The Dying Hour

Jason Wade, Book 1

By: Rick Mofina

Narrated by: Paul Costanzo

The Dying Hour introduces Jason Wade, a rookie crime reporter with the Seattle Mirror, a loner who grew up in the shadow of a brewery in one of the city's blue-collar neighborhoods. At the Seattle Mirror, he is competing for the single full-time job being offered through the paper's intense intern program. But unlike the program's other young reporters, who attended big name schools and worked at other big metro dailies, Wade put himself through community college, and lacks the same experience.

Wade struggles with his haunting past as he pursues the story of Karen Harding, a college student whose car was found abandoned on a lonely stretch of highway in the Pacific Northwest. How could this beloved young woman with the altruistic nature simply vanish? Wade battles mounting odds and cut-throat competition to unearth the truth behind Karen Harding's disturbing case. Her disappearance is a story he cannot give up, never realizing the toll it could exact from him. The Dying Hour is a bone-chilling, mesmerizing tale that introduces listeners to an all-too-human young hero who journeys into the darkest regions of the human heart to confront a nightmare.

©2015 Rick Mofina (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

" The Dying Hour starts scary and ends scary. You'll be craving Mofina's next novel." (Sandra Brown, New York Times best-selling author)

Great Thriller

Mr. Mofina definitely has my vote for killer-diller stories. The "hero" of this one is a newspaper reporter intern desperately seeking to make his mark and thus have a permanent job at a newspaper in the Pacific northwest. The character development is first rate (as all Mofina's characters are). Jason digs and digs till he unearths a grisly serial killer. I'll say no more but if you want to be drawn-in from the beginning to a mesmerizing story: GET THIS BOOK!

Paul Costanzo was excellent with the delivery of the story

Great story..

Nice plot twists. I had a hard time with the narrator’s cadence. He does well with characterization, but the rest was difficult to take.

Great Book

Rick Mofina is one of my favorite author. I loved this book. Rick Mofina does not let you down with this book. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this series. A real twist at the end.

Good story not so good narration

Enjoyed the storied but struggled with the narrator. I wish he had mixed voices for each of the characters. I found myself having a hard time following at parts because I wasn’t sure who was speaking. At one point I almost gave up, but I’m not a quitter.

This was a good one!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were times where I had to put it down because I got so anxious at certain parts. Good job Rick Buffay, though.

Excellent book

Awesome story.... loved every minute. The author does an excellent job with suspense. I could barely put it down.

Narrator ruined it

Interesting story but the narrator was horrible. The way he whispered to sound scary just came off as a creepy try at ASMR.

Excellent story boring reader

The story has such exciting elements. However, the narrator has such a slow almost monotonous cadence that it would put me to sleep. It is great for bedtime reading but I listen as I work. His voice is pleasant soothing but this is a crime, a mystery. I've listened to more than 500 books. Please add some spark to your storytelling Mr. Costanzo. Just please do not jump to to opposing end of the spectrum.

Terrible Narrator

If you can listen past the narrator’s whistling s’ and clicking sound at the end of sentences, you might get into the story enough to stay interested. I had to speed up the reading speed just to keep from snoring through his excruciatingly slow diction. If the narrator can’t sound interested, why is he reading it?

Decent characters, a lot of fill and too much repeated in sections later.

Kept me intrigued all throughout!

Great writing but the narrator was very droll and I half trouble differentiating amongst the various characters and their voices. The intensity was gripping and compelled me to go on until the very end.