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    The Night Bird
    The Night Bird
    The Night Bird
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Night Bird

    Written by Brian Freeman

    Narrated by Joe Barrett

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    What if you had to relive your most terrifying memory…over and over? A detective and a psychiatrist investigate in Thriller Award–winning author Brian Freeman's gripping psychological novel.

    Homicide detective Frost Easton doesn't like coincidences. When a series of bizarre deaths rock San Francisco—as seemingly random women suffer violent psychotic breaks—Frost looks for a connection that leads him to psychiatrist Francesca Stein. Frankie's controversial therapy helps people erase their most terrifying memories—and all the victims were her patients.

    As Frost and Frankie carry out their own investigations, the case becomes increasingly personal—and dangerous. Long-submerged secrets surface as someone called the Night Bird taunts the pair with cryptic messages pertaining to the deaths. Soon Frankie is forced to confront strange gaps in her own memory, and Frost faces a killer who knows the detective's worst fears.

    As the body count rises and the Night Bird circles ever closer, a dedicated cop and a brilliant doctor race to solve the puzzle before a cunning killer claims another victim.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateFeb 1, 2017
    ISBN9781531891022
    The Night Bird
    Author

    Brian Freeman

    Brian Freeman is an Amazon Charts bestselling author of psychological thrillers, including the Frost Easton and Jonathan Stride series. His books have been sold in forty-six countries and translated into twenty-two languages. His stand-alone thriller Spilled Blood was named Best Hardcover Novel in the International Thriller Writers Awards, and his novel The Burying Place was a finalist for the same honor. The Night Bird, the first book in the Frost Easton series, was one of the top twenty Kindle bestsellers of 2017. Brian is widely acclaimed for his vivid “you are there” settings, from San Francisco to the Midwest, and for his complex, engaging characters and twist-filled plots. Brian lives in Minnesota with his wife, Marcia. For more information on the author and his books, visit http://bfreemanbooks.com.

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    Reviews for The Night Bird

    3.5/5

    161 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Good story but can't say it was one of my favourites. I still consider Brian Freeman as a superb author though. Started off really tense & gripping. Storyline was good but a bit overboard, especially towards the end. Narrator wasn't a favorite either, mostly due to the voice since the narration was good.....but a bit too nasal.
    • 5/5
      Psychiatrist Frankie Stein meddles with people's memories and fears. She tries to eliminate things that they want to forget and at times substitutes pleasant feelings. There are those including her own father that believe she goes too far. In particular she writes a favourable psychiatric report for someone who is clearly a murderer and gets him out of jail.But somebody is playing the same game with some of her ex-patients, making them react to triggers like special sounds and music. A number of them have died without warning after psychotic episodes.Detective Frost Easton meets someone who witnessed a person jumping off a bridge. The episode happened without warning and he is worried that the witness herself may be targeted by a person in a mask that she saw on the bridge. This plot is a very creepy scenario particularly after it becomes obvious that those who have died are being stalked by someone.
    • 3/5
      This is a psychological thriller about a psychiatrist, Dr. Frankie Stein, and her patients. It seems that someone is altering the memory of her patients, so that they lose time, and when a song is heard, it triggers a visceral fear in them. The tale is cleverly woven, and Dr. Stein needs to confront her own memories to determine who is seeking revenge on her.
      There are lots of relationships in this book which are all important - Frankie and her father, Frankie and her husband, Frankie and her sister, Frankie and her patients, Frost (the detective) and his sister, his brother, his lieutenant, and his cat, and with Lucy, a friend of one of the victims.
      I think the book was well written, and I will look for other books by this author.

