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    Ransom River
    Unavailable
    Ransom River
    Unavailable
    Ransom River
    Audiobook11 hours

    Ransom River

    Written by Meg Gardiner

    Narrated by Angela Dawe

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Rory Mackenzie is juror number seven on a high-profile murder case in her hometown of Ransom River, California. It's a place she vowed never to visit again after leaving behind its surfeit of regret and misfortune and the specter of a troubled past that threatened to disturb the town's peaceful facade.

    Brilliant yet guarded, Rory has always felt like an outsider. She retreated into herself when both her career aspirations and her love affair with a childhood friend, undercover cop Seth Colder, were destroyed in a tragic accident.

    While most of the town is focused on the tense and shocking circumstances of the trial, Rory's return to Ransom River dredges up troubling memories from her childhood that she can no longer ignore. But in the wake of a desperate attack on the courthouse, Rory realizes that exposing these dark skeletons has connected her to an old case that was never solved, and bringing the truth to light just might destroy her.

    Departing from her popular series novels, Meg Gardiner has gone deeper than ever into the utterly convincing lives and compelling pasts of her characters. Ransom River is an intimate, atmospheric thriller with a dark mystery at its heart-one that will keep listeners breathless until the very end.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2012
    ISBN9781455842292
    Unavailable
    Ransom River
    Author

    Meg Gardiner

    Meg Gardiner is the author of sixteen acclaimed, award-winning novels. Her thrillers have been bestsellers in the U.S. and internationally and have been translated into more than twenty languages. China Lake won an Edgar Award and UNSUB, the first in Gardiner’s acclaimed UNSUB series, won a Barry Award. Her third UNSUB novel, The Dark Corners of the Night, has been bought by Amazon Studios for development as a television series. A former lawyer, three-time Jeopardy! champion, and two-time president of Mystery Writers of America, Gardiner lives in Austin, Texas. 

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    Reviews for Ransom River

    3.5/5

    60 ratings6 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      The final few pages ruined the book for me. The mystery became more far-fetched and the characters more confusing as the story unfolded and I couldn't take the Star Wars cliche. I could feel it coming but couldn't believe the author would go there...and there it was...and I couldn't go on. The author's imagination flagged and my suspension of belief has limits.
    • 3/5
      OK. Somewhat predictable
    • 5/5
      From The book cover:

      Rory Mackenzie has returned home to a place she swore she would never revisit. She is summoned to jury duty and in Meg Gardiner's trademark tale telling, an explosive attack on the courthouse begins a long and terrifying ordeal. Before it's all over, the grim facts of her family's past will rise up to change all she has ever known and believed. Thomas Wolfe says "You can't go home again." Rory learns you can never escape your home.

      The action builds to a crescendo of violence in the small town of Ransom River that will overwhelm everyone involved. Danger looms for all touched by Rory. Before it's over, justice must be served, honor returned and past lies exposed and confronted.

