TERRIFIC REVIEW OF THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION: "THE 5 MANNERS OF DEATH"

Hi Readers (and Listeners):

I am happy to share reader and fellow author Michael Hartnett's review of the audiobook version of my latest thriller, "The 5 Manners of Death,"  narrarted by Steven Jay Cohen:

A Terrific Listen to a Memorable Mystery

"Boy, does Darden North have a way with the scene, whether in a drawing room, classroom, or operating room. Since the bodies keep dropping around our heroine, the surgeon Diana, in "The 5 Manners of Death," those scenes are physically and psychologically memorable. What a lively and satisfying listen.

This foray is my first with an audio book. With a breathless intensity that captures the novel’s Southern flavor, narrator Steven Jay Cohen does justice to the fine writing, deftly capturing the eloquence, the snappy dialogue, and the building suspense. 

As the title suggests, the victims are delivered in many forms of termination--all punctuated by those intermingled human dramas of stress, suspicion, and blame. All of this conflict makes the characters believable and engaging. North can write – even scenes like the one in the lobby of a clinic crackle with humor and poignancy. While major characters like Phoebe can be potent fusions of vitality, ego, and hostility, the minor characters give "The 5 Manners of Death" a narrative richness rare in most mysteries, whether it be the teenage Kelsey’s sardonic distance or Mrs. Drusilla Minton’s hilarious eccentricities.

North deftly shifts the plot in and out of time and place, hurtling from present day in Jackson, Mississippi, to 1965 at the university campus in Oxford (Ole Miss), then bounding back to present, all seamlessly rendered. These movements in time serve to develop multiple layers of plot and allow for many ominous and ironic conversations.

"The 5 Manners of Death" is a terrific mystery with shocking revelations right up to the very last page. North writes with such a keen eye and with such lucidity that the reader is rewarded with great pleasure as the lurid secrets unfold. 

Listening to this terrific yarn was a tremendous pleasure. 

-----Michael Hartnett