Bad Memories

By: douglas brian sandler

Narrated by: Graham King

What would you do to stop the bad memories? Dr. John Miller has to confront his past and solve the string of murders that connect back to his past at the asylum and to the new people living there and those being killed. Does Miller live or die? What about Millers wife? Wait, you have to buy the book.

©2015 douglas sandler (P)2016 douglas sandler

Critic reviews

" Bad Memories by Douglas Sandler lends itself well to the medium of audio books. The story is told from John’s point of view, brilliantly narrated by Graham King, so the listener feels that John himself speaks." ( Readers Favorite)

Eh. . .OK

So, I picked this one up because of the high rating and the summary of course. It seemed to be in my wheelhouse so I couldn’t resist. However, I didn’t get into it. The characters were okay. The story was okay. Nothing enveloped me or left me wanting more. It just kinda sat there. I didn’t enjoy the narration either. Very flat and hard to listen to.

intrigue and the psychological mystery

John Miller is a man escaping from his past. A former doctor working at an asylum, three patients there died there because of him. Now he is working in a pill factory but misses his years of practice. He receives one day a call from his friend Albert to go on a fishing trip, but when Miller goes to meet him, he finds Albert dead. Miller will have to find out what happened to his friend, but his past is chasing him and some will find him capable of killing again.

This mystery book reminded me a bit of Cluedo. Several people in a house, everyone suspecting from the rest and then the deaths start to happen. Miller's personality is a complex one, and more than once I found myself wondering if he was completely sane. It is not clear when the story is set since there are no time references, but the way women behave and are treated may indicate 50s or 60s. Either that or Sandler is a misogynist. There are a couple of disturbing sentences in the book, like: "Her voice was deeper and more authoritative than any woman's had the right to be". There are three female characters in the book, but they are either mean or passive, and the main female character is clearly the typical damsel in distress.

The story is well built and I did not see the murderer coming. I had suspicions all along but I never suspected who the murderer really was. Sandler knew how to build the intrigue and the psychological mystery, to make us suspect even from Miller.

The narration is what ruined the book for me. Graham King does not really make an effort at clearly articulating words and sentences, which makes the listener to be paying extra attention. All the voices plus narration sounded the same, except for two old characters. The difference was clear on these two but not on all the others and I wonder why. There was no difference in voices for female characters, which made the book very confusing and had me zoning out all the time. It was terribly difficult to pay attention to the dialogs and story, and at points, I did not care anymore. There were also a lot of editing issues, mainly repeated takes. I usually specify where in the book it happens, but on this occasion, I found this issue fourteen times in total (in a less than five hours book), and one of those times there were three takes together. I may pass it once, but not this amount of times. Didn't King listened to his edited audio after working on it? The first time this happens is on the title, which is very noticeable and inadmissible.

I think this book is very good, and I say I think because the issues with the narration have prevented me from enjoying it at all. I don't think an audiobook with these issues should be published, and I encourage Sandler to review it and get a new audio release.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Bad Memories

First of all, this was an audio book for me and I love audio book just as much as books I can read and touch. I was like most kids who loved my mom or dad to read to me. For me, audio books bring this memory back. This book was interesting and the sadness of losing a friend I felt with John. The narration for me was a bit hard to follow. It was not changing in pitch much from one character to another and I like that when I am read a story. It makes it more fun to listen to. "This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."