Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Badlands
SERIES: Badlands #1
AUTHOR: Morgan Brice
NARRATOR: Kale Williams
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2019
LENGTH: 8 hours, 20 minutes
BLURB:
Medium and clairvoyant Simon Kincaide owns a Myrtle Beach boardwalk shop where he runs ghost tours, holds séances, and offers private psychic readings, making a fresh start after his abilities cost him his lover and his job as a folklore professor.
Jaded cop Vic D’Amato saw something supernatural he couldn’t explain during a shootout several years ago in Pittsburgh and relocated to Myrtle Beach to leave the past behind, still skeptical about the paranormal. But when the search for a serial killer hits a dead end, Vic battles his skepticism to ask Simon for help. As the body count rises, Simon’s involvement makes him a target, and a suspect. But Simon can’t say no, even if it costs him his life and heart.
REVIEW:
I am very partial to the psychic helping law-enforcement to solve a crime trope. It speaks to something inside me and in general is a good way to make me smile.
Simon Kincaide and Vic D’Amato are no strangers to leaving everything behind to start over somewhere else. Simon was forced from his position as a professor in folklore when the wealthy father of a student put pressure on the University. Now he owns a shop at shop on the Myrtle Beach boardwalk where he runs ghost tours, psychic readings and even séances. For now he’s content, gifted and not. What he lacks is a special someone to share his nights with.
Vic’s story is a bit different. He was not a believer of the paranormal, didn’t think of it much, until that one day some years ago when a shootout went terribly and unexplainably wrong. What he saw that day caused him his job and credibility. It forced him to relocate which is why he ended up in Myrtle Beach. A town currently haunted by a serial killer. With no clues to go on Vic turns to Simon to see if he has some information to share.
Simon and Vic are instantly attracted to each other and their relationship grows quickly from there. It screams of insta-love and I have to admit I just didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel them. That might be just me tough (the feeling part, not the insta-love).
I enjoyed the mystery part of it, the hunt for the killer. How Vic and Simon worked together to catch him. Well, that is until Simon did that one thing that drives me nuts – the self-sacrificing, going off alone… You know kind of like that whole “big misunderstanding” trope, only this is “going alone to face a dangerous killer” trope. The ones that kind of makes me feel that TSTL people shouldn’t always make it out scot free….
Kale Williams is definitely a talented narrator with great enunciation and pacing and a great voice. He also feels the words he’s reading, drawing the listener into the story and the world of psychics, spirits and serial killers hunting them. My one niggle is that he mostly narrates with the same voice throughout and at times it was a bit difficult to know who was speaking.
Badlands was a nice start to a series and I look forward to see where Brice takes it.
RATING: 
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