Close Case

By: Alafair Burke

Narrated by: Betty Bobbitt

For Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid's 32nd birthday, she gets an unusual gift: a homicide call out. The crime scene is in the elite Hillside neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The victim is hotshot investigative reporter Percy Crenshaw, who has been bludgeoned to death in his carport.

Tensions in the city have been running high. The previous week, a police officer shot and killed an unarmed mother of two in what he claims was self-defense. In the aftermath, protestors have waged increasingly agitated anti-police protests. Crenshaw's death, it seems, is not unrelated - within a matter of hours, police arrest two young men who appear to have embarked on a crime spree in the aftermath of the protests.

The case looks straightforward, especially when one of the suspects confesses. But then the man recants, claiming coercive police tactics, and Samantha finds herself digging for more evidence in a search that leads her through an elaborate maze of connections between the city's drug trade and officers in the bureau.

©2005 Alafair Burke (P)2006 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Critic reviews

"Absorbing." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Burke, daughter of author James Lee Burke and once a Portland prosecutor herself, delivers a politically charged, gritty thriller." ( Booklist)

very good story ... not so good narrator

I've enjoyed everything I've listened to from Ms. Burke ... but I'm struggling to get through this one ... the narrator's voice, from accent to inflection, is positively destroying the book.

I'm going to avoid Ms. Bobbitt in the future.

The narrator….

I thought she was British. Maybe just too many Australian and British tv and movie roles. She also is in her late 60’s when this was released, and her voice may reflect that.

Aside from that, I love stories by Alafair Burke. I am trying to separate the narrator from the plot, but it is hard.

Her Father's Daughter...

Close Case is written by Alafair Burke, the daughter of the writer James Lee Burke Cold Case features Samantha Kinkaid, a hard working ADA in Portland, OR. Sam's boyfriend, who is a Portland city police detective, has just a couple of months ago moved in with her. Sam becomes embroiled in a murder case that leads her into what appears to be a case of police corruption involving her boyfriend's partner as well as their mutual friends. Sam's boyfriend, Mike, finds living with a dedicated ADA who would actually investigate his partner and friends more than he can bear and moves out. Poor Sam. She catches the bad guys but she is alone again.

Truly awful narrator

I haven't finished the book so am not sure how good the actual story is. The voice and manner of reading of the narrator is so irritating that I can't keep my mind on the story but just on my frustration with the sound of her voice. The laughter and sighs she puts into the story on her own are very distracting and out of place. To me she sounds like a kindergarten teacher reading a story to her pupils and it doesn't work for this book. I actually have the written form of the book on my kindle and tried to continue the story by reading it but all I could hear was her voice in my head as I read the words myself. ARRRRGGGHH. I had to give that up. Maybe I can finish it later when the narrators voice is out of my head.

The series was a fun listen!

I listened to the first book in this series, it was entertaining and I truly enjoyed the performance by Betty Bobbitt.
The second book was even more entertaining and as I listened to the ending credits in this third book it made me sad that the series was over. Samantha and I would be good friends if she was an actual human being and she lived in Baton Rouge in stead of Portland.

Outstanding

I love this series? Ready for the next one . The characters are so well developed and the stories riveting

Not *that* bad, really!

I enjoyed this story -- and the narrator wasn't that bad. Not a great narrator that makes the story worth listening to all by themselves, but she was fine, and even though the british accent was an odd choice, it wasn't *that* bad.

Awful, terrible reading.

This may be a good book but I'll never know.
Attempting to listen for the third time and it's so badly done I can't bear listening for another minute.
Wasted money.
Why does Audible allow this to happen to it's subscribers?

Worst book ever

I listened to this book and it sounded like it was written by a three year old. Why would you hire a reader with a British accent to read the book that takes place in the US? How can I get back the time wasted listening to this book?

Good story? Who knows?

I love James Lee Burke, and was so eager to hear this book by his daughter Alafair (her first book was "not available in my region"!?) I bought it without a second thought. But I couldn't even finish listening, thanks to the AWFUL narration! Her mispronunciations, inappropriate timing and emphases, phony laughter, bad accents, and really - just her voice - ruined it for me. Her "Happy Birthday, Girlie..." irritated me so much I almost threw my ipod out the window. Since I couldn't finish the book, I will get a copy to read instead and never again fail to listen to a sample before selecting a book.