Reviewed by Molly Garcia for Readers' Favorite

Comfort Zone starts with an introduction to the subject of mental health, and the stigma those diagnosed with it can face. The story itself begins with the murder of a female victim which is described in very vivid detail and sets the scene for the rest of the book. Stephen Bentley demonstrates his knowledge of the British criminal justice system as he describes his main character, Phil Mercer. Mercer has a number of colleagues in his role as a barrister, and their links to organized crime and local criminals are introduced. He had a privileged life and is doing well for himself until his life starts going wrong. At this point, Phil starts to hear a voice. The voice calls himself Vincent and lists the names of all the people that Phil feels have wronged him over the years. Things escalate when Vincent starts to suggest that Phil should murder everyone on his list. At first, Phil is horrified by the idea; he has values, and they don’t include killing anyone, no matter what they’ve done. In keeping with the intro, Stephen Bentley has also included a little more about the impact of mental health at the end of the audiobook.

Stephen Bentley is good at explaining the meanings of both the technical terms, and his use of typical London phrases, which means that all readers will be able to relate to this book. I found that the build-up worked well and that the main character’s background was introduced in a way that explained its relevance to the storyline. This was demonstrated by Phil’s service in the army and its links to current events, as well as the traumas he’d faced while serving. Comfort Zone is an interesting take on using mental health as part of a fictional story, and the author has taken his time in working it into the plot. Overall, it was mostly an enjoyable book to listen to, and I would recommend it to lovers of gritty, horror/thrillers.

I listened to Comfort Zone as an audiobook. Technically it was produced well, the sound quality was excellent, and there were no unintentional background noises. The narrator, Hannibal Hills, sounded a little flat and stilted at times when narrating the story parts, but his character voices struck the right tone. It was a challenging story for a narrator since the characters came from many different areas of the UK, but I felt that Hannibal managed to voice the right accent for each. The chapters have been well divided; some were fairly short and others longer, but none lasted more than 10 minutes. As a book, it made the leap to audio well, keeping all the descriptive imagery and plot build-up.