A Guide to Suzanne Brockmann Audiobooks

37 thoughts on “A Guide to Suzanne Brockmann Audiobooks”

1. I’m a fan of Force of Nature (I adore Jules and Robin) and Hot Pursuit (Cosmo!) and anything with Sam and Alyssa in it (especially Sam) and Heartthrob and Bodyguard.

   I haven’t listened to the interviews yet so I’m hoping my questions aren’t redundant. Here goes:-

   @Suzanne Brockmann – you probably covered this in the interview so apologies in advance if so, but how many books are you planning for the Reluctant Heroes series? Will we see more or Martell Griffin? Will there be any other TS characters either cameo-ing or featured? I reckon Do or Die would make a great movie – do you have any interest in any of your books being made into movies?

   @Patrick Lawlor – I hear your voice reading the TS series even when I’m reading in print – so even though I may not actually be listening to the book, you’re still bringing something to my reading experience! Even though I finished reading Do or Die as an ebook earlier this week, I’m definitely planning on getting the audio and listening to it as well. (I haven’t listened to that many books with Melanie narrating yet but I expect it will be the same for me regarding her performance too soon).

   @Melanie Ewbank & @Patrick Lawlor – Was it a difficult, most particularly during the early part of the narration of Do or Die, to voice Shelly? It occurred to me that character may have been more of a narration challenge on audio…

   @Melanie Ewbank – apologies if this also is covered in the interview (which I haven’t listened to yet) – do you and Patrick collaborate on the narration in terms of pronunciation/characterisation or do you each have a separate process which is joined together later in the editing room?

   1. “@Suzanne Brockmann – you probably covered this in the interview so apologies in advance if so, but how many books are you planning for the Reluctant Heroes series? Will we see more or Martell Griffin? Will there be any other TS characters either cameo-ing or featured? I reckon Do or Die would make a great movie – do you have any interest in any of your books being made into movies?”

      Hi, Kaetrin!

      Right now, there are three books planned for the Reluctant Heroes series/story arc.

      Martell is the hero of the next book, which is called ALL OR NOTHING, and has a (very) tentative release date of Feb. 2015. :-) You’ll be seeing more of Deb and Yashi in the series, too. (And I’m always looking for reasons to bring Jules into each and every book!)

      I’m glad you enjoyed DO OR DIE. Ever since I co-wrote my indie movie, THE PERFECT WEDDING, I’ve been extra hyper aware of how SHORT movies really are. My husband Ed has been focusing a lot of his time and attention on writing screenplays, and he recently did an adaptation of one of my earlier Bantam Loveswept titles, a short little romcom called KISS AND TELL. The book clocks in around 55K words, and it fit into a 90 min/2 hour screenplay format pretty nicely — with not a *whole* lot cut out.

      In contrast, DO OR DIE has a word count of around 165K words — there’d be a lot to have to carve away to fit that into a feature length movie. I’d love to see it made into a series, though. THAT would be fun. :-)

      1. I have a review of Do or Die going up on my own blog in a few days – I read the print version over the weekend. There were aspects to it that reminded me of the best bits of movies like Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job and The A-Team – it was a bit like watching a movie of it happening in my head when I was reading. Lots of fun.

   2. Kaetrin,

      Thanks for the kind words! I love reading these books, and it is extremely gratifying that you associate my voice with them! As far as Shelly, there wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue for Shelly early on, but we certainly did have to map it out a bit before recording it. ;-)

   3. Hello Kaetrin! Patrick and I do collaborate when preparing. After the first read we share notes and decide on pronunciation and consult about voices. We check with Suz to make sure we’re on track and then goooo! Typically we record together and that really helps with continuity. Thanks for the interest! All best listening!

      1. That’s so cool. I think when there is a dual narration, if the narrators are communicating and working with each other, the end result has to be better and more seamless.

         1. That’s what we think, too. A lot of times, we’re actually in the booth together, and THAT is the best! We really feed off of each other and build on what has gone before. It makes the process really fun (especially with Suz’s writing), and I think, makes a better overall piece. I love it. Even if Melanie DOESN’T react to the funny faces I make at her while she’s being all romantic ‘n stuff during the mushy scenes! ;)

2. I see that Born in Darkness is listed as a stand alone. I thought it was the first book in a series. Did Suzanne decide not to continue the series?

