Starvation Lake

A Mystery

By: Bryan Gruley

Narrated by: Rich Orlow

Bryan Gruley's debut mystery has received starred reviews from publications such as Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Disgraced reporter Gus Carpenter returns home to his small town and becomes embroiled in a murder investigation.©2009 Bryan Gruley (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"[ Starvation Lake] deserves comparison with Dennis Lehane's Mystic River" ( Booklist, starred review)

Good tale, mediocre reader.

It's a great tale, unfortunately the reader seemed very slow - didn't really fit with my personal taste in readers. There would be extremely long (almost painful) pauses in between dialog occasionally. It was a little strange. But it's a great story.

Entertaining, it helps if you are a hockey fan

I found the book entertaining, fairly well written and the story line was ok at best.

A good first mystery book

Bryan Gruley has written a very good mystery book set in a dark, cold setting perfect for the mystery that centers around a small town and hockey. I must admit, I know little about the sport of hockey, but the author's love of the sport is very evident and I learned a lot from his story-telling. The author is an extremely talented author. His words kept me interested even when I questioned whether I wanted to continue with the subject matter. Ultimately, I am glad I did because it turns out to be a very timely story for sports, coaches, recent news. The narrator did a very good job.

Great "read". Hard to get out of the car!

Like with some other great writers, I find myself sitting in the driveway, listening. I go thru about a book a week, sometimes 2 a week. This book was excellent. Loved the story line. A little dark, but better than I expected, reading the other reviews. I am, however, a hockey fan, and knowing how the game is played certainly makes it easier to follow. I enjoyed it so much that I put the next one from Bryan into my list instead of a new book by a favorite author. Great first book.

Slow, juvenile and in desperate need of an editor

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I know that there's a story hidden in there somewhere but it's lost behind characters with no appeal, interminable and terrible descriptions of the game of hockey as well as a lousy narrator. While there is no reason to rush through the story, getting bogged down in this as well as detailed descriptions of how many ingredients are on each forkful of the narrator's egg pie is just too much. There is more flab in this writing that in a lawyer's letter.

Would you ever listen to anything by Bryan Gruley again?

I doubt it.

Would you be willing to try another one of Rich Orlow’s performances?

Perhaps.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Starvation Lake?

I would cut MOST of the juvenile descriptions of hockey, in part because they are written by someone who has no feel for the game and in part because they add nothing to the story.

Pretty boring unless you love hockey.

My friend recommended this and book 2. Last time I buy book 2 before I’m done with book 1. Good lesson.

I tried and tried...

I understood that this novel had won an Edgar award - and they rarely let me down. I tried four times to get involved with this story and I never even finished the first part of the tape. It is very focused on hockey, too. That probably only annoyed me because I was so bored.

Dumb as a hockey puck

Far too much high school hockey "glory years" and if you write mystery I would expect that you would have some knowledge of criminal law, police procedures, misdemeanors versus felonies, warrants & do you think police have time & resources to have roadblocks & manhunts for insignificant misdemeanors? Purloining telephone messages?

Wordy and slow

The plot and writing were tedious and dull.The plot is paper thin and padded with play hy play hockey games. Instead of tension, the author caused the cardboard characters to stutter endlessly. The only reason I hot through this was the outstanding narration.