At First Sight: A Novel of Obsession

by Stephen J. Cannell Narrated by Scott Brick

Overview

Meet Chick Best-a middle-aged, self-absorbed California dot.com millionaire. Other than his house and high-priced foreign cars, Chick's most expensive possession is his trophy wife, Evelyn. Evelyn is good at spending Chick's money, money that has pretty much run out. Another problem is his drug-addled sixteen-year-old daughter, Melissa. Though concerned about his family, Chick has resigned himself to a miserable state of acceptance. That is, until he, Evelyn, and Melissa take a Christmas vacation in Maui. With this, Chick's life changes....

Chick experiences unrequited love at first sight when he observes Paige Ellis emerging from the hotel swimming pool. His obsession, exceeded only by his need to possess her, isn't diminished when he learns that she is happily married. Instead, Chick's obsession compels him to drive to Paige's house, where he runs down and kills her husband. Chick's life begins to spiral homicidally out of control, resulting in the destruction of everything he holds dear. Will Paige learn the truth about Chick before it's too late?

Fast paced, filled with wry humor, murder, lust, and dead-on L.A. characterizations, Cannell has written his most explosive novel yet.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Scott Brick turns Cannell's over-the-top and completely stereotypical story into a rousing and endlessly exciting listening experience. Cannell's latest tells the tale of dot-com millionaire Chick Best, a family man who becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman by the pool while on Christmas vacation. There is the spoiled housewife that spends without a care in the world, the drugged-out teenager who couldn't care less about her parents, and the sexy, mysterious stranger who becomes the object of Best's every thought. As familiar as it all sounds, Brick offers a fantastic reading in which he delves so deeply into the character of Chick Best that he almost starts to go crazy himself. The performance is not the least bit overplayed. Brick's uncanny ability to tear words from the page and breathe life into them is almost scary, and the end result is perhaps one of the best commercial thriller audio books in recent memory. A Vanguard Press hardcover (Reviews, May 26). (July)

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OCTOBER 2008 - AudioFile

This lackluster story of a millionaire's obsession with a woman he can't have is as stereotypical and clichéd as a Stephen J. Cannell novel—perhaps because it is. Despite the annoying “too-cool” attitude that Cannell gives his protagonist, the unfortunately named Chick Best, gifted narrator Scott Brick does his best to make the story enjoyable—and actually succeeds at times. Brick reads with an aged-rock-star tone of voice that is at once gritty and wise beyond its years. He actually gives Best a slightly endearing quality—that is, until the story gets so out of control that listeners will surely lose interest. Brick goes over the top in the end, but what choice does he really have? L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172637834
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	07/08/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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