Her Dying Breath by Rita Herron

A note from Shannon: As you read this review, you’ll see the word “read” a lot. Please know that, in this review, as well as in others I have written, the word “read” technically means listen. I am totally blind, so all my reading is done auditorialy. When I talk about reading for twenty-four hours, I technically listened for that period of time.

Narrated by Tanya Eby

In early December, a group of friends and I decided to do what we called a readathon. We started at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and read all the way through until 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning. It was exhausting but a lot of fun. It was during that twenty-four hour reading spree that I first encountered Rita Herron’s Slaughter Creek series. Dying to Tell was the book I read during my readathon and I loved it. I was excited to see Her Dying Breath available for review.

Spoiler Alert

If you haven’t read Dying to Tell, you probably don’t want to read this review. Because of the nature of the story, spoilers are unavoidable.

Her Dying Breath picks up where Dying to Tell left off. The small town of Slaughter Creek, Tennessee is rocked by the discovery that several of its children had been subjected to psychological experimentation at a local sanitarium. One of the men responsible is in custody, but the case is far from being solved.

Agent Nick Blackwood is the son of the man responsible for the experimentation. He suffered unspeakable abuse at his father’s hands. At the age of eighteen, he left home, vowing never to return. Now though, his brother Jake, sheriff of Slaughter Creek needs his help, and Nick is reluctantly drawn back into the drama of his family.

Brenda Banks is an investigative reporter who has lived in Slaughter Creek all her life. She is as surprised as everyone else to learn of the horrible things Arthur Blackwood had done, but she wants to make things right for the victims by telling their stories. Amelia, the twin sister of Jake Blackwood’s wife, seems like a good place to start, but Amelia isn’t sure she’s ready to talk about the horrors she experienced.

Someone else isn’t feeling quite so reticent though. Brenda begins receiving text messages in the form of limericks. These messages soon make it clear that the Blackwood brothers haven’t discovered the identities of all the children their father experimented on, and one of them is out for revenge.

Brenda and Nick are thrown together by the investigation. Brenda has carried a torch for Nick since their high school days, but Nick wants nothing to do with her. He wants his life to be as uncomplicated as it possibly can. He views Brenda as a nuisance, a nosey reporter only out for a story. As the book progresses, he comes to respect and, as you might guess, even love her, but that’s a long time coming.

Tanya Eby is a skilled narrator. I’ve listened to her several times before, and I’ve never been disappointed. This time was no exception.

I thought she did a brilliant job capturing the personalities of the main characters. Nick is an angry man who has walled off his heart. He’s prone to outbursts of rage, and Eby’s low, rough depiction of him matches Herron’s writing. Even when he isn’t actually angry, he sounds like he’s on the verge. I found him to be a very believable, if not an entirely likable, character.

Brenda is ambitious to a fault. She does care about the well-being of the residents of Slaughter Creek, especially the families affected by Arthur Blackwood’s experiments. However, she wants to make a name for herself as an investigative journalist. She’s not exactly callus, but I never got the impression she was overflowing with compassion. Eby gives her a very brusque, business-like way of speaking, and this suited her well. There are times when Brenda is more wistful, and Eby shows us the softer side of this character too. I had no trouble telling what mood Brenda was in.

When we meet Arthur Blackwood, Eby makes it plain this is a man with no conscience. He’s not sorry for the mess he has made of other peoples’ lives. He feels no remorse, and this is portrayed well through Eby’s skillful narration. His voice is much deeper than Nick’s, and a lot colder too.

My one criticism of Eby’s narration has to do with characters of the same gender. It can be difficult to tell them apart. Jake and Nick sound very similar and, without the use of dialogue tags, it would have been difficult to tell who was speaking. Eby didn’t have as much trouble with the female characters, but I still had to pay close attention to be sure I knew who was talking at any given time.

This was a book that was heavy on the suspense, and light on the romance. We know Brenda has feelings for Nick and that he is fighting not to have feelings for her. However, all of this takes somewhat of a backseat to the fact that a killer is stalking the men of Slaughter Creek. There are scenes when the sexual tension starts to build but, almost every time, some development in the case breaks the mood. So, if you’re looking for a steamy romance, this won’t be it.

I definitely recommend Her Dying Breath to those of you who like a gripping thriller. However, if you hope to understand any of what happens in the book, you need to read Book 1 first. I stayed up until nearly three in the morning to finish listening to this book. There were times I found myself startled by the wind outside my window, or the noises my house makes as it settles. That’s how engrossed I was.

Sadly, this book ends with a cliffhanger, just as Dying to Tell did. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out how things turn out for the residents of Slaughter Creek.

Shannon

Narration:  A-

Book Content:  A

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Graphic as well as domestic

Genre:  Romantic Suspense

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio

Her Dying Breath was provided to AudioGals for review by Brilliance Audio.