Becky Kincaid ventures out in the middle of a snowstorm to buy a car seat for her unborn baby and never makes it home. When a second pregnant woman disappears, Marissa Rooney and the team at the Holt Foundation fear a sinister motive lurks behind the crimes. Lead investigator Seth Crawford desperately searches for the thread that binds the two cases together, knowing that if he fails, another … another woman will soon be gone. While Seth hunts for clues, a madman has Marissa in his sights and she carries a secret that could tear her whole world apart.
Can Seth stop the killer before he reaps his…dark harvest?
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Dark Harvest by Chris Patchell is book 2 of ‘The Holt Foundation Stories’. I highly suggest you read/listened to book 1 ‘In the Dark’ first, it provides the complete backstory and you won’t want to miss anything! The writing is great and the storyline is engrossing all the way through. Once again dual narration by Lisa Stathoplos, Corey Gagne was flawless. Recommended
The beginning of this audio will give you the chills over how easy it is for one woman to disappear without a trace, it is just way too easy when evil come to call it will leave you spellbound. This is a story about hope, needs, wants, love, the unknown, sorrow, pain and death when one man wants answers to questions he needs to survive and overcome issues he has. It is a chilling, thrilling, heart stopping read that will hold you spellbound on the edge leaving you with your heart in your throat wanting to pull these poor women out of the pages giving them back the life they once had. Will one pregnant woman be enough or will he need more, what does he need them for and what about their unborn babies. Come take the journey like no other get inside a man’s head that demands answers at any cost along with the people at the Holt Foundation as they struggle to keep it open after the founder died. These people give their heart and soul to victims they do not know in hopes of finding them and bring them home alive.
With this audio you have to narrators that are very talented with wonderful character voices that gives true emotions. You can hear the pain, sorrow, fear and the unknown. They each more or less take a chapter, their voices go well together blending into a delightful narration that pulls you in and holds you spellbound. With double narrators in most audios there are issues here you will not find any. There are no background noises, no volume changes as they go from one narrator to the other, there is no place where the volume is higher or lower than the ones before. It really sounds like they were in the same room side beside throughout the audio. What they deliver are delightful character voices that fit the characters with true emotions from a chuckle, laugh or tears. You have no trouble knowing who is talking or what they are feeling. Both male and female voices are great women with power to women who are uncertain along with strong males that are alpha to the more dearing softer males. Emotions are played against each other giving you a highly entertaining listen. I had no trouble picturing the scenes as they unfolded. Some of these pictures will stay in my mind for a long time to come. Their performance is outstanding and it was a pleasure being able to listen to them work together bring a very exciting thrilling audio. I can’t wait to listen to more of their work.
The author spins a tale that makes you turn the pages and keep you spellbound. Between the plot and the narration I could not put this audio down. From what I have read the author brings back past characters from her first book weaving into this story so it blends well. It makes you want to pick up the first book to find out what Marissa and her daughter has already lived through. This is a standalone you do not need to read the first one but it would be nice to know what these two went through. You never feel lost you always know what is happening and have a good knowledge of their past. There was nothing that I didn’t like about this story it has it all a little romance, danger, thrills, chills, excitement, overcoming your past, living for your future, and deaths so very sad so real that your heart almost stops. It is a story inside a story, true it is based on the foundation and the missing women but is also based on one ex cop him dealing with losing his wife and walking away from the police force overcoming the man he turned into be and turning a page to become a better man. You get to see his fight for survival starting over finding out what he lost might not be as much as he is about to lose. A women and her daughter that has been to hell and back fighting just to put one foot in front of the other as they find some common ground they both can live with. Marissa daughter who is still deal with the past that will haunt her to her dying day (if you have read the first book you will know what I am talking about). Then you get to know the women who come up missing what they are feeling, their needs and wants. They deserve so much more but get so little from those around them. You get to know the abductor and the women who help him. What all she has had to deal with and why she does what she has done. I doubt you can read/listen to this and not be touched deeply. It is truly a wonderful, thrilling, chilling read you won’t be able to put down. I loved this so much I have picked it as one of my favorite read for 2018. This author just blow me way.
Dark Harvest is the 2nd book in Chris Patchell’s Holt Foundation Stories series. The Holt Foundation is a group helping victims and families of people who have been affected by violent crimes. The foundations founder Elizabeth Holt was a victim of a violent crime in her college. Just before her death she created the foundation. Which all comes to light in “In The Dark” book one of the series. You should really read book 1 to get all the backstory to the developments in this book. This book can be read as a stand alone. There are parts that would make more since in you read book 1 though.
