I usually don't buy abridged audio books but I bought several others from this seller at the same time and this one went relatively cheap. I was really surprised at how riveting this story was. It may not have been as good unabridged. I have a feeling it might have been boring in spots. The struggle between good and evil is nothing new but this one was extremely well done by Patterson and, especially, by Len Carreau and Ally Sheedy, who read the book.