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How the Light Gets In
- A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, Book 9
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
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Publisher's summary
How the Light Gets In is the ninth Chief Inspector Gamache Novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." —Leonard Cohen
Christmas is approaching, and in Québec it's a time of dazzling snowfalls, bright lights, and gatherings with friends in front of blazing hearths. But shadows are falling on the usually festive season for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Most of his best agents have left the Homicide Department, his old friend and lieutenant Jean-Guy Beauvoir hasn't spoken to him in months, and hostile forces are lining up against him. When Gamache receives a message from Myrna Landers that a longtime friend has failed to arrive for Christmas in the village of Three Pines, he welcomes the chance to get away from the city. Mystified by Myrna's reluctance to reveal her friend's name, Gamache soon discovers the missing woman was once one of the most famous people not just in North America, but in the world, and now goes unrecognized by virtually everyone except the mad, brilliant poet Ruth Zardo.
As events come to a head, Gamache is drawn ever deeper into the world of Three Pines. Increasingly, he is not only investigating the disappearance of Myrna's friend but also seeking a safe place for himself and his still-loyal colleagues. Is there peace to be found even in Three Pines, and at what cost to Gamache and the people he holds dear?
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Mystery/Thriller Books of 2013
One of The Washington Post's Top 10 Books of the Year
An NPR Best Book of 2013
Featured Article: Best Mystery Series—Listens That'll Take You Right to the Crime Scene
While a standalone mystery is great when you're in the mood for a one-and-done, sometimes you want to feed your craving with an entire mystery series—knowing there's a world and characters you can keep coming back to for the satisfaction of solving crimes. With audiobooks, you get the added bonus of sinking deeper into the setting, clues, and suspects as the story is performed for you, so you'll feel like you're alongside detectives, ready to bust a case.
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Engaging mystery debut!
- By robbie mcgraw on 06-15-18
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The Surgeon
- A Rizzoli & Isles Novel
- By: Tess Gerritsen
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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He slips into their homes at night and walks silently into bedrooms where women lie sleeping, unaware of the horrors they soon will endure. The precision of the killer's methods suggests he is a deranged man of medicine, propelling the Boston newspapers and the frightened public to name him "The Surgeon". The cops' only clue rests with another surgeon, the victim of a nearly identical crime. Two years ago, Dr. Catherine Cordell fought back and killed her attacker before he could complete his assault.
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The Surgeon
- By Elizabeth on 11-19-07
By: Tess Gerritsen
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Near Death
- A Thriller
- By: Glenn Cooper
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Milan, Italy, today. It is the most serious crisis that the world has ever faced. Bewildered, young and old, believers and atheists are asking all the same distressing questions: What will they do now that the greatest dream of humanity has turned into a nightmare? What will happen when the countdown clock winds to zero?
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Not quite dead...yet
- By Matthew on 11-24-15
By: Glenn Cooper
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The Lost Ones
- A Novel
- By: Sheena Kamal
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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It begins with a phone call that Nora Watts has dreaded for 15 years - since the day she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. Bonnie has vanished. The police consider her a chronic runaway and aren't looking, leaving her desperate adoptive parents to reach out to her birth mother as a last hope. A biracial product of the foster system, transient, homeless, scarred by a past filled with pain and violence, Nora knows intimately what happens to vulnerable girls on the streets.
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Would make a great movie!
- By Shay on 08-27-17
By: Sheena Kamal
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The Cleaner
- By: Elisabeth Herrmann
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Pools of blood, scenes of carnage, signs of agonising death - who deals with the aftermath of violence once the bodies have been taken away? Judith Kepler has seen it all. She is a crime-scene specialist. She turns crime scenes back into habitable spaces. She is a cleaner. It is at the home of a woman who has been brutally murdered that she is suddenly confronted with her own past. The murder victim knew Judith's secret: as a child Judith was sent to an orphanage under mysterious circumstances - parentage unknown.
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Reader was very distracting
- By Merry Unbirthday on 10-16-17
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A Share in Death
- By: Deborah Crombie
- Narrated by: Michael Deehy
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs....
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series readers, start here
- By connie on 02-09-13
By: Deborah Crombie
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Sun Storm
- By: Åsa Larsson
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Rebecka Martinsson is heading home to Kiruna, the town she'd left in disgrace years before. A Stockholm attorney, Rebecka has a good reason to return: her friend, Sanna, whose brother has been horrifically murdered in the revivalist church his charisma helped create. Beautiful and fragile, Sanna needs someone like Rebecka to remove the shadow of guilt that is engulfing her, to forestall an ambitious prosecutor and a dogged policewoman.
