Three Weeks to Say Goodbye

John Lloyd's performance is definitely the strongest aspect of THREE WEEKS TO SAY GOODBYE. The improbable plot involves adoptive parents who try to keep their child from the biological father who wants her back. Although some of the accents and emotional scenes come across as a bit forced, in general Lloyd transitions smoothly between the diverse range of characters and scenes, and the listener will easily follow along. Fans of Box who have come to expect action-packed, fast-paced thrillers will find a tight time line filled with tension and violence. But the story's unbelievable plot twists, flat characters, and generally poor writing will disappoint. Narrator Lloyd's overall strong presentation will not. M.O.B. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from November 17, 2008
Bestseller Box (Blue Heaven
) explores an adoptive parent’s worst nightmare in this compelling stand-alone thriller. Jack McGuane, an employee of Denver’s convention and visitors bureau, and his wife suddenly discover that demonic Garrett Morland, the birth father of their dearly loved nine-month-old daughter, Angelina, didn’t sign away his parental rights. Garrett and his powerful father, a sitting federal judge, give the McGuanes three weeks to return Angelina. In this bleak scenario, Box eschews facile sentimentality and meticulously builds pitch-perfect characterizations, notably that of McGuane, who grew up with uneducated but hard-working parents on a series of Montana ranches. Box’s equally convincing villains—gangsters, murderers, child pornographers—each provide a different face of evil, and each individual has to decide how best to get at the truth. As usual, Box blessedly reasserts that whatever the cost, such truth exists, and ordinary folk have the strength to find it. Author tour.

March 2, 2009
In this stand-alone thriller set in Denver, Jack and Melissa McGuane stand to lose their adoptive baby daughter to her birth father, a teenage psychopath who never relinquished his paternal rights, and his father, a ruthless, well-connected federal judge. John Bedford Lloyd creates unique voices for every character and fully inhabits the role of narrator Jack, whose naïveté leads him to make appallingly stupid decisions. Lloyd makes Jack believable and sympathetic and prevents listeners from losing patience with his inability to realize just how dangerous his enemies are. The final CD concludes with a 3-minute interview of author C.J. Box. A St. Martin’s/Minotaur hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 17).