   1. Oops- Born to Darkness

      1. Hi, Lee!

         BORN TO DARKNESS is the first book in my FIGHTING DESTINY series, but I’ve yet to write the sequels. I’m still hoping to do that at some point.

         FYI, I’ve got a YA novel coming out in October, from Sourcebooks, co-written with my daughter Melanie, called NIGHT SKY, and it’s set in the same world as BtoD. (There aren’t any cross over characters, but the world and the threats are the same.) (We’re hoping to release an audiobook — but there are no definite plans just yet!)

      2. Born To Darkness. Loooooooooooooove this book!

3. Thanks so much for this guide, Lea! I’ve been meaning to start the Troubleshooter series for a long time but didn’t like that narrator of the first book. Now that I know they will be re-recorded, I just wait until the Summer!

   1. Yes! I’ll make sure I let Lea and the other AudioGals know when I have more definite dates about THE UNSUNG HERO’s release in the dual narrator format with Patrick and Melanie!

      (I’m so jazzed about that!!!!!)

4. Oh, when going over my favorites I forgot all about Forbidden, which was one of my earliest audiobooks! I need to do another relisten.

   As far as I can tell, the unabridged recordings of TSS books 7, 8, and 9 are not available right now in any media, download or CD, new – is that right? But they are available in – [shudder] – abridged CDs, so buyer beware. Tell me there won’t be anymore abridged recordings! I want every word in my audiobooks!

   1. Oh, yes, Melinda! Let’s make sure everyone knows (especially those who are new to audiobooks!!!!) about the dreaded abridged versions.

      AVOID abridgments, dear listeners!

      The good news is, with the popularity of audio downloads overtaking the desire for hardcopy (ie expensive!) audio CDs or cassettes (Cassettes! Audiobooks used to come in these giant packs of a million cassette tapes!), audiobook publishers are less inclined to produce abridged (shorter and therefore less expensive) versions of books.

      Authors rejoice over that turn of events, too. In the past, I used to have to approve each abridgment that was done — imagine writing a 130K word book, and having to give a thumbs-up to a version that had been cut down to 60K words. (Yeah, that was hard to do!)

      But those abridged versions (usually in CD format) are still floating around out there.

      Audiobook listeners should carefully check to make sure that they are buying the UNABRIDGED version, or they will be disappointed.

      A reader recently gave one of my audiobooks a try — she was a first time listener and purposely bought one of my books to hear Patrick Lawlor’s reading of a character named Izzy, only to discover she’d bought the abridged version and Izzy’s subplot had been entirely cut out! :-/

      Downloads, however, tend to be unabridged — but always, always doublecheck to be sure!

      Thank you for your time and attention! (Public service message over!) :-)

   2. Amazon does have brand new unabridged copies of books 7 Flashpoint, 8 Hot Target and 9 Breaking point in both MP3-CD and CD format. The numbers are extremely limited but they are there as of right now. Not as easy as a download but available for those in need. :D

      1. Thank you, Brenda!

         You are so kind to look up that info!

         And remember, everyone, say it with me: “UNabridged!” :-)

         1. Searching for all the original audio release dates to go with the above list has me up to date on all things Brockmann audio related – at least for this morning. :D

            I should add – the only audiobook on the above list that isn’t available new (as of 10:00 a.m. Mtn time) as a hard copy or download is Body Language. There are a small handful of unabridged ex library copies available from Amazon Market Place sellers. I grabbed one for myself last night – all my “author in audio” collections must be complete! :)

      2. Brenda – post a URL or it doesn’t count!! I did about 8 minutes of looking this morning and came up empty on those 3 at Amazon.

