The Silent Ones

 The Silent Ones by Linda Coles 

This one is a mystery, more in the style of Agatha Christie than James Cameron. It reveals itself slowly but still stays interesting. I didn't know till I was almost finished that it's book #3 in a series about private detective, Chrissy Livingstone. Fortunately, I didn't find that made any difference at all and it held up well as a stand-alone book. 

The story begins with Chrissy and husband Adam, her sister, Julie and husband Richard, settling into a vacation rental in Ireland. They meet another vacationing couple at the local bar and spend the evening enjoying each other's company. But when Chrissy decides to drop in to say hello a few days later, they are nowhere to be found. Only their baby son, Flynn, remains in their vacation rental. Horrified at finding him abandoned, Chrissy packs him up and takes him back to their place to try and figure out what has happened to his parents. 

Because new clues are given out bit by bit, I developed a different theory every chapter or so about what was really going on, every single one of them wrong. I like it when a mystery can still surprise me. 

I enjoyed the story, implausible though it seemed at times, but I may have liked it more for the narrator's lovely Irish lilt than for the plot itself. Her voice gave it a charm I might not have found in its written form. Even after using audio books for a few years, I'm still surprised by how easy it is to overlook not-so-well-written parts when a melodious and expressive voice is reading them, and equally how an unappealing voice can ruin a book I might otherwise love. Am I influenced too much by the narrator? Should I be able to get past the voice to the content? I'd like to hear your opinions and your experience with audio books.