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  • Seconds to Live

  • Scarlet Falls, Book 3
  • By: Melinda Leigh
  • Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
  • Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (113 ratings)

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Seconds to Live cover art

Seconds to Live

By: Melinda Leigh
Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
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Summary

A Wall Street Journal bestseller

Wildlife biologist Mac Barrett avoided his hometown of Scarlet Falls for years - too many bad memories. But when he receives the news that his father is dying, he rushes home only to discover he’s too late. Shaken, Mac retreats to his remote cabin seeking peace and solace. Instead, he crashes his jeep to narrowly avoid running over the naked body of a woman lying in the road. Even more disturbing, when he regains consciousness, the body is gone.

Police detective Stella Dane wants to believe Mac, even if his story about the vanishing body seems far-fetched. But when Mac’s description matches the missing woman she’s been searching for, it raises a disturbing question: How does a dead body disappear?

Mac and Stella will have to work together to find the answer and catch a psychotic kidnapper - and quickly. The killer has a deadly message to send, and the case is about to become personal....

2016 Golden Leaf Award Winner

©2016 Melinda Leigh (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Seconds to Live

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Awful recording/ performance

Could not go beyond the first chapter because of the disembodied mechanical delivery. Unusual and very disappointing.

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Wow!

Melinda did it again, a perfect blend between action and love!

Could not get enough of this trilogy!

Can't wait to read more of her books!!

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Scarlet Falls goes out with a bang.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the gripping conclusion to Melinda Leigh's Scarlet Falls series. Once I started I couldn't put this book down until the captivating conclusion. One of my favourite things about this series is the way the characters interconnected and this book doesn't disappoint.

Our new hot hero wildlife biologist Mac Barrett teams him up with sassy police detective Stella Dane. Together they are a dynamite duo but old favourites from previous books also make appearances. I look forward to listening to more by this author and would love to see her Scarlet Falls characters crossover into other series.

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*Thrilling! The Best One Of the Trilogy

This is my favourite book of the trilogy because it focussed on the three Barrett siblings Grant, Hannah and Mac. This one predominantly featured the younger wild sibling Mac. It is a rollercoaster ride of catching a killer on the loose and it also showcased the special skills the Barrett’s all hold due to the strenuous tasks their Father an ex Military Colonel. Although their upbringing was not conventional it was the very thing that they did not always like the drills that taught them to be independent and survive in a world that can be dangerous.

Their skills especially Mac in this story were tested under extreme circumstances, such as being in the jungle and fighting against hunter killers and upon arriving back due to his Father’s impending death more trouble was ahead.

I started reading/listening to this book in the wrong order and having stopped and reading/listening in the correct order I started this book again and it made much more sense, I highly recommend you read this trilogy in the correct order.

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Fantastic book very gripping !!

I’m a window cleaner and have lots of time to kill so listen to audio books every day, I’ve loved all 3 books in this serious a little sad that I’ve finished them.

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Great series of books

This is the last in the Scarlet Falls series and it was just as good as the first two. There are references to events and characters in previous books but they are quickly explained and this book could easily stand alone. It was brave of the writer to feature a less than perfect hero, who had a drug problem in his teen years and had let his guilt about this separate him from his family. He returns to his home town and faces problems with his old gang, along with getting involved in investigating a murder with the h, who was a newly promoted police detective. Really good to find a competent and intelligent h who is fully capable or doing her job and does not need constant rescuing or hand holding from the H. Also good to see that the H realises this, accepts it and admires her for it. A decent romance where both H and h admit their developing feelings with honesty and face their situation head on. Mixed in with a good murder mystery that was a little gruesome at times in its detail, but kept me guessing to the end. My only slight criticism is the boss of the h who is the stereotypical ignorant police boss more concerned with public relations than actually getting the right person convicted, but he did redeem himself in the last chapters by waking up to his mistakes.

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Great story

Third part of a trilogy that I just could not put down till I reach the end of

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Fabulous Trilogy

This has been a fabulous ride through one family's journey of life, love and combatant training. I discovered these novels and audiobooks through my Kindle Unlimited subscription, just these books alone have been worth the subscription fee.

The narrator was pretty good, she found it difficult to do the male voices, so sometimes it was difficult to differentiate between the many men in the narrative, but that didn't take away from the story or my enjoyment.

The novels are all stand alone pieces, but I'm convinced that maximum enjoyment will be derived if they are all read in order: Hour, Minutes, Seconds... enjoy.

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Great book

Great audio book have listen to all three books love this author will get more

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Decent set of audio books

These books are pretty good for listening while walking or working out. Some strange pronunciations by narrator e.g. "shone" sounds like "shown" but on the whole, it was good. Thank you.