      #TheNightBird #BrianFreeman
    • 1/5
      DNF @ 35%

      I can't stand this narrator.
    • 3/5
      Plot line was solid and the suspense was great. The character descriptions fell flat for me and seemed a bit superficial and immature but thankfully did not distract too much from the plot.
    • 3/5
      This book hooked me from the first chapter, so if you're looking for a page turner, look no further. I liked the main character (Frost) and will eventually check out the next book in this series. I didn't connect with another central character, the psychiatrist (Frankie), which may be intentional--the book mentions repeatedly how cold and guarded she seems and doesn't do a lot to build empathy. At several points in the book Frankie fails to see/admit the potential moral implications of her memory work. That central issue--whether it is ok to modify memory--covers the same philosophical ground as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but from a different enough direction that it doesn't feel like a retread. The book is short enough and fun enough (in that murder mystery way) that it's worth the read if you like a) thinking about memory as topic (I do) or b) breezing through a page turner (I do too).(Thank you Amazon Publishing and Goodreads for the copy of this book.)
    • 3/5
      The story has interesting twists, however, I am not sure the way murders occurred is convincing. If you checked your logic and believed that murders could be committed the way this book described, then this is a good read.
    • 4/5
      Sitting in traffic on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, a young woman has a sudden, violent mental breakdown. Tearing the flesh of her arms, torso, and face, she appears to be running from some invisible horror when she throws herself off the bridge.And she is not the first. Detective Frost Easton is heading the investigation of similar deaths in the city, all with one common thread: Psychiatrist Dr. Francesca Stein. Dr. Stein’s controversial methods of helping highly phobic patients seem to be falling apart, unless someone is out there, targeting her former patients in a twisted attack. When Dr. Stein begins to receive taunting messages signed by “The Night Bird,” the clock is ticking for her and Easton to find the psychopath before more people die . . .This is an enjoyable and fast-paced mystery. I greatly enjoyed the use the author made of the fragility of memory and the power of suggestion. The beginning (after the fantastic first casualty) was a bit awkward and stilted, but Freeman quickly finds his voice. Some aspects of the plot and the characters are a bit out there, but that may well be attributable to the story being set in proudly weird San Francisco.In all, I enjoyed this book, some parts were genuinely creepy, and the requisite plot twists included several I didn’t see coming. Fans of darker mysteries will probably enjoy this novel, it’s not quite as violent or as twisted as a Jefferey Deaver book, but feels similar.A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Not my usual genre (psychological thriller) but I hugely enjoyed this one. Excellent premise and timely with all the current interest in memory. I love unexpected twists and this book has them. San Francisco location is a standout... brought back memories. I am tempted to read other books by Brian Freeman. recommended
    • 4/5
      From my blogThe Goodreads group, A Good Thriller, highly recommended him. I read The Spitting Devil, a short story to see how I liked the writing and loved it but still didn't pick up one of his books. Then Amazon Prime offered me The Night Bird, I will definitely look out for more by Brian Freeman now.This is a great mystery to see if you can figure it out. Overall I enjoyed the characters but I have to say I agree with this Psychiatrist needing her own therapist, wow. His friend smiled. "You know what they say about psychiatrists, Frost. They only go into the business to find someone crazier than they are." Kindle 57%Frankie started to receive cryptic messages - Remember Me and all from thenightbird@gmx.com. She is used to receiving threats or similar messages and thinks nothing of it but soon realizes that it is threats and very personal. Frankie helped patients forget memories and create new ones. Unfortunately not everyone wants to forget or allow anyone to get away with creating fatal memories.I really enjoyed how they pin pointed the killer and then it was a race to find him before more patients of Frankie or Frankie were killed. Detective Frost was on the first scene were he met Lucy who was a witness to her friend having a psychotic break. During the investigation Lucy decides to try to become a pawn but before Frost can talk her out of it the Night Bird captures her.This book will take you on a roller coaster and you will think different people are the killer or involved in some way which was well executed. I would love to know if people guess correctly.I didn't love Frankie's character and I feel she took the patient confidentiality a few steps to far, putting herself directly into danger but in the end I felt due to her own memories maybe she wanted to be in danger.
    • 3/5
      This book has a fascinating premise, but it lost me in the execution.The theme of memory is handled exceptionally well. The author takes us deep into philosophical issues such as whether memory makes us who we are, whether psychiatrists have the right to erase traumatic memories, and, if they do, can that cause unexpected repercussions. I don't know of anyone who doesn't have some sort of unwanted memories. This story made me think about what might happen if those memories were to simply disappear or, worse, be replaced by false "memories". While the subject intrigued me, the characters didn't hold up to the promise. Dr. Frankie Stein (a silly name!) feels flat. Her character is detached from her own life, and so I couldn't connect to her at all. She's a psychiatrist who can't manage to fix the mess of her personal life, if she even acknowledges the mess, yet she is confidently rearranging other people's minds. Frost is a typical cop character; damaged but strong and caring. The young female characters are unremarkable and easily forgettable. Jason, Frankie's husband, is dull and robotic.Where the story really lost me was with the unfolding of the crime and Frost's investigation. I just couldn't see a cop putting people at risk the way he did. Also, a crime of this magnitude should have had more than one lone detective chasing leads. The whondunit aspect is fairly obvious, though the author does a good job of casting doubt.The ending felt like a letdown after the last major twist. It sort of fizzled out into nothingness. I wanted more of a bang, some sort of major emotional clash. The revelation demanded more of the situation.This book should have had me on edge. It should have left a lasting impression. All the components were there, but I found myself skimming overly descriptive sections and rolling my eyes at the characters as they behaved exactly as expected.