Narrated by Julia Whelan

I’ve been working on this theory about Nora Roberts’ stand-alones. Every two years she will write a ripper and the books in the “off years” will be okay, maybe even good, but not stellar. By my reckoning, therefore, The Collector should have been a cracker. While it has worked for the last four books (The Search, Chasing Fire, The Witness, and Whiskey Beach) it seems I will have to adjust my theory.

Lila Emerson is a people-watcher. She’s a YA author and professional house-sitter and she entertains herself in these new spaces by watching out of the windows (sometimes with binoculars) and making up stories about what she sees. On one such occasion, in shades of Rear Window (a connection specifically acknowledged in the book), Lila witnesses a woman being struck and thrown out a window to her death.

Artist Ashton Archer is part of a large family of both half and step siblings, due to the number of marriages his parents have had. His half-brother, Oliver, was also killed in the same incident Lila witnessed. At first the police think it is a murder-suicide, a proposition Ash rejects wholeheartedly.

When Ash spies Lila at the police station, he deduces she is the witness and 911 caller and asks to speak to her. Lila’s best friend Julie manages an art gallery in Chelsea and knows Ash, both by reputation and personally. Because of Ash’s innate charm and “good guy vibe” and Julie’s imprimatur, Lila agrees to show Ash the view from her apartment window and discuss the “case” with him.

Ash’s best friend Luke turns out to be someone from Julie’s past and thus we are treated two romantic arcs. However, the Julie and Luke’s story is fairly scant on detail.

It is quickly apparent (very quickly) that Oliver and his girlfriend were murdered in connection with a dodgy deal gone bad that Oliver was brokering, involving a priceless piece of art. It is also very quickly apparent that whoever is after this piece of art will stop at nothing to get it and, as a result, Ash and Lila and even Julie (because: reasons) are under threat. So it made no sense to me at all, when Ash gets his hands on the particular piece, that he doesn’t turn it over to the police.

The excuses for Ash’s actions were not at all convincing but if he had done the sensible thing, there would have been no reason for the book to continue. Lila and Ash (with the help of Julie and Luke and various members of Ash’s large family), set about solving the mystery of who wants the art and catching the villain/s. By the time I was 2/3s into my listen, I was convinced that handing the piece over to the police wouldn’t protect them anymore but if it had been done at the start – well, like I said, it just didn’t make sense to me. Since the whole story basically hinges on me accepting this TSTL behaviour, the suspense plot became a bit of a disappointment.

That said, the romance between Lila and Ash was enjoyable (even though he was a bit pushy from time to time). Lila stood her ground and was, for the most part, very clever and resourceful although her actions in Italy were just silly – and again, clearly for plot rather than character purposes.

Since The Collector is a romantic suspense, I anticipated someone jumping out of a cupboard with a knife or something during the slow scenes. But most often, this wasn’t the case. I guess the book lulled me into a false sense of security in that regard so maybe it was intentional. Still, I can’t help but think that a ruthless editor would have made the book tighter. There were a lot of lengthy descriptions and I can’t skim in audio format so I was treated to every single not-so-interesting detail. There was also a stereotypical dragon lady which disappointed because she was the only Asian character in the book.

Julia Whelan did a very good job with the narration. Her male character voices aren’t super deep – they’re more… stern and a little lower in register than the female characters. Julie and Luke had strong New York accents whereas Lila and Ash had more Midwest tones so differentiation was effortless. I was grateful for this choice – otherwise it would have been almost impossible.

Many of the secondary characters had accents as well – Russian, Italian, and French, which made it very easy to distinguish who was speaking and gave Ms. Whelan a chance to show off her language skills. One of her Italian accents kept slipping a bit into almost an Irish accent, but it wasn’t a big deal during the listen. On the other hand, her French accent was extraordinary. I really admired the way she rolled the “r” at the end of “necessaire”.

At nearly sixteen hours, The Collector is a long audiobook. Ms. Whelan’s narration kept me entertained through a lot of boring description I could have done without (and would have undoubtedly skimmed over in print). She has a pleasant voice and I enjoyed her characterizations.

Lila’s endlessly curious about people – what makes them tick and where they come from. Complete strangers will tell her their life story within minutes. This was a very helpful (convenient) trait in terms of the investigation but Julia Whelan’s interpretation and performance of those words also made her rather charming instead of annoying.

As usual, the production values of Brilliance were on display and I don’t recall any errors or other glitches in the listen. I’d recommend the audio for the narration but be prepared for a long book which meanders a bit.

Kaetrin