Wednesday, August 15, 2012

So Cold the River; Michael Koryta


Author:  Michael Koryta
Publication Year: 2010
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Edition:  audiobook/ Library
Reader: Robert Petkoff
Setting: Indiana
Date Completed: July/2012
Rating: 3.5/5 
Recommend: yes

Eric Shaw was once a Hollywood film maker, but as of late, he's been reduced to recording weddings and lately memorializing the deceased in the form of funeral videos.  After seeing him in action at at a wedding, a beautiful woman named Alyssa proposes that he agree to do a documentary about her billionaire father-in-law, as a gift to her husband . The man, Campbell Bradford is now 95 and dying. Eric feels up for the challenge, but little is know about the mysterious man, except that his hometown is, West Baden, Indiana, a town which lies low in the valley where a mineral spring still flows -- not an ordinary mineral spring by any means. Alyssa gives Eric a mysterious bottle of mineral water that had been in the family for years and years.
 
Pluto water is believed to be a miracle water which heals and makes people feel better, but what happens when Eric takes a drink is anything but a "miracle".
 
A little bit of mystery, a little bit supernatural, a little bit in the past and a little bit in the present, I liked listening to the audio version which was narrated by Robert Petkoff, who did a terrific job. What I especially enjoyed where sound effects added to the end of some discs which really added to the unsettling mood, in my opinion.  Although I liked the story well enough, I thought it was overly drawn out and that the story would have been just as effective if shortened a bit.  The ending had me wondering if a sequel might be planned.

7 comments:

  1. I probably liked this more than you did but agree it was a little long. I've only listened to one audio book with sound effects and I didn't like them. Of course, I was driving when I listened to it and they startled me.

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  2. This one has me very interested about what was in the water!! I have a boatload of audios right now that I need to get to listening. I know that once school starts back up for me I will get back to audio. Putting it on my Blaming Diane list right now!

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  3. Sounds like something we would enjoy too!

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  4. I am wondering just what this "mystery water" does! This was a great review that left me with a lot of questions, and wanting to seek out the audio as well. Very enticing!

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  5. I had an ARC of this hanging around for a very long time, but I never seemed to find the time to read it so I passed it along to someone else. Now I'm not sure if I should have kept it or not.

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  6. I just read this on our cruise (it was in the ship's library and I remember someone really liking it) but I wasn't all that impressed with it. Like you, I felt it dragged on a bit. Plus I didn't get the right tone from it. Maybe it worked better on audio. I'm only going to give it a 3.

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  7. Not too good when a book loses steam and starts to drag. Glad to hear the narrator was good though.

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