Blood Secrets

Valancourt 20th Century Classics

By: Craig Jones

Narrated by: Caitlin Davies

When Irene Rutledge, a brilliant and beautiful young graduate student, meets the mysterious and fascinating Frank Mattison, the two soon fall in love and marry, despite the warnings of Irene's family and friends. But after their marriage, dark secrets from Frank's past begin to emerge to threaten their happiness, secrets that will lead to murder - and a shocking and horrific conclusion...

©2015 Valancourt Books (P)2016 Blue Heron Audio

Worthy Listen.

I enjoyed listening to this well read story. narrator did a great job bringing this twisted tale to life.

Delivers on the promised secrets!

I was gifted a copy of the unabridged audiobook version of Blood Secrets from Valancourt with no expectation of a review. I’m doing one anyway because that’s what I do. Thanks Valancourt!

When things begin, Irene is currently on trial for murder. The story immediately shifts back to a time when Irene was a college student without a worry in the world. She was beautiful, thrived on attention and had her pick of sporty guys. When a new guy arrives on the scene, one decidedly not her type (he has skinny legs and dresses funny), who treats her with indifference, she decides she must learn more about him and insinuates her way into his life.

The rest of the story is a big delicious simmering stew of super nasty little secrets and I loved it because I might be a little nosy.

Blood Secrets is more of a dark family saga than a straight up horror novel but there is evil here, for certain, and I felt pretty damned uneasy through all of it. It twisted and turned me all around and I could not stop listening. I love nothing more than a book that surprises me, has great characterization and dishes out its secrets in small steady doses. This one does all of that.

My only caveat has to do with the narration. The narrator was a bit stilted and way too sing-songy in her delivery. I kept hoping she’d ease into the reading and work out the kinks but it didn’t really happen. Her reading style also felt very old-fashioned to me. I don’t know if this was done deliberately because the book was originally written sometime in the ‘70’s but it didn’t really work for me. Still, the strength of the book kept me and held me until the very end and I can easily recommend it.

The opening line itself is worth 5 stars

Nicely entertaining. Some surprises. But check out that opening line. I find myself repeating it often.