IF SHE WAKES

There's something creepy about the voice that narrator Robert Petkoff has chosen for Dax, this thriller's young villain. Sounding a little like Tony Perkins in PSYCHO, Dax, a contract killer, radiates a sociopathic nonchalance that--thanks to Petkoff's articulation--is almost likable. If only he weren't trying to kill the novel's protagonists, Abby, a disgraced stunt driver reduced to insurance investigator, and Tara, a hospitalized college student in a non-communicative state of paralysis known as "locked-in syndrome." These women prove to be resourceful, tenacious, and, in Abby's case, hell on wheels. Author Michael Koryta hits the thriller buttons--women in jeopardy, twisted killer, protagonists with physical and emotional handicaps--and Petkoff narrates it all in stride, bringing particular excitement to the stunt driving sequences. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2019]