      My Thoughts:
      The characters are emotionally complex, both the good and the bad. She has also created two of the creepiest siblings to be found outside a Stephen King novel.
    • 4/5
      Read for Audio ReviewOverall Rating: 3.75Character Rating: 4.00Story Rating: 3.50Audio Rating: 4.00 (not part of the overall rating)First Thought when Finished: Ransom River is much darker (even though she writes dark thrillers) than Meg Gardiner's normal writing but I liked it! She has a real talent for it!What I Thought of the Characters: Meg Gardiner really knows how to write compelling characters and in Ransom River she does it again. This is a departure from her series and much darker. The characters reflect this different style. Rory is complex, strong, and emotionally unsure. She is thrown into a horrid situation and works her way through each and every step. You wanted to root for her, pick her up, and you wanted to give her a hug. Seth is also complicated and a little "fishy". You are never quite sure what it is that he is holding back. Those types of characters really make thrillers!What I Thought of the Story: Ransom River was an interesting twist on the normal Thriller story. It starts out with a big event and then follows the aftermath. On a whole, I think Meg Gardiner did a great job taking that route. The only part that didn't sit well with me was the cousin part of the story. It was part of the overall events but the ending part where that was concerned didn't sit right. If there is a book 2 then I am sure it will work out the way it is supposed to but it was a little open-ended for me. Otherwise, I really did enjoy each turn that the story took. I was never quite sure where it was going next.What I thought of the Audio: Narrated by Angela Dawe and at a running time of 11 hrs and 19 mins, I thought the audio was very well done. The pacing, pronunciation, and emotion were all done with precision. I thought Angela Dawe was really on point with Rory and did a good job with Seth too.Final Thought: If you are a fan of Meg Gardiner then you need to read Ransom River.*NOTE: Meg writes dark thrillers but this one just seemed darker emotionally for the lead character of Rory.*
    • 4/5
      Two masked men attack the courtroom in which Rory Mackenzie is juror number seven, for a case that involves cops killing the son of a known mafioso. When she is singled out by the gun-men, it sends Rory spinning back into her old life in Ransom River, a place she had left behind and vowed never to return to. But she is back, and caught in the eye of the storm, that soon sends her back to her past, and leads her to an unsolved case that might just shake the very foundation of all her beliefs - about love, family, life. And then, there is Seth Colder, the ex-cop, and her ex-boyfriend...a man she has loved since her childhood, but does not feel comfortable allowing him back into her life.While I was reading this novel, it got crazier and crazier. The book begins with a bang, and tailspins out of control. And at one point I was very afraid that the author may lose control of the characters, and that the plot may become too convoluted to follow. It came dangerously close at times, and YET, somehow, author Meg Gardiner manages to keep all the different strings separate and still manage to weave them all together. The book, and the plot, are coherent and it is a very well-composed mystery. It kept my attention all the way to the end, and was an adrenaline rush all the way through. But despite the rush, the author also manages to make her characters vulnerable and believable. She actually managed to get me invested in some of the characters, which is usually rare for mystery novels. I wish the ending was more...conclusive...but the fact that it is not, also gives me hope that there might be a sequel. And if there is, believe me...I'm reading it! :)
    • 5/5
      Talk about a book that is hard to put down! This one was impossible to put down. Rory comes back to Ransom River after losing her job because the non-profit Asylum Action she was working for in Europe lost its funding. She get home just in time to be called for jury duty in a case where two cops are charged with killing an unarmed intruder. That would be sticky enough but the intruder is the son of a gangster. One day the courtroom is attacked by armed gunmen and Rory is chosen as one of four hostages. The crime goes terribly wrong and the intruders are killed but the cops think Rory had something to do with the crime and are on her case.And old flame of Rory's Seth Colder comes back into the picture. They parted before Rory went off to Europe because Seth was an undercover cop and Rory thought he was too far into the undercover life and becoming someone she didn't know. She broke up with him but before they could part company Seth was called to a crime scene. On the way their truck was t-boned by another vehicle breaking Rory's leg and causing internal injuries. When Seth didn't come to see her in the hospital she knew it was over and so she left the country as soon as she could. Besides Rory and Seth's broken relationship, this story is also about twisted family dynamics and an armored truck robbery that occurred when Rory and Seth were nine. Rory has two cousins - the children of her beloved Uncle Lee - who are just this side of crazy and who have been resentful of what they saw as Rory's perfect life. Her cousin Riss constantly harassed her in school by spreading rumors about her. Her cousin Boone tried sexual harassment when she was only twelve. Rory has kept all of this from her parents because they are her father's brother's kids but her parents are keeping secrets from her too.Seth's family isn't much better. He is the son of a retired, decorated police officer but he quit the force two years ago convinced that something was rotten in the Ransom River Police Department. When an undercover operation he was part of was blown, he knew the information to wreck it had to come from someone inside the police department.This a a tense thriller where new and troubling information is constantly coming to the surface. Through it all Rory is determined to "get up one more time than she falls down" but the odds are incredibly against her when she doesn't know who she can trust. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough with this one. I recommend it highly to lovers of thrillers and even to lovers of romances because the relationship between Rory and Seth is compelling too.