Auburn Ride cover art

Auburn Ride

A Johnny Delarosa Thriller

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Auburn Ride

By: David Stever
Narrated by: Bill Lord
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About this listen

Welcome to Port City!

Private investigator Johnny Delarosa has seen it all. First as a cop, and now as a private eye. Cheating spouses, embezzlements, and insurance scams are routine. But he meets his match when the alluring, auburn-haired Claire Dixon walks into his bar/office and drops a $20,000 retainer in his lap. She wants the hard-drinking Johnny to find $2 million that was stolen from her mobster family 30 years earlier. But $2 million can be motivating. Old mobsters come out of witness protection to claim their share, and when bodies begin to pile up, and his sexy, enigmatic client disappears, Johnny is taken on the ride of his life; an Auburn Ride. With a wink and a nod to the hard-boiled private eyes of the pulp noir past, the gritty streets of Port City set the stage for author David Stever's first thriller in the Delarosa series.

©2016 David Anthony Stever (P)2017 David Anthony Stever
Detective Modern Detectives Private Investigators Mystery Fiction Thriller Mafia City Suspense
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

You're a good man, Johnny Delarosa.

An ex cop of twenty years, then six years as a private eye, Jonny prided himself on being a good judge of character. But when a beautiful 30-something red head offers him 20,000 dollars retainer with the promise of a further 180,000 when the job is done, he ignores his gut feeling that something wasn't right and takes the job. And opens up a whole can of worms.

For a detective noire character, Johnny has it all: attractive and slick talking, ex cop who remembers the past and knows the bad guys as well as the good, divorced, likes jazz and the ladies and part owns a bar, which doubles as his home and office, with his ex police partner. As Katie (rescued kidnap victim and stunning brunette who decides she wants to work for him) says, "Crazy Raymond Chandler stuff on steroids." Add in a touch of Mickey Spillane...

The book is written in the first person and, Initially, the choice of narrator was a surprise: instead of the usual deep, staccato hard voice, Bill Lord's delivery is softer, pleasant and with good intonation and expression. But almost immediately he just fits the character to perfection. He is Johnny Delarosa. And his voicings of the other protagonists is equally good, bringing them forcefully to life. A great performance.

So, charismatic and colourful protagonists, intriguing story that's hard to put down, good dialogue and humour, all related by an excellent narrator - did I enjoy it? Hell, yes. I was fortunate in being gifted a complimentary copy of Auburn Ride, at my request, by the rights holder, via Audiobook Boom. Thank you so much.
A book to be recommended to, and enjoyed by, all detective thriller fans. What are you waiting for? Get it now.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Fun, dependable mystery

Auburn Ride is a quaint, easy read. I found it easy to dive into and easy to follow. It was the perfect thing to listen to while I puttered about the house. Delarosa is something of a dinosaur in a few of his ways but they work for him. The story felt a little like a hard boiled crime novel from the 70s that was yanked into the 21st century. There’s modern tech like cell phones but Delarosa himself was molded a few decades back.

Setting all the cliches aside, the pacing is great. There’s a good mix of action, mystery, character development, and reflection. Even though Katie takes her clothes off often, I still liked her character. She’s definitely goal oriented and not intimidated by the work. Mike, Delarosa’s partner in their private eye business and their bar, provides a base of operations, cold beer, and well-timed advice.

I knew right from the beginning that Claire, the red head, was trouble. The title kind of gives that away. Still, it was fun to guess at her true motivations. Over all, the mystery was a little predictable but still interesting to see how all the details locked into place.

While there are several ladies present in this story, they are almost always of romantic interests. The few who aren’t are still assessed by their looks and bed-ability. Delarosa doesn’t think overweight women are much fun in bed, which says something about Delarosa. It also meant there was this undertone of sexism throughout the story having all the women rated by their sexiness. If you can accept that as just a feature of the main character, then the rest of the story works well. All told, it was fun. 3.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Bill Lord works well as the main character Delarosa. At first, Lord has an unusual cadence, drawing out the last syllable of each sentence as if he’s building drama. It takes a little while, but eventually Lord finds a more natural cadence. Lord’s female character voices were feminine and he did have different voices for all the characters. Sometimes when 2 or more male characters were talking in a conversation, Lord’s voices blended together losing their distinction. There were no tech issues with this recording. 3.5/5 stars.

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