Keeper of the Keys [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Perri O'Shaughnessy (Author), Dick Hill (Reader), Laural Merlington (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

For ambitious, troubled architect Ray Jackson, the nightmare begins one sultry California night when his wife disappears. No phone call, no ransom note, no body, reveals whether Leigh is dead or alive. Then, suddenly, a woman shows up on Ray’s doorstep demanding answers: Kathleen, an old friend of Leigh’s. Ray wants answers, too, but his questions seem strange and shady to Kat. Suspected by his wife’s friend and by the police, Ray launches a desperate and alarming search of his own. Using a collection of keys he has held on to since he was a boy - keys to homes he and his mother once lived in - Ray quietly yet boldly enters each house, one by one, hoping to unlock the secrets of his own past. As past and present collide, as a chilling mystery begins to unravel, Ray is suddenly confronted with the most agonizing decision of his life - to face his own violence-laden past, acting to prevent another horrendous act of violence, or not. His choice will leave nothing and no one the same.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This stand-alone novel of suspense from bestseller O'Shaughnessy (Case of Lies and 10 other legal thrillers starring Nina Reilly) has a glamorous setting, Los Angeles's Topanga Canyon, where a once promising architect, Ray Jackson, lives in a house he designed with his furniture-maker wife, Leigh. Unfortunately, despite some good plot twists and pinkish herrings, none of the characters is particularly interesting—not Ray, a tightly wound man who spends his time making models of every house he lived in during his tangled childhood; not Leigh, who may have a buried sex life; and especially not Kat and Jackie, two sisters in the real estate trade who used to be close to Leigh growing up. When Leigh disappears without a trace one night, Ray only with the greatest of reluctance (and nudges from Kat and the cops) sifts through secrets old and new for a truth that's as hard to swallow as it is to care about. Perri O'Shaughnessy is the pseudonym of sisters Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The best-selling author of the Nina Reilly series (in actuality two sisters writing under a pseudonym) veers off in a new direction with this stand-alone thriller. When Leigh Jackson disappears, her architect husband, Ray, doesn't seem all that worked up about it. But when his wife's old friend, Kat, shows up, hurling accusations, Ray realizes he has some explaining to do. Using a set of keys to every home he's ever lived in, Ray revisits his past, trying to find out if he is capable of the thing Kat suspects he might have done. And he uncovers truths about himself so deep and so dark that he begins to question his own identity. The book is a welcome breath of fresh air, especially for readers who've lost interest in the stodgily formulaic Reilly series. This is a well-paced, smartly written thriller with an ambiguous protagonist and a genuinely mysterious mystery to be solved. The dialogue could use a bit more polishing, but, given the novel's virtues, that's a small quibble. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• MP3 CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD; Com/MP3 edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142331767X
• ISBN-13: 978-1423317678
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,419,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not their best work, December 25, 2006

By 

Speedy Reader "hooked on books" (Peoria, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keeper of the Keys (Hardcover)

I've read all the books in the Nina Reilly series and they were really enjoyable but this stand alone attempt is pretty bad. The writing is long winded and convoluted, the story does not play out well and by the end you realize it doesn't make a bit of sense. I truly hope they go back to the style of writing they are used to and get off this path quickly. This book was a real disappointment.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How Can People Like This Book?, January 24, 2007

By 

A. A. Tranmer - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeper of the Keys (Hardcover)

I won't even go bore you with the storyline of this novel, because that might make it sound interesting and the absolute last thing I want to accomplish in this review it to give you any inclination to read this book. To put it eloquently, it sucked--though not hard enough or long enough to be worth even a good laugh. Don't waste your precious time on it. The whole thing is gratingly cliché. Plow as you will through the miry cast of annoyingly trite characters and mediocre prose in order to ultimately discover the big twist you are so obviously set up for, the big surprise will leave you so thoroughly unsatisfied you just might have to take a cold shower.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing Read, November 25, 2006

By 

A Greer (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keeper of the Keys (Hardcover)

I am a Perri O'Shaughnessy fan and eagerly look forward to each new book. However, I must say this book was a complete and total disappointment. The storyline is confusing and completely uninteresting. There is nothing about this story that keeps the reader's attention. I am trying to finish this book but at page 230, it's so boring and dry, I don't think I can keep going.

I highly recommend the Nina Reilly series but unfortunately, this book is no where the calibur of writing exhibited in that series.