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A Friend in the Dark

An Auden & O'Callaghan Mystery, Book 1

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A Friend in the Dark

By: C.S. Poe, Gregory Ashe
Narrated by: Garrett Kiesel
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About this listen

Rufus O’Callaghan has eked out a living on the streets of New York City by helping the police put away criminals as a confidential informant. But when Rufus shows up for an arranged meeting and finds his handler dead, his already-uncertain life is thrown into a tailspin. Now someone is trying to kill Rufus too, and he’s determined to find out why.

After leaving the Army under less than desirable circumstances, Sam Auden has drifted from town to town, hitching rides and catching Greyhounds, until he learns that a former Army buddy, now a police detective in New York City, has died by suicide. Sam knows that’s not right, and he immediately sets out to get answers.

As Rufus and Sam work together to learn the truth of their friend’s death, they find themselves entangled in a web of lies, cover-ups, and accelerating danger. And when they witness a suspect killed in cold blood, they realize they’re running out of time.

©2020 C.S. Poe, Gregory Ashe (P)2020 C.S. Poe, Gregory Ashe Romance Romantic Suspense Suspense New York

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Listener received this title free

I was give this audiobook as an advanced listener.
When I reviewed the ebook I voiced the fear that the fact that two of my favourite writers coming together to write a book I was worried that I would be disappointed. That was not the case.

So what does listening to the audiobook add. Garrett Kiesel was a good choice as the narrator. I had wondered if we might get two narrators to give the different perspectives of Rufus and Sam as in the book but it wasn't necessary as Kiesel made their characters and voices distinct and quite quickly I could hear their thoughts and was their with them through their travails.

As previously stated admittedly it was a slow start but the foundation was necessary as the story took off. Rufus and Sam's characters were built so that you wanted to invest in them and both Poe and Ashe know how to write a good story that forces you go along even when you should taking break and getting on with more mundane things.

We need book two as there is much more to understand as to how Rufus and Sam came to be as they are now.
We also need to keep Garrett Kiesel because as the narrator as he is a good find.

A great start to new series

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Rufus has a problem. He’s a CI (confidential informant) for the NYC Police Department and his contact has just been killed and now he’s squarely a target.

Sam’s old buddy was Rufus’ handler, and upon hearing of his former army friend’s death, he heads to NYC to try to figure out what’s going on.

Sam and Rufus are an unlikely pair as they try to figure out what happened. They are attracted to each other – even sleep together – but both have mental health issues that they need to deal with. Oh yeah and crooked cops, human traffickers, and NYC in the summer. Made for an interesting ride.

I wasn’t thrilled with the ending, but I knew there would be more books to come and so held out hope and now that book 2 is out in audio, I’m heading there now.

Garrett Kiesel in a new narrator for me and he did a decent job. Can’t wait to see where Sam and Rufus go next.

The odd couple

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The story premise is good and the characters are likeable. The narration was good too.

Interesting Story

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Listener received this title free

A complimentary audio was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I've read both Gregory Ashe, and CS Poe, but never together. Both talented on their own and as a team, I thought this was good. I know Gregory and CS know how to write lighthearted romance, and I know they can dive deep into the dark. A Friend in the Dark <i>is</i> a darker story. There is romance, but it's harder, more complex.

Rufus is funny and snarky. He's small but might. Sam is rough and tough. He doesn't like to be touched and is all business. Snark and business meet, but there is instant awareness of the other. Neither make it a secret they are interested, but they also have a job to do. Find out who killed their friend Jack. A Friend in the Dark is a twisted story about people who are selfish, greedy, and criminal. There is a <spoiler>child smuggling ring</spoiler> that is part of the events which led to Jack being killed.

I didn't really know what to expect of this story going in and I admit I had to start the audio over because I just didn't connect with it right away and need to try again. It took a while to get through it because this was a darker story so I wasn't always in the mood. It's also full of moving pieces which can be hard to keep track of. That is one problem with audios is it's hard to keep all the characters straight. But I digress. A Friend in the Dark is a good start to a series which I am looking forward to continuing. Eventually I was able to get into the grove of the story, and the characters, so by the end I was enjoying these new MCs. I like the relationship between Sam and Rufus. It's fun. They play off each other so well!

The narration was great. I've never listened to this narrator, Garrett Kiesel, before, but I enjoyed it. I certainly look forward to more audios from him. He treated each MC differently (sometimes that's not the case) and I enjoyed the voice he gave to each.

I do recommend this book and if you have the chance to listen to the audio, I recommend it. I give the story 4 stars and the audio 5.

Dark but good!

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It's such a shame that my enjoyment of this book was ruined by the bad audio editing for this audiobook. There are spaces of several seconds between sentences and character dialogue throughout this story. it made listening to this book stop start frustrating. I tried speeding the audio but it didn't help. I did report the issue to Audible but they did nothing about it.

Terrible audio editing for decent story

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