The Broken Promise Land

Sharon McCone, Book 17

By: Marcia Muller

Narrated by: Jean Reed Bahle

Ricky Savage is Sharon McCone's brother-in-law, and the hottest country singer in the business. He's on top professionally, but hitting rock bottom in his personal life. His longtime marriage to Sharon's sister, Charlene, is breaking up, forcing him to question if it was all worth it: the struggle, hard times, and hopes of stardom that finally came true. Even worse, Ricky has been getting anonymous letters threatening not only himself, but also his children.

It's a tough case for McCone, because her own family is at risk. She can bring in the security firm in which her lover, Hy Ripinsky, holds an interest to protect Ricky as he begins a promotional tour for his forthcoming album. But unless Ricky lets her into his past and the secrets hidden there, she doesn't have a chance at uncovering the roots of the sick obsession behind the threats.

Despite McCone's precautions, she soon discovers the stalker is very close at hand, upping the ante of terror with clear warnings that he or she can strike anytime - and plans to. Ricky isn't helping, either, as his marriage crumbles and he turns to another lover, who will complicate his emotional state and McCone's investigation.

Now dirty tricks are putting Ricky's career, as well as his life, in jeopardy...and his next Grammy-winning song about shattered hearts and broken promises may be his last.

©2008 Marcia Muller (P)2008 Brilliance Audio

One of the Best

This work focuses more on McCone's assistant Rae Kelleher and her soon to be ex-brother-in-law country music star Ricky Savage. For the first time Ricky and her sister Charlene's children other than Mick are detailed. The war zone atmosphere in the Savage household including Charlene's boyfriend and Ricky's numerous past infidelities are exposed. One of those past infidelities leads to a series of threatening notes and suspicious incidents and accidents. Included in those are a bullet through the window of the Savage house coming quite close to the music star. The tension builds; as does the close relationship between Ricky and Rae. the climatic scene comes as surprising both as to the perpetrator and his actions.

Couldn't finish this soap opera!

After nearly 5 hours of listening, I quit. Seldom do I not finish a book but I just lost patience. The writing is best when it is descriptive, but the dialog is often trite and clichéd. I could almost predict the next phrase. I really did not sympathize with the characters--a popular country singer on the verge of a divorce by his mercurial wife. How original! The mystery takes a back seat to relationships among immature adults, at least up to this point. It reminds me of a soap opera like "As the World Turns" or "Days of our Lives." Sharon McCone does not compare favorably with Kate Wilhelm's Barbara Holloway or Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan, for example. I see that there are 30 books in the McCone series, and this is #17, and apparently one of the most highly rated. So the author clearly has a following, as do the aforementioned soaps. Just not for me, I guess. I have no complaints about the narrator. She did as well as can be expected, even did a good job with male voices.

Not very good

This was like listening to an episode of "Murder She Wrote". The reader even sounded like Angela Landsbury. There were about 200 characters and none of them were very memorable. And I need to check the publication date because the characters were talking about getting a car phone in addition to their "Cellular Phone". Just and out of date and out of touch snooze fest.

New narrator not up to par

The reader of a series can make or break the audios. I really enjoyed the prior narrator, but this book had a new one. No idea why, and in other series the change of a narrator can be fine, but I was unable to enjoy this book with the new reader. She was rather chirpy with little differentiation between characters. The prior one had a sardonic tone with Sharon that fit, this was just….not for me. I see that another narrator starts a few volumes down, I think I’ll just skip the middle and move on. I can’t speak to the story, I’m sure it’s as good as others, I advise listening to the sample before purchasing given the new reader.