Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan Narrator: Amy McFadden
Published by Harlequin Audio, HarperAudio on December 28, 2021
Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Length: 11 hours, 30 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Libro.fm, Barnes & Noble, Apple
A popular sorority girl. An unsolved murder. A campus podcast with chilling repercussions.
Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party one night and never came back. Her body was found after two weeks, but the case has grown cold. Three years later while interning at the medical examiner's, Lucas discovers new information, but the police are not interested.
Lucas knows he has several credible pieces of the puzzle. He just isn't sure how they fit together. So he creates a podcast to revisit Candace's last hours. Then he encourages listeners to crowdsource what they remember and invites guest lecturer Regan Merritt, a former US marshal, to come on and share her expertise.
New tips come in that convince Lucas and Regan they are onto something. Then shockingly one of the podcast callers turns up dead. Another hints at Candace's secret life...a much darker picture than Lucas imagined - and one that implicates other sorority sisters. Regan uses her own resources to bolster their theory and learns that Lucas is hiding his own secret. The pressure is on to solve the murder, but first Lucas must come clean about his real motives in pursuing this podcast - before the killer silences him forever.
I am a fan of Allison Brennan and knew I wanted The Sorority Murder as soon as I heard about it. The main characters are very well developed and I liked and understood them. They had their own flaws but were mostly good people. The “villain” was less well developed which made the character easy to dislike. Some of the other supporting characters were well enough developed to feel realistic with their personal attitudes and foibles.
There is a interspliced narrative of Candace who is the murdered sorority girl, in flashbacks and in entries from her journal which show who she is and eventually why she was killed. It is extremely sad she was killed for basically wanting to do the right thing. The murder happened when Lucas was a freshman and he is a senior now, so three years ago.
Lucas is the driver of the whole story. I won’t spoil why as that unfolds throughout the book. He is a criminal forensics major and is doing a podcast about the murder as a final project. I love this idea and it made the book very fun. He did a great job of organizing the data, asking good questions and drawing people in to provide more information. I sort of wish the podcast had been a bit more of the focus. Lucas spent much of his time investigating and following up leads while not doing the podcast. He was successful in learning much more about the murder, but also put himself in the crosshairs of the killer.
There were the well-developed characters, the fun podcast, the intelligent dedicated investigation, the suspense of wondering what really happened, fearing for favored characters in the past and present, and exciting action. I really loved reading and highly recommend it.
Narration:
I know this narrator’s name and would have sworn I have listened to her before but it seems I haven’t. I was comfortable with her performance of both male and female voices. She did distinguish between the voices and her natural voice felt closest to Regan. Her voice for Lucas felt just a little bit young. Of course, all the characters are young to me. I listened at my usual at 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip:
About Allison Brennan
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Allison Brennan believes that life is too short to be bored, so she had five children and writes three books a year. Allison recently relocated from Northern California to Arizona with her husband and two youngest children.
Allison has penned more than three dozen thrillers and many short stories. COLD SNAP was a finalist for Best Thriller in the Thriller Awards (ITW) and FEAR NO EVIL (2007) and COMPULSION (2015) won the Daphne du Maurier award. Allison has been nominated multiple times for RWA’s Best Romantic Suspense award, and the Kiss of Death’s Daphne award. She currently writes the Lucy Kincaid/Sean Rogan thriller series, and is launching the Mobile Response Team series in February 2020.
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I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 22-COYER
I almost started this one yesterday but opted instead for Frankie Elkin. Can’t wait to get going, especially after reading your excellent review💜 I feel like I’ve listened to Amy McFadden before, too, and found the book by Brenda Novak that she narrated well. Glad she worked out with this one, too.
Thank you Jonetta. I’m just finishing an Elizabeth George book today and then it’s on to the Franky Elkin book myself.
I enjoyed this one too. I thought the narration was well done.
I pretty much liked everything about it.
As you know I really enjoyed this one, too. I alternated between the audio book and reading, and really liked the narrator as well. I wonder if we’ll get more mysteries with Regan or Lucas in the future. Fab review, Anne!
Thanks Rachel. I’d be happy to have more mysteries with them. Somehow I see it more as Regan because Lucas will be in the lab but he might support her private investigations with info.
I am a fan of Allison Brennan, too, and I so can’t wait to read this one! 😀
I am a fan also. I wish I could manage reading more of her work.
I couldn’t fit it in right away, but it will be a library wait list read for me. Love seeing how much you liked it.
It’s really good. I hope you enjoy it too.
This looks really good, Anne, and like Sophia I couldn’t fit it in. I will add it to my wishlist!
It is really good. I am an auto read on Brennan’s new stuff and would like to get to more of her backlist.
I haven’t read anything by this author in a long while. I do like the sound of this. I don’t read many mysteries like this anymore–mostly I seem to go for historical or cozy mysteries these days, but I will have to check this one out.
It’s good. I’m a fan of her current work.
I don’t think that I have read Allison Brennan before but this sounds really good. I may have to see if I can get my hands on it at some point.
I really enjoy the author and this one is nice as it’s either a standalone or the first in a series.
I’ve had my eye on this book but hadn’t seen any reviews for it yet. Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much.
I’m a big fan of the author and there were many aspects about this one which were a bit different which I liked.
Ooh, I can’t wait to read this one. Very excited about it.
I was excited too. I really enjoy what I’ve read by Allison Brennan.