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i cannot abide. violence to animals; esp dogs!
- By J. Kromrie on 01-19-19
By: Åsa Larsson
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The Keep
- The Adversary Cycle, Book 1
- By: F. Paul Wilson
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
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"Something is murdering my men." Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims. When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore - who just happens to be Jewish - to shed some light on the mysterious happenings.
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At long last, The classic horror novel on Audible
- By Shieldslinger on 07-22-20
By: F. Paul Wilson
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Alone
- By: Lisa Gardner
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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As a sniper with the elite Massachusetts State Police SWAT Team, Bobby Dodge saved a woman and her young son by shooting her armed husband. But vicious rumors begin to circulate the next morning when Bobby loses his gun and his privileges. It turns out the dead man was the son of a prominent Boston judge and had accused his wife of poisoning their son.
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I know I'm not Alone . . .
- By Sherry on 02-06-05
By: Lisa Gardner
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Dead Wrong
- Dead Series, Book 1
- By: Mariah Stewart
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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It was inescapably chilling, as if the murderer was methodically working his way down a page torn from the phone book. The three victims brutally killed in their own homes had one thing in common: They were all listed as M. Douglas. The fact that Mara Douglas is next on the list has her jumping at shadows, until FBI agent Aidan Shields shows up to make sure she doesn't become the fourth victim.
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Good book
- By Angie on 09-22-22
By: Mariah Stewart
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Heirs of Falcon Point
- By: Traci Hunter Abramson, Sian Ann Bessey, Paige Edwards, and others
- Narrated by: Jason Tatom
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The Nazis have taken control of Austria, and wealthy widower Leopold Lang faces a difficult decision: Join the ranks of the foreign power that has taken over his homeland or flee with his children to safety. Leopold makes his choice — but too late. His family is ripped apart, never to be reunited. But decades later, fate brings together the descendants of this broken dynasty in the place where it all began—Falcon Point.
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AMAZING!!!
- By Caitlin Van Wagoner on 01-08-22
By: Traci Hunter Abramson, and others
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Before and Again
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Delinsky
- Narrated by: Mary Stuart Masterson
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Mackenzie Cooper took her eyes off the road for just a moment, but the resulting collision was enough to rob her not only of her beloved daughter but ultimately of her marriage, family, and friends - and thanks to the nonstop media coverage, even her privacy. Now, she lives in Vermont under the name Maggie Reid. Her only goal is to stay under the radar and make it through her remaining probation. But she isn’t the only one in this peaceful town with secrets.
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So So
- By Rhea Ann Rettke on 07-01-18
By: Barbara Delinsky
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Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds.
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What listeners say about How the Light Gets In
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nancy J
- 09-06-13
Welcome Home!
There are so many glowing reviews of this book that I wasn't going to write one, but I just can't help it: I have to write it. I so LOVE this book and this series. I love Armand Gamache and his wife Reine Marie and their wonderful understanding relationship. I love the village of Three Pines and its wonderful, flawed, loving residents.
When you begin an Inspector Gamache novel, you are drawn into his world. And when the story moves to Three Pines, the village embraces you like a huge, loving, comforting hug from Myrna, bookseller extraordinaire.
To my mind, How the Light Gets In is one of the best of the Gamache series, and is a welcome return to Three Pines. While investigating the death of a character clearly based on the Dionne quintuplets, Gamache is also preparing, with the few allies he has left, for a decisive confrontation with his enemies in the Force. As a result, the reader gets a healthy dose of all that's wonderful about Three Pines and its denizens, along with a suspense which grows steadily and inexorably toward the confrontation. Many questions are answered and many puzzles are solved while Gamache maintains his courage and integrity.
Ralph Cosham's narration brings it all to sparkling life, with never the slightest waver or misstep. I particularly enjoyed the conversation between Penny and Cosham at the end of the recording.
I agree with previous reviewers that the Gamache books should be read in order, beginning with Still Life. While you might enjoy the story without the previous details, Louise Penny's characters are so like real people, who have grown, made mistakes, learned things, and hopefully improved as people, that you will miss the full emotional richness if you don't have all that background.
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58 people found this helpful
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- Julie
- 09-05-13
Armand Gamache, Cyber Detective!
