Audiobook Review: Chill Factor by Sandra Brown

Title: Chill Factor
Author: Sandra Brown
Narrator: Stephen Lang
Publication date: September 29th 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
My rating: 4 of 5 Stars
My rating of Narration: 5 of 5 Stars

SUMMARY (from Goodreads)
Five women are missing from the sleepy mountain town of Cleary, North Carolina, and a blue ribbon has been left near where each woman was last seen. Lilly Martin has returned to Cleary to close the sale of her cabin. But when her car skids and strikes a stranger, Ben Tierney, as he emerges from the woods, they've no choice but to wait out a brutal blizzard in the cabin. And as the hours of their confinement mount, Lilly wonders if the greater threat to her safety isn't the storm, but the stranger beside her...

MY THOUGHTS

I am a big fan of Sandra Brown. I don’t even glance at blurbs before requesting her books. To this moment I’ve read 34 of her novels. To my shame I haven’t written a single review on any of them. I just… I thought that everyone knows about Sandra Brown and either like her books or not. So I was really surprised when I realized that several of my GR friends haven’t read her novels and only now they begin to discover this author. Now I’m going to write reviews on Sandra Browns books because she writes amazing mystery thrillers with steamy romance. And Chill Factor is not an exception.

Women have been disappearing lately in Cleary, a little town in North Carolina, and a blue ribbon has been left near where each woman was last seen. Our heroine Lilly Martin came to Cleary to say final good-bye to her ex-husband and to close the sale of the cabin. On her way down the mountain through the storm Lilly’s car skids and strikes a man. They have no choice but to return to the cabin. The injured man is Ben Tierney, whom Lilly met a year ago during kayaking. They had an undeniable attraction, but she was still married then. Now attraction is still there, but the more time she spends with him, the more she becomes convinced he's the serial killer. Also we meet town citizens, many of which are hiding secrets. So maybe one of them is the culprit after all?

This book reminded me of Mean Streak by Sandra Brown where main characters also are stranded in a remote cabin and the hero is the suspect. So if you loved Mean Streak you will definitely love Chill Factor. Another her book that comes to mind is French Silk. Only in that case the hero is District Attorney and the heroine is the main suspect of a murder.

Chill Factor kept me on the edge of my seat. You may think that after reading so many Sandra Brown’s books I would guess who the killer is. But no, I was suspecting everyone. The other her book which kept me guessing and second guessing everybody so intently until the very end was Hello, Darkness.

Chill Factor is more character driven rather than action driven story. And I like it. I usually prefer psychological aspect; action-packed books are not really my thing.

And as always the romance was so great. The chemistry between main characters was palpable. Sandra Brown definitely knows how to write an intense and delicious romance.

We meet a great cast of second characters in Chill Factor; all of them are town citizens. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I just say that almost everyone is hiding something. There are many secrets which are revealing by the end of the book. Though the main story is about Lilly and Tierney, there are several interesting subplots here.

I admit I read (or rather listen) Sandra Brown’s books mostly for entertainment, but in this book she also delivers some important messages. The author raises serious topics such as the loss of a child, what it means to be a good parent.

So if you love psychological thrillers with a romance and haven’t read any books by Sandra Brown, you should definitely try Chill Factor. You wouldn’t be disappointed.

PS. I prefer to listen to Sandra Browns books in audio. While my favorite narrator of her books is Victor Slezak, Stephen Lang makes really great job here.