Audiobook review - The Patient's Secret

 Just finished listening to The Patient's Secret by Loreth Anne White. Overall I would say it was a fairly enjoyable listen, with a few minor issues. I probably wouldn't listen to it again, though it's rare that I would with mysteries/thrillers, but I'd give it a 4/5.

I'm not someone who is particularly judgmental of narrators in audiobooks, so I usually don't have much to say here. I think Brittany Pressley did a good job, there were no audio issues and her voice is pleasant to listen to. I wouldn't say it added too much drama to the narrative but I don't think it detracted either.

As far as some of my issues with it, without trying to spoil anything, I'd say they're issues I frequently have with thriller type books. First of all, you're expected to believe that literally almost every character has a motive to do the crime, and there were a few characters that felt like somewhat gratuitous additions to that list. I find it hard to believe that even in small towns THAT many people would have issues with the same person at the same time. One more minor issue about some of the characters too - but that would be a spoiler that I don't want to reveal.

Secondly, while there thankfully aren't unreliable narrators that are too drunk or whatever to narrate, you can tell throughout the story that information is being withheld to try to make it suspenseful. I always find this a bit frustrating and also find that it can slow down the narrative more than necessary. I definitely felt that it was slow at the beginning before hitting a reasonable pace, but I wasn't particularly engaged with that "must listen" feeling until very close to the end.

All in all it was an engaging enough audiobook to keep me entertained, but definitely not engaging enough that I couldn't multitask. I think this would be a fine listen for even more complicated crafts.