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Title: The Carnivore

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Mark Sinnett

Narrator: Nick Hahn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-25-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

When Hurricane Hazel tore through Toronto on October 15, 1954, it left its mark on both the city and its inhabitants. In the aftermath, a young cop named Ray Townes emerges as a hero - numerous accounts detail the way he battled the raging Humber River to save those trapped in their homes - and his story is featured prominently in the newspapers, thrusting him into the spotlight as a local celebrity. Meanwhile, his wife Mary is wrestling with doubts about her husbands heroism.

While performing her own miracles the night of the storm as a nurse at a mud-filled, overcrowded emergency room, Mary met a woman - disoriented and near death - with a disturbingly peculiar recollection of events. While Mary tries to shake her suspicions about Ray as they rebuild their life in the shell-shocked city, she can't help but wonder about her husband and that fateful night.

When a reporter comes knocking 50 years later to revisit that horrendous night, the truth begins to surface and threatens to destroy them.

Editorial Reviews:

Author, Mark Sinnett, uses a unique tactic of volleying the narrative between Ray Townes and his wife, Mary, to spell out an emotional tale of disaster. Performed by veteran narrator Nick Hahn, with a gentle baritone timbre, The Carnivore retells of the time Hurricane Hazel ripped through Toronto, in the middle of October in 1954. Ray was remembered all over town for his heroic efforts that night. As Ray and Mary are forced to look back on what happened that fateful night, however, a small flicker of doubt that has been whipping around inside Mary is finally realized and its a truth that might destroy both of them.

Members Reviews:

Sad story of almost-love

This story is well written, but the subject matter may not be appealing to a vast audience. I had difficulty getting into the plot, and switching between character narratives and times was a bit awkward in some places.

This is the story of a marriage built on deception and nourished by mutual hatred. Ray is a cheating, less than forthright detective married to Mary, a disillusioned, cold-hearted nurse. When Ray is declared a hero after a hurricane hits Toronto in the 1950's, Mary begins to see familiar changes in him--frighteningly similar to when he was having an affair. Mary comes very close to infidelity herself, with her obstetrician, but manages to pull herself out of that temptation by her conviction that she must create the life she idolizes with the materials she has been given.

The story line switches back an forth between the events surrounding the hurricane and back to present time, where Ray is dying of emphysema and Mary is once again martyred as she cares for him. She is waiting for him to die so she can enjoy her freedom, and he is hoping to live just a little longer, seeking acceptance. They both loathe each other and blame the other for destroying the life they each had hoped to live. Ray, according to Mary, has never accepted responsibility for the affair, for causing her miscarriage, or for accepting honors for heroism he did not deserve. Ray blames the failure of the marriage on Mary's unreasonably high standards and has spent the majority of his time sneaking things and keeping secrets because he was unable to present Mary with his needs with any hope of her accepting him as he really was.

A sad, sad tale.