Hush Money

By: Chuck Greaves

Narrated by: Dan Butler

Audie Award Nominee, Mystery, 2013

A newly minted member of Henley & Hargrove, Pasadena's oldest and snobbiest law firm, Jack MacTaggart is assigned to handle an insurance claim on behalf of socialite Sydney Everett. Hush Puppy, Sydney's champion show horse, has died unexpectedly, and attending veterinarian George Wells confides to Jack that the great horse's death was anything but natural. Jack's investigation leads him into the high-stakes world of professional show jumping and down a path to romance, intrigue, and an old blackmail scheme that further implicates his client. After Jack reports his findings, another body is discovered. And this one is human.

©2012 Chuck Greaves; 2012 AudioGO

Far better than I was expecting!

If you could sum up Hush Money in three words, what would they be?

Clever, witty & intellegent

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. Many twists and surprises to the plot.

Which character – as performed by Dan Butler – was your favorite?

Jack

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

Yes

Any additional comments?

A very nice surprise.

An "E" Ticket Ride

It started out as a Grisham legal thriller, then it turned into a Dick Francis murder at the horse race track novel, and it transitioned again into a suspenseful medical nail-biter aka Robin Cook. Chuck Greaves has a 1st place winner in "Hush Money".

A fun read with twists

This is a great book--funny dialogue, good characters, part legal thriller part murder mystery, a bit over the top at times, but always entertaining with twists and turns. I found the narrator a little hard to listen to, boring tone to his voice also at times too much detail about, but it was overall a great listen.

Terrific read

The lead in this story was terrific -- down-to-earth, smart, wisecracking, serious and with a good heart. This story entertains like NCIS entertains. Lots of action and characters you like. A fun, engrossing listen. Highly recommended.

Just like the early Dick Francis

Should perhaps have been 3 1/2 stars. Fun read. Fun, likeable characters. Excellent reader -- delivering the wise remarks with just the right tone. A little light on the mystery itself (too intricate an explanation -- that's why I didn't give it four stars), but I am still looking forward to the next one by this author. Wonder if he will set them all in the horse world or this was just a one-off.

The Dick Francis of Show Jumping

Not many mystery writers enter the horse world, and adding a legal firm to the mix makes this appealing in several ways. The plot was a little far-fetched, but not unbelievable, the characters were interesting in themselves, and the ending was completely unexpected. All in all, pretty good.

Couldn't turn it off!

Would you consider the audio edition of Hush Money to be better than the print version?

Can't compare since I didn't read it.

What did you like best about this story?

The author's dry sense of humor.

What about Dan Butler’s performance did you like?

He put a lot into his read....very enjoyable touch to his voice.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

As a horse owner I definately had my cry but the smiles outweighed the tears.

Any additional comments?

Wish the author had another book with the same main character...he is SOOO likable.

Mediocre story, awful narration

I listen to books every day while driving, relaxing, or doing needlepoint. I enjoy a good story and a well read book. This story is interesting, although the author makes leaps and jumps from time to time that leaves the reader to wonder where in the world he got that idea. his writing style is mediocre, very much a a wannabe Mickey Spillane with his descriptions of women's body parts. I could get past that if the narrator could not pronounce many words correctly and it tore across my brain like fingernails on a blackboard. Paean was pronounced "pain" , but the worst was pronouncing Enrique all the way through as Inreek (it should have been In-reek-kay). If the narrator doesn't know how a word is pronounced, he should find out before trying to read the book. In addition, he was so slow and the breaks between chapters so long that I turned up the speed to 1.25 just to get a normal pace. Even then, I had to check to see if I had accidentally turned off the player between chapters due to the length of the pause.

The story starts out with a good premise that gets lost in all of the twists and turns of the family relationships involved. The first "person of interest" is just dropped about half way through, when the detective and the main character go to the hospital to interview the perp, they just leave without any interaction at all leaving me to wonder why they went there at all.

I will delete this book from my list because it just has too many problems, especially with the narrator. It just isn't worth trying to get through all the mistakes, the slow pace, and the byzantine interactions.

Nice Horse Show Descriptions

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I think men would enjoy it more.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Dick Frances books.

Did Dan Butler do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

He's a good reader. I think I'm spoiled by listening to British women readers who are artists at character voices. Dan Butler read well.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Hush Money?

I'd cut the whole romance with Tara, especially the end. It didn't ring true. Also I'd cut out the male comments about women's anatomy. A guy thing, I guess.
The romance scenes sounded sappy to me and unnecessary.

Any additional comments?

I finished listening to this book because of the excellent descriptions of the horse jumping scenes. He wrote them as if he were familiar with jumping competitions.

I tried and failed...

To find any reason to continue to listen to this book. After two hours and passages like the following: "She giggled. I liked making her giggle", I have given up. I never give up. I use audiobooks like most, something to do during otherwise mundane activity, mostly running the dog in my case. I read the reviews. Clearly others find redeeming value from this title. I found absolutely no compulsion to continue to listen. I have read all of the authors this guy has been compared to and could not disagree more. Dick Francis he is not. One review described the character as wise cracking...that would seem to imply wittiness. I found not a shred of wit that could be considered humorous beyond the 8th grade level. I find that when I review reviews, that I am pretty critical of the negative reviewers such as the type I am providing here...so I imagine some will react the same. But, I am just providing fair warning. It just feels wrong to just give up after having used a credit, but why pay twice? I have had tremendous good luck in discovering material from authors I have never tried before, but ultimately it ran out. Not the end of the world though.