This is my first experience with author Colleen Cross and narrator Petrea Burchard.
Katerina Carter is a down-on-her luck forensic accountant trying to find success with her own private investigation firm. It isn’t going well and she’s about to shut the doors. She’s approached about a huge corporate theft and it’s the opportunity to get her own finances back in the black.
The book starts slowly, bogged down quite a bit by a huge amount of exposition in long monologues used explain certain facts/history/procedures. While the facts about accounting, blood diamonds, and corporate stocks were interesting and necessary for the book, I wish this had been broken up a bit and perhaps been presented during more natural dialogue. At times it felt more like someone reading off large chunks of Wikipedia rather than a conversation.
About a third of the way through, the pacing picks up quite a bit and the mystery/thriller aspect is much more enjoyable. The biggest issue here is that Katerina does a lot of thoughtless, dangerous, and downright illegal acts that stretch believability.
That said, there’s an interesting plot, intriguing characters, and a resolution that wasn’t predictable. I’m looking forward to listening to the next book in the series, Game Theory.
Narration:
I liked the narration by Petrea Burchard. She had a wide range of voices and accents. Unfortunately, the voices for Cindy and Susan weren’t always consistent between chapters. It wouldn’t keep me from listening to her in the future though.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from FreeAudiobookCodes.com and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.