A great novella in the Special Agent Constant Marlowe series. Jeffery Deaver always does a fantastic job of writing a mystery that keeps you engaged and it makes you never want to put it down.

Christine Traister did a great job narrating this novel and I hope they continue narrating this series.

Downstate is a novella by best-selling American author, Jeffery Deaver that features Special Agent Constant Marlowe, itinerant investigator for the Department of Criminal Investigations in the state of Illinois. The audio version is narrated by Christina Traister. As she heads downstate from Chicago to the small town of Plains, Constant Marlowe is reminded of why she hates cornfields.

She’s on the trail of an unnamed individual who has never killed anyone, never been arrested, but is well-known on the dark web for the weapon he sells: information. This Mr X can lead her to a ruthless sociopath who is on every law enforcement agency’s wanted list. He may be aware she’s coming, but has he underestimated Constant and the little sting she’s set up?

Later, in the downtime until her target is transported to the city, she somehow gets entangled in a very nasty racket going on in the town, and ends up on the run with a teenaged petty thief, a BOLO out on them both and a blanket order that endangers their lives. But Constant is not one to shy away from a challenge.

Before matters are properly resolved, Constant gets into a fist fight, Evan Quill makes an appearance, and Constant’s loathing for cornfields is strongly reinforced. More of this cast, please, Mr Deaver!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing

No matter the length, Deaver never fails to deliver. Constant Barlow is in Downstate, which is any place in Illinois other than Chicago. She gets tangled up in a situation in a sleepy "cornfield" type of town. She "breaks" out a young man in order to protect him from a ruthless sheriff. As she gets acquainted with the guy, the more she thinks not everything may not be as it seems. Very faced paced. The audiobook was great! The narrator Christina Traister narrates an excellent production.

5 stars

An enjoyable novella from Jeffrey Deaver. Always enjoy what he has written and I believe I have read them all. While the Lincoln Rhyme series is my favorite this is not far behind. The Colter Shaw books are also pushing the top.
Thanks for all of them and the opportunity to read this advance copy.

Downstate benefits from being a Novella as while a police procedural, it doesn’t get too bogged down in the day to day stuff like paperwork. A quick listen at 3hr 17min at regular speed, it was interesting enough to finish in a day over a few sessions.

Constant (yes, not Constance) heads to rural Illinois and you know nothing good happens to a city based cop in a small town. She is trying to track down someone high enough in organised crime to flip and finds him quickly, although flipping him is another story. Honestly, a little too easily for someone who is supposed to be fairly high up, intelligent and a careful planner. But she accidentally stumbles on another issue when a trip to the convenience store ends in an arrest and not knowing who she can trust.

A little obvious but still a great read/listen and the ending was a nice touch. Constant is believable as a female investigator who works alone, even if she does get into a lot of fist fights with guys much bigger than her with only some bruised knuckles and a missing carton of milk to show for it.

Narration: I have listened to a few books narrated by Christina Traister before and she is a decent narrator. This book is largely from the same POV which helps as her male voices can be a bit over the top (for example, the argument between Eddie and Slim). But a solid narrator and better than many.

She is better at slower speeds and the audio gets pitchy if sped up too much. However, she also speaks too slowly for me to listen at regular speed, so 1.25x-1.5x is the sweet spot.

This is an Audible exclusive and available on January 14th. Thanks to Netgalley and Brilliance Publishing for the advance copy for review.

Nice police procedural with two different cases and one badass female officer. Great writing style and the audiobook is performed well. No complaints.

3.5* Downstate is a ‘wham-bam’ thriller of a novella from Jeffrey Deaver which doesn’t leave much space to breathe!

Special Agent Constance Marlowe is tasked with bringing in Mr X, the man who provided research, information and data to allow others to commit crimes. The plan is to flip X to support unravelling a specific criminal. As Constance tries to work out X’s identity, she witnesses a teenager stealing gift cards from a grocery store. Little does she know that this apparent minor infraction will lead her into a much darker underbelly of rural crime and conspiracy.

Told at blistering pace and with an unrelenting plot, this is a great thrill ride. As it’s a novella there is limited space to set the scene and to really get under the skin of any of the characters, which is my usual preference, but I hugely enjoyed this caper. Constance is kick-ass and fun to be with ride alongside for a couple of hours.

I listened to the audio version which had a professional narrator who lacked a little with engagement (it was better when speeded up).

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Audio for an ARC

This was a quick little mystery story. I followed the plot easily and the characters all made sense but I found it all pretty boring - a lot of telling not showing and over explaining to the reader.