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  • Lia
  • 23-10-16

Great book under $8

Seconds to Live continues the story of the Barrett family, this time letting us into the life of the families youngest son, Mac. Mac thinks of himself as the black sheep of the family, mistakes made in his teen years have left him feeling he is a disappointment to his siblings. He has been avoiding his home town and trying in his own way to make up for his perceived mistakes. Mac returns home to be with his dying father and along with Stella Dane, a homicide detective he has history with, becomes embroiled in the search for a killer.
This was a well written and enjoyable story, but I did find it slightly more predictable than the authors other novels.
The book had very likable characters and the development of the romance between Mac and Stella was appealing but rather rapid in its professions of love., but then again they did have a past history. I really enjoyed the layers of Mac's personality and the complexity of his relationship with his siblings. Overall the story-line was an entertaining read with enough twists and intrigue to keep you hooked.

Cris Dukehart was very good with the delivery of the syory

14 people found this helpful

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  • Wayne
  • 26-06-18

Scarlet Falls, Book 3

I've reviewed the two prior novels in the series. The protagonists are Stella Dane (cop and younger sister of Morgan Dane who has her own Melinda Leigh series) and DEA agent Mac Barrett who makes his first appearance. SECONDS TO LIVE is an excellent serial killer suspense mystery with very strong elements of a romance novel. Narration by Cris Dukehart is adequate.

9 people found this helpful

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  • Trish R.
  • 01-07-16

Great book but terrible narration..

I absolutely love Ms. Leigh’s murder mysteries and I hate when they end. I can never figure out who the bad guy is until the hero or heroine does, very near the end of the book. I like not being able to figure out who-dunnit early in the book.

Another thing I really, really like is the romance is without angst or misunderstandings. That’s awesome. I hate when a 300 to 400 page book is just full of that crap and nothing to go with it. This one was great in not having that kind of nonsense.

While Mac and Stella fell in love there was all kinds of mystery and murder going on. And they were a great twosome; Stella being a cop and Mac being trained by his insane father in the art of warfare. Geez, what he and his brothers and sister went through as children was totally crazy: their father throwing his paralyzed self into the pool and making Mac save him from drowning, AND Mac was 11 years old. Who does that? Ms. Leigh gave you more than the murderer to hate.

It was very nice that Grant, Ellie, Brody and Hannah were in this book. It’s always nice seeing old friends. I liked Lance, too, but he was kind of messed up. He did have enough smarts to quit the force when he realized it. And, Captain Horner was just an ass. All he cared about was how he looked on TV during a press conference. I didn’t like him at all.

There wasn’t really any sexual tension in this book but there was some nicely written sex. There was swearing and the F-bomb was released 24 times.

As to the narrator: Nothing personal but Ms. Dukehart sucks. She sucked on the and second book but I thought she’s do better on this one. I mean, I can see a narrator being lousy years ago, when all that was required was for someone to read a book. BUT with all the complaints about a female reader not trying to make their voice manly or reading like a robot, whatever, you’d think someone would get better. No so, for Ms. Dukehart. She still thinks that all she has to do is read the book. So, I’m done with Melinda Leigh’s books unless or until she finds a better narrator. If this is the best she can do when it comes to a narrator then I’ll find someone else to listen to. If the book says he spoke in a deep sexy voice and he actually sounds like a girl, then something is definitely wrong, and the hero, Mac, sounded just like a girl through the whole book. The best Ms. Dukehart did was make two old women sound like two old women. I guess she thought that was good enough.

7 people found this helpful

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  • LRC13
  • 24-08-16

Horrid narrator--she will drive u insane

Monotone, no inflection, made the love scenes seem like 2 computers were going at it. Love this author but the narrator ruined it.

5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Erika Johns
  • 17-10-16

Read this, don't listen

I'm not sure why other reviewers gave this narrator such high remarks - she's terrible. Her very audible intake of breath after each phrase or sentence makes everything she's saying sound either like a question, or like she just plain doesn't get the scene and situation. The series is great, but definitely a to-be-read-series, not a to-be-heard-series.

3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Sherron
  • 30-08-20

Mac and Stella's story

A very interesting beginning to Mac and Stella's story with Mac having secrets that come to light. Family ties are what saves Mac when he tries to help Stella with her case.

1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Cindy Meyer Lady of the Loch
  • 18-06-20

Scary Bad Guy, Brave Good Guys, & 1 Tough ladycop

Excellent characters and great location. The bad guy is really bad, although Leigh is good at slight of hand hiding the killer. As always, the hero and love interest is steaming, his love of detective heroine lady cop steamy, and all things are timed to a "T."

1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • D. S.
  • 24-05-17

Love the series

I love the twists and the great character development... and the audio is great and easy to understand

1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Jf13
  • 06-01-17

Corny

The writing felt corny and cheap. The story was predictable. Hard to finish. I didn't care about these characters.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Kindle Customer
  • 15-09-16

Wonderful

This book was the perfect end to the series. Narration was great as well. I enjoyed the series

1 person found this helpful