         1. Hey Melinda I made it easy – each of the embedded links in the titles of Flashpoint, Hot Target and Breaking Point (in the list) take you directly to an unabridged MP3 CD version. I just checked – the stock at Amazon is down to 2 copies of Flashpoint, 1 of Hot Target, and 1 of Breaking Point. :P

            There were CD copies still available this morning (real bargain pricing on those!) but I see they’ve been scooped up – just 4 lonely MP3 copies left between the three titles now…

5. My favorites – most are in print rather than audio format.
   Out of Control – Troubleshooter Series, Book 4
   Over the Edge – Troubleshooter Series, Book 3
   Gone Too Far – Troubleshooter Series, Book 6

   I’m happy to say that it looks as though all of these will eventually be rerecorded. Of course, I’ll enjoy the other books in the series as each is rereleased with new narrators. Yep – I plan a complete relisten once Blackstone starts rereleasing.

   And my fourth is Breaking Point, Troubleshooter Series, Book 9 and I prefer this one in audio format – Patrick and Melanie perform. It’s Max and Gina’s book and includes another round of Jones and Molly – a secondary couple from Out of Control. They deserved their own book!

   1. Thanks, Lea!

      One of my favorite audiobooks recorded by Patrick and Melanie is LETTERS TO KELLY. It’s one of my earlier books, in which the hero is a romance novelist! :-) He writes historicals, and his current WIP is giving him headaches. Patrick’s and Melanie’s performances are hysterically funny, and sweetly poignant! (I laughed, I cried!)

      1. You know, I have Letters to Kelly and haven’t listened to it. I’m moving to my iPod now.

         1. It’s a weird, messy little book — an earlier book, and a not-really-category squeeeeezed into a category romance format. It’s got some really fun quirkiness to it — the excerpts from the historical romance (certain segments of which the hero deletes as he wars with HIS hero!), and the actual letters to Kelly, which are written in the hero’s first person point of view, using second person POV as he “speaks” to Kelly.

            Melanie and Patrick’s performances are amazing! They both get to show their comic chops, and Patrick’s read of the letters is heartbreaking!

            1. There’s no dang LIKE button on this thing! I have to leave actual comments! Letters to Kelly was terrific fun to read. It’s worth the price of admission just to hear Melanie do a rather spectacular pirate!

6. This seems rude but if we already own the old narrations is there a way to get a discount on the re-recordings?

   1. I’ll answer here as I can’t imagine a discount on the rerecorded books.

      A different publisher will be rerecording these first books in the series and the author had no control over those first recordings.

      And I don’t consider your question rude. What goes into publishing an audiobook is so complicated compared to print format – it’s much more than who is performing and most consumers are unaware of the complexities.

   2. Hey, Kate.

      No harm in asking, right? I’ll certainly see if Blackstone is open to the idea of giving a special discount code! I think that’s a great idea! :-)

   3. Let’s hope my thinking proves to be wrong! What a different spin to encourage those who have listened – to relisten to the new version.

7. I haven’t had the pleasure of listening to a book by Brockmann yet–sad, I know!–but I’m hoping to start with Do or Die. I’ve heard that the some of the characters from the Troubleshooters series appear in Do or Die; does that mean I should start reading that series before attempting DoD? Or can DoD stand on it own?

   1. Hi, Diana!

      DO OR DIE stands on its own, so it’s a great place to start. It’s the first book in a new spin-off series, and the cross-over characters (Martell Griffin, and FBI agents Deb and Yashi) come to the book without any (as yet known) emotional baggage! :-)

      I’ve only heard snippets of Patrick and Melanie’s reading of DO OR DIE, but what I’ve heard is great! (I’m going to do a listen during my book tour road trip that starts Friday! Sarasota to Boston — lotta good audiobook listening hours while I’m in the car!)

      — Suz

      1. Thanks! Off to Audible I go… :D

         1. Or checkout Blackstone’s indie-ish version of Audible: http://www.downpour.com

            I have both an audible and a downpour app on my various devices!

8. As a big fan of Heartthrob – Body Guard and Infamous I’m curious to know if you have plans for more stand alone type titles? You know, in your spare time between the next Reluctant Heroes and/or Fighting Destiny series books. ;)

   1. Plans, eh, Brenda?

      I’m currently going with the one-day-at-a-time model for life! LOL!

   2. Uhhhh can anybody say Troubleshooters?! I’m not ready to let that one go! (No pressure Suz!)

9. Once more, AudioGals, thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable experience! We’ll talk soon!

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