I realize that if you're considering this book, like myself, you've already read every other Gamache novel. And, like me, you're a solid Penny fan. So I KNOW I'm going to take heat for this review. I'll try to make it quick. Well, I'll try, anyway.
Let's start off with this: You're going to read this book. You will. You'll do it because there are a lot of plots from previous books that get tied up here and you want to know what path Jean-Guy ultimately chooses, how Clara and Peter are getting on, and whatever happened to Agent Nicole.
And going into this book, you'll be expecting the same fantastic writing that we've always gotten in this series, peppered with poetry and humor.
You're not going to get it.
Well, yes, you'll get the plot closures. In many ways, this book feels like the last of the series. You'll even get poetry and humor, albeit the poetry isn't new, we've heard it before in previous books.
The issue with this book is that you'll have to actually forget MAJOR events in the series to make this one fit. For example, remember in The Cruelest Month when Agent Nicole was getting phone calls all throughout the investigation from a mysterious person who wanted to know everything she and Gamache were doing? And how, at one point, Jean Guy attempts to take the phone from her because he suspects she's spying on the Chief Inspector? It was a fairly important part of the plot, it defined Agent Nicole and gave you some insight into why she behaves as she does.
In the same book, do you remember when a certain agent uses the bistro's laptop to go online to research the drug ephedra? He then leaves the page up on the screen on purpose to tip off the community about the drug they're looking for...?
Of course you remember all of that! It was critical to the story!
Well Penny forgot about it.
Now, as she writes it, Three Pines is a complete "dead zone." You can't get on the internet to research ephedra, and you can't use your cell phone while spying on your boss. And it's always been this way. Those previous books were all in your imagination. Yes they were. Don't argue.
And while in previous works we've seen our Chief Inspector use his ability to read and understand the motivations of people to solve crime, in this book we get something entirely different. Gamache is going to put together a team of hackers to break into the archives of the Sûreté du Québec. No, really. Gamache is going cyber-stalking.
And look. You're listening to this as an audio book, right? So you might not be a programming genius, but you at least know how to download a file and put it on an ipod or smart phone, right? You are likely not baffled by the mysteries of downloading.
Unfortunately, Gamache's team of computer experts don't appear to understand this concept. Nor does it occur to them to copy/ paste a file that they're currently reading. Or make a screen-shot. Or any number of obvious solutions that even the least computer savvy among us might be able to come up with.
The entire hacking plot-line required more than a slight suspension in belief. I hate saying this, I really, really do. But it was kind of ridiculous. I found myself wishing that Penny had written more about what she knows (characters, community, art, and poetry) and had left off the computer stuff for other writers.
So is this Penny's best? Her most brilliant writing ever? Well, with all respect to the previous reviewers, I don't think so. While I've listened to her other books multiple times (Still Life is my favorite) - sometimes just for Ruth's poetry - this book clearly doesn't have the same draw the others had.
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41 people found this helpful
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- Carole T.
- 08-30-13
A Suspenseful Winter's Tale
I really love this book! We're back in Three Pines for much of the action, there's an intriguing and touching mystery relating to legendary Canadian quintuplets, and the background plot line which has continued through most of the series progresses nicely.
Louise Penny has a great bag of tricks. She varies her locations, gives us more than one side to each character, and thus keeps us a little off balance with each new book. Who knew she could pull off a longish episode of cyber suspense so well? There's a lot of action (computer and real time) in this addition to the series. The wonderful cast of characters and the humor are front and center - add this to the usual spot-on narration of Ralph Cosham, and you have a very satisfying addition to the Inspector Gamache series. If you haven't read them, I'd advise starting at the beginning with "Still Life" and going through them in order.
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35 people found this helpful
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- Sara
- 12-12-16
An Uneven Series Continues
I wanted to love this book and kept listening hoping that things would improve as the 15 hours progressed. I agree with other reviewers that the mysteries were wrapped up too quickly without the much needed careful closure and final detail. Too much suspension of disbelief was required for me. Further, I agree with another reviewer that the "dead zone" and computer issues presented in the story seemed off and contradicted storylines from previous books.
I hate to say anything negative about the narration because I have really enjoyed Cosham's reading in the past. I wonder if he was unwell when this recording was done. His voice sounded thin and weak.
This series is becoming hit or miss for me. When Penny is "on" the books are fantastic. I hesitate to say this--but to me this entry missed the mark. My best advice is that this installment is only for die-hard village of Three Pines fans.
