A Reason to Live (Marty Singer Mystery #1)

By: Matthew Iden

Narrated by: Lloyd Sherr

In the late 90s, a bad cop killed a good woman and DC Homicide Detective Marty Singer got to watch as the murderer walked out of the courtroom a free man. Twelve years later, the victim's daughter comes to Marty begging for help: the killer is stalking her now. There's just one problem: Marty's retired...and he's retired because he's battling cancer. But with a second shot at the killer - and a first chance at redemption - Marty's just found…a reason to live.

©2012 Matthew Iden (P)2013 Matthew Iden

Great detective story

If you like good old fashioned detective books this one is for you. Nice plot and it doesn’t have so many storylines that you can’t keep up. The narrator has the character down pat, he sounds just like you would expect a detective to sound.

Excellent detective thriller; great narration

This is the first novel in the three novel Marty Singer series. I have previously written reviews of the other two books in the series. Marty Singer is a 53 year old retired Washington DC police detective who is fighting colon cancer. A young woman is concerned that the man who murdered her mother 12 years ago is trying to kill her. A Reason to Live is a solid and worthwhile modern detective mystery/suspense thriller with some unexpected twists.

wow!

Would you consider the audio edition of A Reason to Live to be better than the print version?

The voice is a perfect fit. This audio book had me from the beginning!

Very entertaining

I don't read much fiction but happened to stumble upon this. It was a perfect book to listen to while on vacation and I can't wait to download the second in the series.

A good detective story with a great narration

Would you consider the audio edition of A Reason to Live to be better than the print version?

No, I wouldn't consider it better. I both listened to and read the book and also whispersynced it. There are good aspects to both just reading and just listening. I get a bit more of the urgency of this type of story when I just read and I can certainly read faster than the narrator. But the narrator does bring the words to life. So, it's really fifty-fifty for me.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the character of Marty Singer the best. Julie and Jim were good characters, too. Amanda, although the story centered around her, was not as dramatic for me as the other three. But Marty really tops them all. He's not so much the cynical ex-cop as a man on a mission. It's what he's been doing for over thirty years and forced retirement along with chemo and cancer are not going to change that..

What does Lloyd Sherr bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Lloyd Sherr's voice and expression were so perfect for this story that I was drawn right into it. He's also the voice for Modern Marvels on The History Channel, but once I knew that, I didn't find it distracting at all. It actually added to my enjoyment of the narration.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If my time wasn't so limited, I would like to have listened for longer periods.

Any additional comments?

I see the next book isn't available on audio yet. I'm assuming it will be so I will watch out for it.

Cancer Sidelines One Good Cop

A veterean Homocide Detective is forced into an early retirement as cancer ravages his insides (and makes a mess of his plans at fishing and lazy days ahead). Amidst the upheaval this illness causes, he is given a rare chance at redeeming a bungled case from his past. This distraction saves him from thinking about his current misery, and may even save a girl's life.

It is a solid detective story, if a little predictable. The 'cancer' aspect of the novel was very informative and written neatly into the story; The author seemed very knowledgeable about the subject, and empathetic to the hero's predicament.

The narrator's timbre was appropriate for a gruff, worn-out cop.

Okay not Great

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not bad, but not great.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

hard to say what I would change if anything.

Which scene was your favorite?

no favorite scene

Did A Reason to Live (Marty Singer Mystery #1) inspire you to do anything?

nope

This book was a distraction

What made the experience of listening to A Reason to Live the most enjoyable?

The character Marty Singer. He was so easy to connect with.

What did you like best about this story?

The pacing was great, with quieter scenes in between the action. Also, there is a pet cat that has no loyalty to Marty (the book is true to life).

What does Lloyd Sherr bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Lloyd Sherr was an excellent pick for this book. He owned the role and I can’t imagine another voice for Marty. He also had distinctive voices for the other characters, including the ladies.

If you could rename A Reason to Live, what would you call it?

Carnal Carnations

Any additional comments?

This book was a distraction. Don’t tell my man, but dinner was late a few nights because I wanted to listen to this book instead of making a glorious meal (and I do enjoy cooking). Yeah. I liked it that much. Quite frankly, I got attached to Marty Singer. His character made the book for me. He’s got a cat, is a history buff, bit of a wise ass, and has a soft spot for people being stalked by killers. I wanted Marty to kick his cancer in the ass, catch the killer/stalker, and save the day. And he does, but the path is full of twists and turns. Marty had to be nimble to catch his man.

Amanda, a 20-something year old with one degree and working on a second while interning at the university, was the maiden in distress. As Marty was my favorite character, Amanda was my least. I really only have one criticism about this book, and it is how Amanda is portrayed. She lost her mother to a shooting as a kid, grew up in foster care, got a degree, has a job, and is working on a second degree. So why is she portrayed as a 16 year old kid half the time in the book? Other than being the object of desire for the stalker, she doesn’t really bring anything to the story.

OK, enough on that. Enter Julie, the defense attorney who got the cop involved in the shooting of Brenda Lane off. Yeah. Now that the stalker/killer is back and leaving little flowers for Amanda, Marty starts digging through Brenda’s case. Alas, much of the files from the 1990s have been lost or somehow destroyed. So Marty goes to Julie, to see if she has any information on the cop and is willing to share. I really liked Julie’s character because she starts off so very prickly, but then softens, decides to help out, and as a friendship forms between Marty and Julie and Amanda, we learn some of the reasons Julie seems so bitter. She had depth and I liked how that depth was explored.

The pacing was excellent, with plenty of suspense intermixed with reflection, piecing the clues together, and a bit of action. The ending had a few twists I was not expecting (excellent, as I don’t like to guess the ending every book). And the ending also left me hoping Marty’s battle with cancer goes well. Which of course makes we want to read the next in the series.

The Villain's Too Improbable

Among well written stories, this one is average. Lloyd Sherr's a terrific actor and manages the entire cast brilliantly. Marty Singer's got an interesting, um, challenge that works to both deepen him and to add tension to the plot. Here's the "but".

"TWANG!"

That's the sound of snapping credibility. The evil mastermind behind all of the action sucks too heavily upon the reader's belief. Too much disbelief's got to be suspended. I couldn't do it so the ending sagged when the big-bad-boss TWANGED credulity.

Maybe I'll read the next Marty Singer mystery. maths Iden's created a clever character facing a unique challenge. So… If you're intrigued by the publisher's blurb… Well heck, it got me to read it. Just remember the "TWANG!" and don't say you weren't warned. K?

Clear Lines of Good vs Evil

You’ve gotta love Marty Singer . . . retired homicide detective, cancer patient . . . and one of the good guys . . . When one of the victims from a case some twelve years earlier contacts him, a case that he has never gotten out of his mind, Marty, missing being a cop, agrees to help her. If you like a good mystery AND some black and white, good versus evil, you’ll like this one. If you are looking for totally realistic, none of the over the top stuff, you may want to pass it up. But it wasn’t too “over the top” for me. I like Marty. A lot. In a world filled with grey areas, Marty isn’t. And the relationship that he builds with college student, Amanda Lane, twelve years after the murder of her mother, is one that I am looking forward to hearing more about in the next book. A fifty something, divorced cop with no kids is learning, for the first time how to form relationships, while going through chemotherapy . . . and doing good for other people. Forced to retire due to colon cancer, depressed and lonely, he is finding that he still has purpose. Helping Amanda turned out to be a lifeline for them both. Digging deep into the past holds danger for them both. Great listen . . . unexpected resolution . . . Can’t wait for Book Two in the series!