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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In a small town in Minnesota’s north woods, everyone knows everybody - at least on first blush - but it turns out that everyone also has secrets. Detective Shelby Lake has the secret of her birth - she was left on the doorstep of the town sheriff and he raised her as his own. He is facing the gradual decline of Alzheimer’s - so some secrets of Shelby’s birth may be lost with his memories. When a ten year old boy disappears - secrets start to come out - but none lead to finding the boy. Ten years later, Shelby has not let go of the case, and new secrets start to come out - will they lead Shelby to resolving the mystery of the young boy’s disappearance? Lots of twists and turns - kept me up late reading to the satisfying end.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment
What a great listen. So many layers, twists & turns. I loved how interesting and entertaining the world building was – the townspeople, the history, interpersonal relationships. Shelby, as the central character, is a flawed and complex person. Small town life is impervious to “that would never happen in real life” which allows Freeman a great deal of latitude in the investigative process as well as the experiences of his characters. (Having grown up in a small town, I can assure you they are actually very realistic.) This is in some ways a drama as much as a police case.
The problem with reviews for mystery/thrillers is that I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone but still want to convey what an enjoyable listen this was. I can say that I was enthralled from beginning to end.
Narration:
This was my first time listening to January LaVoy and she has rocketed up my list of narrators to listen to more of. Voices, personalities, and all the emotions. I was so easy to get completely absorbed into the story. Perfection.
Content Warnings (possible spoilers):
The problem with reviews for mystery/thrillers is that I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone but still want to convey what an enjoyable listen this was. I can say that I was enthralled from beginning to end.
Narration:
This was my first time listening to January LaVoy and she has rocketed up my list of narrators to listen to more of. Voices, personalities, and all the emotions. I was so easy to get completely absorbed into the story. Perfection.
Content Warnings (possible spoilers):
Spoiler
death of a child, dementia of main character, orphan, alcoholism, infidelity
mysterious
fast-paced
Saw the ending coming, but book interesting enough, that I had to keep listening just to make sure I was right. Quick, enjoyable listen.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
First of all, this book has several supernatural elements; owls know when something big is about to happen, our protagonist can just sense things and sometimes finds evidence this way, and the deceased are able to send clues from beyond the grave. There's also a considerable amount of religious stuff. If you don't enjoy those things in your mystery/crime novels, you might want to skip this one.
I personally found those elements a bit too convenient, but I didn't hate them. I think it would've been better if Freeman fully committed to making this a supernatural crime novel and went all out. Go big or go home, right? Adding it this lightly just makes it a convenient way for Shelby to find things without doing any real police work. If you're going to take that route, give us something else that's creative enough to make up for it.
Aside from that, I found this book very interesting and well-paced and the narrator (I listened to the audiobook) was great. I'd definitely read another Freeman novel.
I personally found those elements a bit too convenient, but I didn't hate them. I think it would've been better if Freeman fully committed to making this a supernatural crime novel and went all out. Go big or go home, right? Adding it this lightly just makes it a convenient way for Shelby to find things without doing any real police work. If you're going to take that route, give us something else that's creative enough to make up for it.
Aside from that, I found this book very interesting and well-paced and the narrator (I listened to the audiobook) was great. I'd definitely read another Freeman novel.
Brian Freeman doesn’t disappoint and this one was no different. I thought I knew the twist but still got tricked. Great read and am for sure going to be reading more from him!
mysterious
slow-paced