Narrated by Garrett Kiesel
A Friend in the Dark is book one (of four) in a new series of m/m romantic suspense novels co-authored by Gregory Ashe and C.S. Poe, and it’s a strong start, boasting a well-paced and interesting mystery and two quirky, engaging central characters I’m eager to spend more time with. Narrator Garret Kiesel is new-to-me and, it seems, quite new to audiobook narration in general; so far he has narrated a few non-fiction books with this as his sole venture into fiction. I’m always apprehensive when listening to a new narrator, especially one who is narrating a book I’ve enjoyed; thankfully however, Mr. Kiesel acquits himself reasonably well , but there’s a serious production issue that irritated me, especially during the latter half of the audiobook.
Rufus O’Callaghan has, for a number of years, acted as a CI (confidential informant) for Detective Jake Brower of the NYPD, and over that time, they’ve become friends of a sort. Jake looks out for Rufus – the only person in Rufus’ life ever to have done so – and Rufus feels safe with him, which means a lot to someone whose meagre means keep him barely off the streets. Rufus runs errands for Jake at times, and when the book opens, is on his way to meet with him to pick up a package. When Rufus arrives at the specified location though, there’s no sign of Jake, so he carefully makes his way through the abandoned offices – finding Jake’s body slumped in a shower room, a bullet hole in the centre of his forehead. Rufus barely has time to process this before he’s being shot at, too; he manages to escape and quickly makes his way to Jake’s apartment, to see if he can find any clue as to what was in the package he was supposed to pick up. Horrified, filled with grief and sadness at the loss of the only friend he’s ever really had, Rufus decides he owes it to Jake to find out what he can and take it to the NYPD to help find his murderer.
When Sam Auden – Jake’s former army (and fuck) buddy – hears that his old friend has committed suicide, he doesn’t buy it. No way in hell would Jake have taken his own life, and that conviction, combined with the odd email Jake sent him two days before he died, sends Sam to New York looking for answers. When he arrives, he makes straight for the precinct Jake worked out of, but his conversation with Jake’s partner yields little – other than to make him even more certain that something isn’t right. Arriving at Jake’s apartment, Sam is immediately on the alert when he finds the door unlocked; bursting in, gun at the ready, he’s not at all expecting what he finds – a skinny kid with a mop of red hair sitting in an armchair calmly munching his way through a bag of chips.
That’s the set-up; the rest of the story follows Sam and Rufus over the next few days as they attempt to find out why Jake was killed, and a bigger picture emerges, one of betrayal and corruption and some very dirty dealings indeed. It’s perhaps simpler than the mysteries I’m used to finding in Gregory Ashe’s books, but it’s intriguing and suspenseful enough to hold the listener’s interest and to keep the story moving forward at a brisk pace. But the big draw (as it is in any Ashe book) the central characters, and A Friend in the Dark provides two appealing and interesting leads who are, at first glance, total opposites, but who nonetheless strike sparks off each other and who just – ‘click’ as a pairing.
Rufus is far from the kid Sam initially imagines him to be; he’s thirty-three and has clearly had a tough life, although he doesn’t talk about it much. Or at all. He’s tough, smart, resourceful and prone to panic attacks; there’s a lot going on beneath that snarky exterior, but we barely scratch the surface in this book, and I can’t wait to learn more about him as the series progresses. Sam is a few years older, big, brawny and brutally honest, saying what’s in his head without thinking and not really giving a shit. His laid-back demeanour can give the impression he’s something of a bull in a china shop, but while he may lack subtlety, he’s perceptive and observant with a very dry sense of humour, which is a good foil for Rufus’ particular brand of snark. Like Rufus, Sam is also prone to anxiety, although for different reasons; he hates crowds and noise and feeling closed-in, so being in New York is really difficult for him.
The various NYC locations are vividly described (I felt so sorry for Sam being squished onto the subway :() , and the story is well-paced, with moments of introspection and intimacy nicely placed amid the danger and the hustle and bustle of the busy, vibrant city. The character and relationship development is well-done – but be warned, this relationship is a slow burn and while there are some sexytimes, there’s no HEA in sight right now, although I trust both authors enough be sure that there will be one. (When they’re ready!) Also, while the mystery is solved by the end, this book ends on a cliffhanger for Rufus and Sam; the release of book two, A Friend in the Fire, is imminent at time of writing, so there’s not too long to wait to find out what’s next for them in print at least.
