Audible Original: Sleeping Dogs Lie by Samantha Downing
Sleeping Dogs Lie
Author: Samantha Downing
Narrators:
Melanie Nicholls-King
Lindsey Dorcus
Published: April 1, 2021
Audiobook: 2 hours 8 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Date Listened: August 25, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Novella Description:
From the internationally best-selling author of My Lovely Wife and He Started It comes a twisted, entertaining novella about a dog walker swept into a criminal investigation when her client winds up dead.
Shelby works as a dog walker in Northern California, and she’s just finished up her biweekly trip to the park with a husky named Pluto. When she brings him back to his house, she finds his owner—Todd Burke, a well-known local businessman and founder of an organic supplements company—dead on the bathroom floor. As a detective interviews Shelby, a medical examiner inspects the body, and more cops search Todd’s home, it becomes clear that the victim’s life was less picture-perfect than his clean-cut persona might lead you to believe.
Jessica’s Review:
I loved this novella!! Downing is seemingly becoming a new favorite author for me! This clever novella has all kinds of twists and turns and I was fully engrossed in what was going to happen! I wasn’t expecting to be fully involved in the story of a dog walker.
We have two POVs: The dog walker Shelby who is seemingly caught up in a death case, and the second is the police Detective Grady. What is at first just a death becomes so much more with so many potential guilty parties. I didn’t have any idea on who the guilty party was and was stunned at the conclusion! This fast-paced novella will definitely surprise the listener and also keep them entertained.
The ending was shocking but I also loved it as it was totally unexpected! I had a smile on my face when this audiobook was over!
Book Review: He Started It by Samantha Downing
He Started It
Author: Samantha Downing
Published: July 21, 2020
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 19-29, 2020
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven’t all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we’ll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.
But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.
It’s even harder when you’re all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory—a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won’t stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there’s a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.
But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.
Jessica’s Review:
I recently listened to Downing’s debut novel My Lovely Wife and absolutely loved it, so much that right after finishing it I picked up the audiobook of He Started It. I also enjoyed this one.
This is the road trip that you don’t ever want to go on: Estranged siblings who have not seen each other in years must come back together to earn their inheritance by taking a return road trip that they took with their grandfather when they were younger, and also complete his final wish.
Everything is not as it seems as ALL the characters have many secrets, some deadly. And it appears they have a stalker that is following them across the country…. Or is it a stalker???
He Started It goes back and forth between the past and present: The past is the road trip taken when they were kids, and the present with the repeat road trip. None of the characters are likeable and this family was very dysfunctional in the past and even more so now. The novel did drag some for me but then when it got to the ending, I was blown away and totally not expecting things to happen in the way that they did. The ending did make the parts that dragged on worth it for me
This is one that I do recommend, but definitely read Downing’s debut!!!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Book Review: My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
My Lovely Wife
Author: Samantha Downing
Published: March 26, 2019
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 10-18, 2020
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
A couple’s fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting…
Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored.
We look like a normal couple. We’re your neighbors, the parents of your kid’s friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with.
We all have secrets to keeping a marriage alive.
Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.
Jessica’s Review:
OMG, this was a perfect thriller for me: And just look at the cover for this one!! It is PERFECT! My Lovely Wife is about a couple who decide to spice up their 15 year marriage… by adding murder to the mix. And not just that, getting it blamed on a serial killer who previously got away.
Our narrator is the unnamed husband and oh wow: For being both our protagonist AND antagonist, I was fully invested in this story from the start! To root for our unnamed narrator or hope he and his wife Millicent get caught… You’ll feel both emotions in this intense cat and mouse game. There is a twist I figured out but it is still is quite the roller coaster of a thriller. I have had some issues with sub-par thrillers this year and this one has made up for the other reads I had issues with.
My Lovely Wife is one that the further you get into it while reading, the quicker you will want to read to get to the ending to see what ultimately happens, and… what an ending it is!
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator projected well with the husband but I had issues when he changed his voice around for female characters. I did not like it, but was so intently listening to the story that it did not really take much away for me.
I very highly recommend this one. Go ahead and get on this wild ride of a debut novel from Samantha Downing!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK