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Life or Death

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Life or Death

By: Michael Robotham
Narrated by: John Chancer
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About this listen

Winner of the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger award 2015

Why would a man escape from prison the day before he's due to be released?

Audie Palmer has spent a decade in prison for an armed robbery in which four people died, including two of the gang. Seven million dollars has never been recovered and everybody believes that Audie knows where the money is. For 10 years he has been beaten, stabbed, throttled, and threatened almost daily by prison guards, inmates, and criminal gangs, who all want to answer this same question, but suddenly Audie vanishes, the day before he's due to be released. Everybody wants to find Audie, but he's not running. Instead he's trying to save a life...and not just his own.

2015, CQA Goldsboro Gold Dagger, Short-listed

2016, Edgar Award for Best Novel, Short-listed

©2014 Michael Robotham (P)2014 Hachette Audio Crime Thrillers Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Thriller Fiction Exciting Scary

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All stars
Most relevant

If you could sum up Life or Death in three words, what would they be?

Best book I have read in a long time. Thought it would not be as good as his previous as it is a stand alone book.

What other book might you compare Life or Death to, and why?

It is like nothing I have read before.

Which character – as performed by John Chancer – was your favourite?

All of them came to life so well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No I like to take my time if I can but it was very difficult to with this one.

Any additional comments?

I just wish Michael Robotham would write more books.

Michael Robotham never disappoints.

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This was a fantastic story from beginning to end couldn't stop listening. The reader was absolutely first class and made every character's voice different. Highly recommended

Exceptional story

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First time I gave listens to one of his books. Great start, fast pace, brilliantly narrated. The story was a little predictable at the end, but still a great read.

Brilliantly narrated thriller

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I'm a fan of Robotham's previous work, I must say this is completely different to any of the others I've read but it's absolutely great.

A story of love, conspiracy, injustice and determination it kept me gripped right through. Telling the story of the main character's early life throughout didn't feel like it was crow-barred in at all, it flows really well and apart from a few nasty metaphors I thought it was really well written.

My only criticism is the narrator who I thought read-well but did a terrible job of the voices, losing track of who was who and clearly with a very smnall repetoir.

Very enjoyable

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As per other reviews it's the Shawshank Redemption; at least it starts off feeling uncomfortably like a close copy. After a few chapters I no longer cared. The story slowly reveals itself and I was gripped. The very good performance added to it - I switch between kindle & audio quite often and started with kindle; sometimes this is annoying if the voice doesn't match that in your head but somehow this didn't happen, the narration helped.

Started off a bit of a cliche but had me hooked pretty soon

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