In this book Marissa and her daughters are still coming to terms with Brooke’s kidnapping and the aftermath. But the Holt Foundation also have a new case. Young pregnant women are disappearing. A mid 40’s Doctor with early onset Alzheimer’s is doing stem cell experiments to cure himself and also selling off the babies of the pregnant moms to fund himself. He is taking the babies by c section of the young women he kidnaps and letting the mother’s die. When young and pregnant Becky Kincaid comes up missing from the local baby store the team takes on the case. When Marissa finds out she is pregnant with Seth’s Child she goes to a local Women’s Clinic to help decide her options. This Women’s Clinic is where the mystery starts to unfold.
This is not just a mystery but also a romance with some real life stuff thrown in. Marissa and Seth are still exploring their new relationship, but Seth is still carrying a lot of baggage and is still hung up on his dead wife and her death. He also is trying to decide whether to go back to being a cop or staying at the foundation. Brooke is dealing with the PTSD from her kidnapping and not doing a very good job of it. Marissa is in the middle of Brooke and Seth and their problems, but she discovers she has a problem of her own. A Baby!
The audiobook is dual narrated by Lisa Stathoplos, Corey Gagne as was book 1. Both of these narrators do a wonderful job with the book. They bring the story and the emotions from the pages to life extremely well. I like they they each have their own chapters.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Chris Patchell. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Dark Harvest is an appropriate title for this bone chilling thriller. Think about it…
As soon as I opened the book, I felt sad for Becky and what’s about to happen to her. I’m not sure exactly what it will be, but I know it won’t be good. And I was right. It was worse than bad.
Marissa and Seth hooked up after rescuing Brooke, her daughter from a kidnapper in Book I, Into The Dark. It is not necessary to read Into The Dark first, but if this is your first foray into Chris Patchell’s work, why not?
Brooke and Marissa’s story picks up from Book I, but I will leave that for you to discover for yourself.
Seth & Brooke are flawed, damaged, carrying sad terrible baggage, doing the best they can as they struggle to bring their lives into some kind of balance. You don’t know what you would do in their situation until you walk a mile in their shoes, so don’t judge them too harshly.
Seth and Marissa work at the Holt Foundation, helping victims of crime when the police seem to be unable or unwilling to follow it through to the end.
Now, they are teaming up to investigate the disappearance of a very pregnant Becky. Of course, they’ll look at her boyfriend first. He’s got problems and secrets and I aim to learn them too.
We have a narcissistic self serving doctor…bury him under the jail.
Tory, is so damaged, desperate. I don’t know how to feel about her sometimes. Why do women fall into these love traps?
Human trafficking is terrible all by itself, but this goes to another extreme. And harvesting, I can see that escalating in a horrific manner as those with selfish agendas so easily cast others aside for their own agenda.
I love these dark and horrible suspense novels that have my emotions raging and running the gamut. Frustration, anger, sadness, empathy…The more I read, the more I can’t wait until the villains are discovered and whatever happens to them can never be enough.
On page 214 and…
I don’t want to go on, yet I can hardly wait. A race to the finish because nothing is going to stop me from knowing how this will end. I know good, bad, and horrible, terrifying things are coming. How it will play out, I don’t know and it’s the journey, as much as the end, that keeps me going. I am amazed how Chris Patchell, and all the other authors who write such fabulous novels, are able to weave a story together, adding this mystery, that horror, culminating in a tale that grab me from beginning to end.
Political and ethical questions come to mind, but that’s the great thing about fiction. It gets you thinking, questioning, pushing the envelope, because all things are possible.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Dark Harvest by Chris Patchell.
This was the first book I have ready from this Author and I am going to say it definitely won’t be my last as it was a very good read!
I will start by saying that, since it’s the second book in the series, I am pretty sure I missed a lot from book one. So at some point I will probably go back and read it so I can fully understand this story.
Most crime novels I read have periods of, like, dull chatter or explanations that can get boring and make the book seem very slow. This one, however, was not like that. It constantly held my attention which was definitely a relief.
The writing was absolutely amazing, the details perfect, and it was a steady pace read. I loved being able to get to know the characters and dive into this story head first. The only complaint I had was that you basically knew who did it before the characters do. It doesn’t take away from the story at all, just kind of takes the surprise aspect out of it.
All in all, still a very good read and I will definitely be getting more books from this author.
Very good book. Book 2 of the Hold Foundation series.