Menace

By: Paul Marshall

Narrated by: Sarah Andrews

Tirsa Duggan's life had always been a tightly woven tapestry of ambition and escape, threads of her past neatly concealed beneath the facade of her successful career. A career born out of necessity, forged in the crucible of tragedy that marred her childhood on a quiet farm in Ohio. It was a place that should have been idyllic, but became a nightmare when her father's hands became stained with the blood of her brother and mother, leaving another brother in a perpetual coma. This harrowing incident marked a traumatic turning point in Tirsa's life, one that she had desperately tried to forget.

But life has a way of catching up with the past. Tirsa's tightly held emotions come unraveled when she crosses paths with one of her students, a young man who, like her, has endured his own share of unspeakable trauma. The connection is instant, an empathetic bond that transcends the barriers she had built around her heart. In the midst of this connection, Tirsa is driven to an impetuous decision, one that catapults her into a twisted and treacherous web of circumstances she couldn't have anticipated.

As the shadows of her impulsive act close in around her, Tirsa finds herself entangled in a world of danger that threatens to destroy everything she's worked so hard to build. Her career teeters on the brink of ruin, her soul bears fresh scars, and her life is in peril. The past she had buried deep within her psyche has returned with a menacing vengeance, and the evil that stole her family from her now stalks her, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Menace" is a riveting tale of redemption, revenge, and resilience. Will Tirsa have the strength to unearth the hidden evil that haunts her and discover the truth about her family's tragedy? Can she confront her past and the menace that lurks in the shadows, or will it consume her before she can find the answers she so desperately seeks?

Join Tirsa on a heart-pounding journey as she races against time to confront her demons and uncover the chilling secrets that threaten to devour her life. In this electrifying thriller, every minute turns up the heat, making you question who the true menace really is.

©2023 Paul E. Marshall (P)2024 Paul E. Marshall

Suspenseful Ride

I liked the plot twists that kept me guessing. And how the characters were described and developed. The action parts were nonstop and pulse quickening. A very good, recommended read or audio experience. Both of which, I have done.

Great story, did not enjoy the narrator.

I listened to this title as an advance copy in exchange for my honest review. I was drawn into the story from the beginning. Very compelling story, great character development. It didn't take long before I cared about the characters and was invested in the story. I looked forward to getting back in my car so I could listen to the next section - and that's when I know I have a good book on my hands. So many audio books of mine get started and I lose interest within a couple chapters. This one had me into it quickly. A couple critiques (and one is a content spoiler so I'll leave it to the end for those who want to stop reading before then): I did not like the narrator. Her narration often mangled standard pronunciations which was distracting. For example, she pronounces words such as “especially” as “Ex-specially” very heavy on the “ex”. There are several words spoken like this, and it was so distracting that it brought me out of the story. Second, I had to listen to the recording at .8 speed, because either her reading, or the recording, is so fast at 1x that my brain couldn't keep up. Listening at .8x made it fine though. Another narration issue, and perhaps this was just a formatting issue for the advance copy, but there is no “breathing space” between the end of each chapter and the start of the new chapter. It would literally sound like there wasn't even a period at the end of a sentence and it would be followed by the next chapter. Sounding like: “He couldn't see in front of him chapter 20”. (Totally made up that sentence just as an example; No spoilers there, I promise.)

My last critique, and this one is content-based so if you do not want a spoiler, please stop reading now. —- At the end of the book, I thought it was unnecessary for one of the minor characters to have died when he was shot. The story line could have gone the same direction if he had just been, say, non-fatally shot in the leg ending his career. After he was shot (and killed), the responses by the main characters to finding him dead didn't seem to fit at all with how their emotions or reaction would be in real life to seeing their friend killed in front of them. Their reaction, and how they continued their narrative and life in the final chapter of the book, WOULD have fit better if their friend had been tragically, but non-fatally, shot. I'm guessing it was written that way because the author wanted to focus more on how their lives' direction changed following the close of the events, which is valid. But it came across as a little uncaring and cold toward their friend and his widow, having not much to say about it other than almost an offhand comment about having gone to two (or three?) funerals recently. I really loved the story and was invested in all the characters, even the secondary ones -- especially since it was this secondary character who pretty much saved the day in that instance -- so the ending with him suddenly dying with very little discussion or reflection on that afterwards almost felt like an aside. If he had just been shot in the leg (or something similar) and ended his career earlier, I don't see how it would have changed the story line all that much. —— Overall, great book and I was engrossed! I highly recommend it. It’s clean, and a story I was invested in from the very beginning.