Narrated by Kaleo Griffith
I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Kaleo Griffith’s narrations and it was so much fun to catch up with the I-Team gang in the recently-released-on-audio, Dead by Midnight. I admit I bought the book when it first came out but it has languished on the TBR of Doom. As my TBL is much shorter, I was so happy this one is finally available on audio. Pamela Clare has self-published this book and it took a while to make it happen but I’m sure fans of the series will be all over it.
It’s not a book that stands alone well. While there is a tightly plotted suspense story at the backbone of Dead by Midnight, there are so many previous characters, their history imported into the backstory, I think it would be difficult to fully enjoy the audio without knowing who everyone is. Also, the novel starts off with a bang – literally. Gabe and Kat are having sex. If I didn’t know who Gabe and Kat were it would have been difficult for me to care about them. I love the I-Team books and would recommend all of them but this book is for fans – start at the beginning with Extreme Exposure and save this one until last is my advice.
When I say I caught up with the I-Team gang, I mean that literally. Every hero and heroine ever from the I-Team books appears in Dead by Midnight – even the ones from the novellas. Some of them are fairly short appearances but everybody has a turn. That’s not a complaint – the way the story weaves the characters in makes sense and I knew going in what to expect.
What saves the story from being just fan service is that there IS a story there. Various heroes and heroines from the series are attending Christmas events at the Palace Hotel in Denver when a terrorist group takes over the venue and holds more than 300 people hostage. Some of our favourites are hostages, some are in the hotel and working to takedown the bad guys, some are waiting, worried, at home, and the rest come into play because they are law enforcement helping save the day. (The only exception is Laura – whose appearance is one of the briefest – she’s doing stellar reporting of the crisis of course.)
Most of the action takes place over less than 12 hours and as I said earlier, it is tightly plotted. It’s also scarily possible. Sure, Marc Hunter channels a bit of Bruce Willis from Die Hard (that was very deliberate, I believe) but I had no trouble believing he was capable of what he achieved and, everything he did made sense.
In some ways Dead by Midnight is an extended epilogue to the I-Team series. It should surprise no-one that there are babies everywhere – Kat is 8 months pregnant when the book begins and Holly and Nick are arguing over when/if to start a family. If I had my druthers there’d be some representation from a family who chooses to be childless, as not everyone wants children and that is as valid a choice as any other. That’s really my only substantive criticism of the book. I otherwise lapped it up. Catching up with some of my favourite characters was fun and I raced through the listen. The tension was palpable. It was, in many ways, a romance-packed (and I do mean packed) and better-plotted version of Die Hard in my ears.
I’ve read and listened to most of the previous books in the series but it’s been a long time between audio releases and I haven’t heard Kaleo Griffith narrate much for most of that time. I really had forgotten just how much I enjoyed his performances. His female voices have either improved or I misremembered what they were like initially. His accents are great and he even changes up the various hero voices so it is relatively easy to distinguish between them. I say relatively because there are a lot of heroes in this book. (Again, not a complaint!)
One thing which doesn’t translate so well for me from page to audio are gun and explosion noises. Bam! Bam! or rat-tat-tat-tat! on the page is one thing but in my ears it sounded just a little… silly. Mr. Griffith did the best he could but a grown man making gun noises feels a bit weird. Perhaps that’s just me.
There was one portion in the book where Kat was singing softly in her Navajo language and Mr. Griffith sang it in her voice and it was so good! I’ve always appreciated the way Ms. Clare respects the various ethnicities of her characters and Mr. Griffith’s narration has also always delivered in this regard too.
Dead By Midnight is popcorn and choc-tops in audiobook form (do Americans have choc-tops in movies theatres too?) and I mean that in the best way.
Kaetrin
Buy Dead by Midnight by Pamela Clare on Amazon
