Although I liked the story, the writing and performance were horrible. Karen Rose could not decide if she was writing a story about a serial killer or a porn story. There was a “love” scene that I would guess was 20 minutes long. I guess, because I stepped through it 30 seconds at a time. There was at least one other ridiculous sex scene, I had to step through as well. She sure loves her word “c#<k”. The caresses, looks, fingers, and hard co&ks were out of place, overdone, and muddled the story. Gideon proved he is in the wrong line of work, especially at the point (trying not to spoil the story) they have evidence they are in the vicinity of a serial killer’s den and he does nothing about calling in the troops until after he has some emotional event, of course this is possibly where the author wavered over which she wanted to write about: a police shade of a serial killer or a love/porn story.
Too many unnecessary lines, words, explaining things over and over again that the reader already knows (unless the author knew we would be fast forwarding).
As for the performance, worst I have ever heard. He pauses in nearly every sentence, statement, word, inappropriately and messing up the flow. I did not like his voice either, but that is personal preference. I ran at a speed of a minimum of 1.25x , much of the time 1.5x, and occasionally at 2x. It closed the incessant gaps and sped the conversation to a normal speed.
I did like the story itself; it would have been better with a different reader and if the author had not been expecting to get paid by the word. It made me wish I didn’t have a commitment to finish every book I start.