Title: Stranger in a Foreign Land
Series: Dreamspun Desire 61
Author: Michael Murphy
Narrator: Colin Darcy
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 6 hrs, 23 mins
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press LLC (8th November 2018)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: đź’–đź’–đź’–đź’–Â 3.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Prime
Blurb: Losing his old life and finding a new love.
After an accident stole his memory, the only home American businessman Patrick knows is Bangkok. He recovers under the tender ministrations of Jack, an Australian expat who works nights at a pineapple cannery. Together they search for clues to Patrick’s identity, but without success. Soon that forgotten past seems less and less important as Jack and Patrick – now known as Buddy – build a new life together.
But the past comes crashing in when Patrick’s brother travels to Thailand looking for him…and demands Patrick return to Los Angeles, away from Jack and the only world familiar to him. The attention also causes trouble for Jack, and to make their way back to each other, Patrick will need to find not only himself, but Jack as well, before everything is lost….
Purchase Link: Audible US | Audible UK | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Review: Stranger in a Foreign Land is a standalone novel by Michael Murphy with audio narration for this book performed by Colin Darcy. Michael Murphy is a new author to me and I have to say, even with soap opera type clichés, Stranger in a Foreign is, generally, an enjoyable read. I won’t go too much into the storyline because it will be so very easy to spoil. I think that the only thing that took away from my enjoyment was that there was a lot of stereotypes in this.
The story is about Patrick, who promptly is involved in a car accident shortly after arriving in Bangkok, Thailand. This results Patrick into basically forgetting who he is and the world around him. Enter knight in shining armour, the Aussie bum Jack. Jack is your stereotypical Aussie, who of course has now overstayed his visa. Meanwhile, Patrick’s amnesia is stereotypical in that you will have to suspend your disbelief when he forgets more than just his name and family and life – he doesn’t display any understanding of shopping centers and airplanes. Amnesia doesn’t work like that, so as I said you need to suspend your disbelief.
Jack looks after Patrick and as the weeks roll on they fall in love, all the while knowing that Patrick, now called Buddy, could get his memories back. Their private world is destroyed when Patrick’s brother finds him and convinces him to return to his wealthy family in LA.
Patrick tries to find himself and, in the end, knows that he must make a stand for himself to get his happy ending. All this culminates in a sugary sweet ending. The other thing that has been getting to me the entire audio was that I was think of the song Foreign Land by Australian band Eskimo from the 00s. Don’t judge, it’s in all the title.
The narration by Colin Darcy was, overall, pretty good. I’ve been really annoyed with myself trying to figure out who I have been mixing up with the narrator Seb Yarrick for the past couple weeks, and I now think that it’s Colin Darcy. He has a good knack for voices and giving characters their own distinctive voices, with a little bit of work on accents too. Being Australian I tend to be highly critical of narrators that do Aussie accents, because generally there is one accent that is stereotypical for Australians in any media that’s the Queensland – New South Welshman extremely pronounced and distinct accent. If it’s a truly bad accent, then the character sounds less Aussie and more like a New Zealander or South African. But being that Jack is from Queensland, the accent works perfectly.