As I said at the outset, Garrett Kiesel is fairly new to the world of audiobook narration, and overall, he does a decent job with this book. His pacing is good, his voice is easy to listen to and his characterisation of both leads works, but there are a number of mispronunciations along the way that should have been corrected (he pronounces the word “brooch” as it’s spelled, instead of “broach”, for example). His portrayal of Sam is really good; in fact I’d go so far as to say that Sam sounds pretty much as I’d expected he would, with a deeper pitch and a touch of gravel that accurately conveys his size and his gruff manner. Mr. Kiesel does a good job in capturing Rufus’ prickly, snarky personality, but the pitch and tone he uses are often too close to those of his “narrator” voice, so sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was listening to narrative or dialogue. There are a handful of secondary characters who are all fairly well differentiated, although his female voices are inconsistent and maybe need a bit of work.
As to the production issue I mentioned. I noticed it throughout, but in the second part of the book it seemed to get worse. There are a lot – and I mean a LOT – of unnecessary pauses; between dialogue and tags (he said etc.), between alternating dialogue in conversations – which makes the whole conversation seem stilted – between sentences, between paragraph breaks… and it was difficult to ignore or “unhear” it. A second or two of silence is a long time in an audiobook, and some of these pauses were long enough to have caused me to wonder if my phone battery had died. I’m pretty sure it’s a production issue rather than a narrator issue because, as far as I can recall, none of these pauses occur during phrases or sentences; they’re always at the end/between and again, should have been picked up and fixed during the editing process. (It’s something I come across when working as an audiobook proofer, but never to this extent).
As I’m reviewing the performance as a whole, I have to take this issue into account when awarding a grade for the narration, although it’s perfectly possible that others won’t find it to be as much of an issue as I did.
A Friend in the Dark is a funny, swiftly moving and tightly-plotted story with enough witty banter to satisfy my snark-loving heart, and a couple of endearing protagonists with great chemistry and a strong connection. Garrett Kiesel’s performance is definitely promising and I would listen to him again; hopefully the issue I’ve mentioned won’t be a problem in future books in the series.
Caz
Buy A Friend in the Dark by Gregory Ashe and C.S. Poe on Amazon
I gave up on listening to this, mainly because of the issue with the pauses, but also because of the many mispronunciations. I feel that there were many good points about Garrett Kiesel’s narration but he was let down by whoever was supposed to be editing(?) and directing(?) this audiobook. Sorry, but I’m unsure of how audiobooks are made so have used writing/stage terms.
I enjoyed reading this book and am looking forward to the next one, which is due next month. I have a particular soft-spot for Rufus!
It’s fairly rare for there to be a director in audiobook production these days, even when the performers are recording in a studio as opposed to a home studio, as so many of them do nowadays – and I think it’s often the case that those working at home do the editing themselves. John Solo, for instance, began his audiobook career as an audiobook producer and editor and does all that stuff himself – he does regular live reads in his FB group, which is an interesting look into the process.
GK appears to be new to the business, so if he did edit this, then clearly, he needs to be paying more attention in certain areas. I don’t know if he’ll see this review, but if he does, I hope he will take my comments on board as part of his learning process.
I actually work as one of those “post-production” people; I do audio proofing (as I mentioned) which means I read and listen at the same time and pick up errors like mispronunciations, stylistic errors (such as a narrator using the wrong character voice or accent), background noises, too many/too few pauses etc. etc. and whatever else I hear that needs fixing. Whether they get fixed is, of course, up to the production team/editor (if I’m working for a production company) or the author (on a self-published project), because more studio time = money. I did actually point out the issue with the pauses to Greg after I’d listened, so hopefully he and CSP will be listening out for it next time. (Or they’ll ask me to proof it!!)
I don’t know about the other pronunciations in questions, but “brooch” which rhymes with “smooch” is a less used but acceptable pronunciation for the item in the US. It is probably regional, but my husband pronounced it that when we married and his (well educated parents) did, too. I checked and it’s listed in some dictionaries as a secondary pronunciation.
I’ve never heard it said any other way – but tbh that was the example I pulled because it was one of the last ones in the book and therefore at the front of my brain!
The killer for me was ‘erratically placed desks’ at a murder scene sounding like ‘erotically placed desks’. It was definitely a vowel thing.
I’ve obviously got a thing about vowels!
Hah – yes, I’d forgotten that one by the end. In my defence, the looooong pauses had begun to really irritate me by whatever chapter I mentioned, and they kind of blotted out other mistakes. It’s a shame – it’s a good story and I think GK has potential, but the performance really needed to be overseen more thoroughly.