Shelter by Harlan Coben – Audiobook

Written by Harlan Coben, narrated by Nick Podehl, unabridged audiobook just over seven hours of listening, and released in 2011. This is very definitely a young adult book. Teenagers are the protagonists. There is no gratuitous sex, no bad language. Good gift for a young adult you’d like to introduce to reading.

A new kid at a high-school, Mickey Bolivar, becomes enmeshed in a mystery. He has met a girl and she suddenly disappears. Shortly surrounded with a Hardy Boys group of high school outcasts, Mickey and his cohorts travel through the pages in pursuit of justice for the missing girl. At the same time, he struggles with understanding his father’s death, his mother’s sad life as an addict, and an uncle-trying-to-do-the-right thing.

Narration by Nick Podehl is great, he does a wonderful job. I first heard his narration in a Nora Roberts book, Black Hills. Nice work.

In short, this is a great book for a youngster. Mature readers will roll eyes and get bored. But … that said, it’s a good story.

IF A MINOR SPOILER WILL BOTHER YOU, DO NOT READ FURTHER.

There is a major plot hole, however, specifically age related. One of the ‘bad-guys’ revealed at the very end of the story is too young to be a modern-day ENT rescue person and also a WWII Nazi. He’d be about 90 years old and therefore not in a physical condition to be an ENT. Doesn’t work.