Paying the Piper cover art

Paying the Piper

Fleetwood and Sheils, Book 1

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Paying the Piper

By: Simon Wood
Narrated by: Mel Foster
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About this listen

A serial kidnapper known as the Piper spent years snatching children from San Francisco’s wealthiest families. When crime reporter Scott Fleetwood got himself involved in one of the cases, the Piper went from kidnapper to murderer…and vanished.

Now, after Fleetwood has languished under crippling guilt and public scorn for eight years, the Piper emerges from hiding to kidnap Fleetwood’s son. He’s demanding $2 million, but it’s not really about the money: the Piper wants blood - and he’s going to use Fleetwood to get it.

In the pulse-pounding tradition of Harlan Coben and Gregg Hurwitz, Simon Wood hangs listeners on hooks of suspense and action, leaving them white-knuckled until the bloody, bitter end.

©2012 Simon Wood (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction Exciting

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All stars
Most relevant
Story was a good listen. kept my interest but narration took some getting used to ... 3 characters suspicious, whining and sneaky 😏

Good story

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I chose this on the off chance, after reading a couple reviews.
It's always a bit difficult judging from reviews as everyone likes different things.
I found this fast paced and absorbing. All the characters were good and strong. I even felt myself leaningg towards liking the baddies.
It's a gripping story that carries you along as it unfolds into an ending I for one, didn't see coming..
I really enjoyed it, I'd recommend to my friends who I know like the same type of books.

Decent Read!

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I couldn't stop listening to this one and in the garden one day in my wellies and headphones in, I started shouting at the different characters. Had me gripped and I really enjoyed the story.

Disturbed me slightly that I found myself liking a certain character.

Brilliantly written.

Had me shouting in my wellies!

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Story was engaging but I really disliked the narration, intonation was like bad acting and voiced adopted for the characters was laughable.

Terrible narration

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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Gosh, I have no idea.

Would you ever listen to anything by Simon Wood again?

I'm not sure. It's possible that the narration killed it. It just became ridiculous, I think, and I had to stop listening. I struggled through until the second kidnap and then it got so annoying I just deleted it from my iPod.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Mel Foster?

Pretty much anybody, to be honest! If he was just reading the book without trying to do different voices it might have been better. Kevin Pierce, Scott Brick, Mikael Naramore and Adam Grupper are all excellent narrators.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I think the plot had some good ideas and it could have been very exciting.

Very disappointing

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