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26 people found this helpful
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- Chip Atkinson
- 05-19-15
A Brilliant Light
I was late discovering Louise Penny. I flew threw the first 8 novels,, giving every one of them a sterling review. So when I began this one, I realized I was completely burned out with Inspector Gamache and the village of 3 Pines. So I put it a side for a couple of months and it proved to be a wise decision.
How the Light Gets In is the smartest, most complicated story in the series. The depth of character development is simply remarkable. Gamache is vulnerable, humble, brilliant and scheming.
Ralph Cosham delivers another great performance. From an interview with the author and Cosham, he revealed that he never reads ahead while recording. He is the choice of Penny, who also tagged him in the first movie, presumably coming out soon.
This is a great read!
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25 people found this helpful
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- Zana
- 08-31-13
I never want Louise Penny's books to end!
If you could sum up How the Light Gets In in three words, what would they be?
You'll laugh and cry and want to move to Three Pines.
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
Louise Penny has the remarkable gift of intertwining a true mystery (and in this case two mysteries) with real characters whom she allows you to know deeply. I don't know how she does it, but instead of being an observer you feel as though you are there with them. You feel the brutal cold and smell the acrid sweat and taste the café au lait.
I absolutely love her writing style and cannot get enough.
Which character – as performed by Ralph Cosham – was your favorite?
Can't help myself - as much as I adore Gamache, Three Pines would be incomplete without the demented poet, Ruth.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I found myself laughing out loud during the very first chapter, and was deeply moved by the love Gamache feels for his agents - especially rude Nicole (whom I suspect is partially autistic)
Any additional comments?
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17 people found this helpful
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- Lisa
- 09-05-13
Wow, LP wrapped up one part a little too fast
I love ALL of Louise Penny's books and Ralph Cosham's narrations. I usually give 5 stars, but this is the first one where I thought --without a spoiler-- that the murder plot line wasn't probable (murderer's motivation) and that Beauvoir's private relationship, developed in some depth in The Beautiful Mystery, got wrapped up head-spinningly fast with a bow on top at the end. Such an important part of B's life deserved more handling, such as a plot line in a next book, rather than throwing it away by giving it such short shrift in this book and tacking the resolution into the ending.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Dennis
- 08-31-13
Glorious!
I have never before written a review of a book. What compels me to do so now? Simply put, this book is so glorious that I can’t help myself.
Because my work requires so much reading, I no longer read for pleasure. Instead, I listen for pleasure. And I have found no greater pleasure than listening to Ralph Cosham’s delightfully cadenced and evocative narration of “How the Light Gets In,” the ninth (and final?) book in Louise Penny’s expertly-crafted Inspector Gamache series.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon Ms. Penny’s first book, “Still Life,” and I was instantly hooked. With a wonderful economy of words, Ms. Penny consistently manages to construct a compelling murder mystery while creating sharply-defined characters and developing an ominous subtext that builds to a terrifying crescendo in her ninth book.
And yet, Ms. Penny is much more than a brilliant craftsman; she is a champion of the noblest aspects of the human spirit. Her books are permeated with a deep appreciation of art, poetry, music, and history. Her characters reflect our finest aspirations for friendship, kindness, love, and, most importantly, courage. Ms. Penny unabashedly believes in goodness, but she is not naive – monstrous evil lurks in the hidden recesses of the human soul, feeding in the darkness . . . until the light gets in.
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11 people found this helpful
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- B.J.
- 09-04-13
A lovely book in a wonderful series.
I'm not sure why I'm so hooked on this series, but I am. I love the writing style. I love it that they're set in Quebec. I love the quirky characters and that small town vibe. All of it together is just magical.
I've enjoyed every book in the series, but this one is really terrific. There's a flow to it that keeps you so engaged from beginning to end. It's the kind of book you want to listen to again the moment it's over.
It's hard to know what to credit more - Ralph Cosham's narration or Louise Penny's writing. Cosham is simply the perfect choice for this author. He IS Gamache. Then again, Penny has created these wonderful, complex characters that Cosham gives voice to. Without them, he would not have a vehicle. Together, they're splendid.
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-29-13
Finally a happy conclusion.
Would you listen to How the Light Gets In again? Why?
I am actually going to listen to the past ones over again. Number eight left me devastated, so much so that I returned it. This one is gratifying.
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
Of course
What about Ralph Cosham’s performance did you like?
He is a wonderful reader
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I did listen in one day. I am a dressmaker and listened to it whilst completing a project.
Any additional comments?
Listen to the other ones or you will be lost.
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