Long, Lean, and Lethal

By: Heather Graham

Narrated by: Paige McKinney

A horror-movie-obsessed killer stalks a soap-opera starlet

Anything can happen on Valentine Valley. People recover from amnesia, awake from comas, and rise from the dead - all to the delight of the daytime soap’s millions of fans. But while Valentine Valley may be glamorous onscreen, behind the camera the soap’s grueling production schedule punishes actors, directors, and writers in the name of ratings. Soap star Jennifer Connolly is near her breaking point, and a murderer is about to push her over the edge.

As Jennifer struggles to care for her ill mother, a serial killer stalks the lot, committing a gory string of murders inspired by classic Hitchcock films. Jennifer is his next target and he wants to give her what every actress wishes for: to never age another day.

©2000 Heather Graham (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Great Story

I live the story. At first it was hard to listen to the performer, but I got used to her reading style. It was worth it!

Good story.

This was an interesting story and I didn’t guess who the killer was until it was revealed. I wasn’t too crazy about the narration. Perhaps it was an early book for this narrator; the audiobook is over 10 years old. In any case, the story held my attention and I did finish listening to the audiobook rather than switching over to reading it with my eyes. The series title of Soap Opera is pretty appropriate. Not only because many of the characters are in a soap opera but also because of all of the different things happening in the story.

Sad performace

Would you try another book from Heather Graham and/or Paige McKinney?

I will not listen to another story by this narrator. I found the story line interesting but it took me over a week to get through the story because of the lack of skill of the narrator. Her inflections were atrocious.

Warnings

This story is a bit closer to Law and Order than Murder She Wrote with a bit more graphic murder scenes. But the story is intriguing and really draws you in. There is a whole cast of characters. So many with the means to commit the crimes. I did guess the killer but the why was a surprise. And it was kind of fun having guessed right. The audio book was very well done. #CMCon25

Awful.

Soap star Jennifer Connolly has returned to her childhood home to help care for her mother, legendary actress Abby Sawyer, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease. Jennifer is surprised when she learns that Abby's stepson, actor Conar Markham, will also be living at the house. In fact, he is joining the same soap opera that Jennifer currently stars in. Abby might be sick, but she wants Jennifer living under her room because she thinks someone wants to kill her daughter. She has asked Conar to watch over Jennifer at work and at home. Conar and Jennifer have never gotten along. How are they supposed to live and work together?

Well, where do I start. I really didn't like this book. First off, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Paige McKinney. It was awful. Every character had the same voice, no inflection. Sometimes she sounded robotic. I stopped listening and downloaded the library book, but reading it wasn't much better. The dialogue was terrible. In my mind, I was reading it just like the audiobook narrator.

The romance between Conar and Jennifer was boring. The suspense wasn't much better. The villain was killing actresses using the methods straight out of Alfred Hitchcock movies. That and the fact that the setting was at a soap opera gave me hope that I would like the mystery. Instead, the plot was straight out of a Scooby-Doo mystery. I knew the killer as soon as the character was introduced. The saving grace to this book was when the actors talked about their characters and their crazy storylines. That was actually funny, especially the pregnancy that lasted two years. My rating: 1.5 Stars.