Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Frighteningly evil bad guy, and interesting romantic development.

I read this nine years ago and gave it 4 stars. I recently bought the audiobook and changed my opinion. It’s a definite 5 stars. Nine years ago I guess I wanted more emotional draw. But now I think it’s great just the way it is.

Victor Slezak narrated the audiobook. He is excellent.

My original review from nine years ago follows.

STORY BRIEF:
Two stories are being told. The first story is about Maris, an editor and executive in her father’s publishing company Matherly Press. Noah was a famous author who came to work at Matherly Press. He and Maris married. Maris recently read an unsolicited manuscript in her slush pile. It was a prologue titled “Envy� submitted by P.M.E. with no phone and no address. She loved it and eventually finds the author (Parker Evans) living on an island off Georgia. She travels there to discuss the book. She ends up staying longer than she planned.

The second story is “Envy� (the novel Parker is writing). “Envy� starts with Todd, Roark and a girl renting a boat. They had been drinking. Something happens and the boat returns with only Todd on it. The story then goes back in time showing Todd and Roark before the boating accident. They had been college roommates and aspiring authors.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
Very good. Solid writing. None of my pet peeves. It’s an in depth mystery with some nice romantic development. After I had been reading for over an hour, I was so worried about what would happen to the good guys that I had to read the ending before going back to finish the story. Then I was able to relax a little more and enjoy it. The bad guy was frighteningly evil and deceptive. Mystery lovers should love it. To get 5 stars from me I would have wanted a little more wow factor or emotional draw. This was more of an intellectual draw, but very, very good. The sex scenes were a little weak on passion/emotion, but should appeal to romance lovers. Mystery/thriller lovers might not want the sex scenes.

I noticed other reviewers saying there is not much mystery because one can guess a key plot point early on. I too guessed this, but other mysteries remained about what the main characters were going to do and how they were going to do it. I was fine with the mystery.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 549 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 6. Total number of sex scene pages: 15. Setting: 1985 � 2002 Manhattan, NY, St. Anne Island, Georgia, Key West, Florida, and Tennessee. Copyright: 2001. Genre: romantic suspense, mystery suspense thriller.