has little money and is running very low on trust. But Davy is persistent and bribes her with Mexican food – Margot hasn’t had a decent meal in weeks.
When Margot’s stalker ups the ante and people around her start to turn up dead, she thinks it is time to run again. Davy prevails upon her to stay and together they try and piece together what happened to Craig and why she is the focus of “Snakey’s” attentions.
In the meantime, Davy and Margot act on their attraction and find a connection and chemistry neither has known before. Like all McKenna heroes, Davy has extraordinary stamina and refractory powers and is a massive horndog when it comes to his ladylove. They have a lot of hot sex. Both main characters have their scars and it is through sex that they become truly vulnerable to each other. There is a push/pull to their relationship, with one closing down or pulling away while the other seeks to move closer (and vice versa) but things move so quickly, there wasn’t really time for me to become frustrated with it.
Along the way, Margot is also absorbed into the McCloud and Friends fold, making connections with Sean, Seth & Raine (Behind Closed Doors), Miles, Cindy, and the mysterious Tamara.
The action and violence are over the top and the bad guys are really bad. There is some villain POV which is a bit creepy but it is not as graphic as some of the Nora Roberts villains I’ve shared POV space with.
I was impressed with Nelson Hobbs’ narration of Behind Closed Doors. He managed there to have a different voice for every cast member. I didn’t love his depiction of Davy in that book; his pitch was a bit rough and cartoonish; not at all how I imagined him. I actually wondered whether Mr. Hobbs would be able to sustain that sound without seriously hurting himself for an entire book. I’m pleased to say that he changed his portrayal of Davy for Out of Control. This is good because the voice was closer to what I was expecting but bad, because it creates an inconsistency across the audio series. Davy in Out of Control sounds an awful lot like Seth from Behind Closed Doors.
Mr. Hobbs is great with female character voices. They’re among the very best I’ve heard from a male narrator and sound believably feminine. He also created a particularly creepy and oily voice for Marcus Worthington, the big bad villain and “Snakey” handler (har har) aka his younger brother, Ferris.
Davy and Margot have an intense sexual chemistry and this comes across on audio through Mr. Hobbs’ performance. He delivers the intimate scenes with skill and confidence, without overplaying things.
There were a few small errors where the wrong character voice was briefly used and a couple of odd pauses mid-conversation but overall, the narration was excellent.
I know I’m a bit biased because this is my favourite Shannon McKenna book. Sure it has flaws – I really don’t want to think too much about the believability factor of the suspense plot – but Davy and Margot (and especially Davy) are such compelling characters, listening to them fall in love again was a treat.
Kaetrin
Narration: A-
Book Content: A-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in (but at the hotter end of the scale)
Violence: Graphic
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Out of Control was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.
