Cole Baxter has a wide selection of books and I think they're in the process of making audiobooks for some of the former releases which is really nice because I typically prefer audio.

He's a really good author and I like his stories. I think the prose is a little cheesy. The talking seems forced or unnatural so I'd work on that.

In this book, Mary escapes an abusive relationship only to fall into an emotionally abusive friendship with a woman she helped on the bus. Between her ex Nick and her new friend Ruby, Mary knows no peace.

She finally has enough and tries to get away but Ruby has a few secrets and she's not going to let Mary go without a fight.

One thing that made me laugh(or maybe cry) is they keep talking about Ruby as if she's a tiny old lady but she's only in her 50's! Even the narrator does a sort of delicate old lady voice for Ruby.

I believe this author is improving with each book.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media, Netgalley and Cole Baxter for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook releasing May 3, 2022.

Although the paper/ebook/kindle version of Trust a Stranger by Cole Baxter released in 2020, Dreamscape Media now has an audio version narrated by Angie Kane. I hadn’t read the paperback, and this review will focus primarily on the audio, along with some book commentary.

I’m 57 years old and began listening to audio books on cassette tape 40 years ago, so I feel comfortable in stating I love this medium and have experienced a ton of narrators. As a reader (listener for those who argue the two are different), it is sometimes difficult to separate bad writing from bad narrating. Baxter wrote a solid book – the main character, Mary, escapes from an abusive marriage, seeks therapy to deal with self esteem and trauma, meets Ruby by chance on a train, helps Ruby during a medical emergency, an instant friendship develops then something dark starts to happen. It’s interesting. In a world where people need people, it’s not hard to imagine fast friendships with strangers and, sadly, people aren’t always what they appear to be at first glance.

So, read the book. I plan to try more Baxter works as this author is new to me with an expansive catalog of material already in print.

If I could choose a single thing to change in the audio version it would be the voice used for the character Ruby. In the story, the women are separated by decades. Mary is 32 and Ruby is 56. I’m 57. So perhaps my view of the character is skewed by my own persona, but I could not get past the fact she sounded like a frail, geriatric 70 something with a child’s high pitched voice. I actually stopped listening at one point to go to the web and find the ages of the women because I was sure I’d missed something. It was the internet that confirmed 56. Baxter refers to this woman numerous times as aging, elderly, older. The age difference was an important part of the story and the narrator’s voice, along with adjectives I would not use for a 50 year old, were distracting. The New York accent and high pitch of Ruby’s voice, her previous career as an actress, talk of a projector to watch one of her performances…..it was confusing enough that it impacted the story.

Once I accepted that the voice was the voice, and I let go of my exasperation of the portrayal of a 56 year old as geriatric, I enjoyed the book very much. It’s a fast listen and hopefully a way to introduce the author to a different set of readers.


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