They Did Bad Things

By: Lauren A. Forry

Narrated by: Claire Storey

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1995, six university students moved into the house at 215 Caldwell Street. Months later, one of them was found dead on the sofa the morning after their end-of-year party. His death was ruled an accident by the police. The remaining five all knew it wasn’t, and though they went on with their lives, the truth of what happened to their sixth housemate couldn’t stay buried forever.

Twenty years later, all five of them arrive - lured separately under various pretenses - at Wolfheather House, a crumbling, secluded mansion on the Scottish isle of Doon. Trapped inside with no way out and no signal to the outside world, the now 40-somethings fight each other - and the unknown mastermind behind their gathering - as they confront the role they played in their housemate’s death. They are given one choice: confess to their crimes or die.

©2021 Lauren A. Forry (P)2021 Spotify Audiobooks

Interesting but tedious story

I enjoyed the book and concept, but had to rewind a lot because there were parts that really struggled to hold my attention. Also it was hard to keep straight which character was talking, since every chapter is from a different character’s point of view.

Phenomenal

It took a second for this story to hit it’s stride, but once it takes off, it becomes truly “unputdownable”
A truly spooky location (I wish that there had been a bit more in terms of describing this island, accessible only by a ferry off the coast of the Scottish highlands) To me this was the only thing truly lacking, there was so much more that could’ve been done in terms of setting the scene; the incredibly mysterious and spooky house/b and b and the foggy, stormy Scottish coast, so much could have been said to truly bring the reader right into the location.
Having said that, what is lacking in descriptive language is easily amended by thorough and exceptional character development and a truly unique and interesting story.
It’s also written in an exceptionally clever way.
Pros: fascinating story about college kids who did something awful and the consequences that have spent 20 years hunting them down.
I would’ve preferred a different spin on the ending, but overall I found this to be a highly entertaining read and would definitely recommend it.
I thought the narration was wonderful, zero complaints there.
Worth the time and a credit.

Impressed

This is a who-dun-it that left me guessing until the end! Narration was great as well. I was nervous about the low number of reviews, but this was better than a lot of highly reviewed mysteries I have listened to recently.

Pathetic (spoiler!)

Big spoiler but an evil twin kills everyone not even kidding - really not for me

So boring. Do not understand the positive reviews

I wish I could say I like this book as much as the rest of the raters did. I found this book incredibly boring. Because of the positive reviews I tried to get through the first four chapters three times and just could not deal with it. So boring

Boring, predictable

It was almost like listening to a junior high writing project where each wrote a different part. I would not recommend.