44.1644° North

By: Josh Lanyon

Narrated by: Kale Williams

Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

The decades-old disappearance of 21-year-old teaching student Deirdre Duncan is the holy grail for true crime buffs—and Skylar Brennan, the host of the Ugly Town podcast, is no exception. In fact, on the mean streets of the internet, he’s considered an expert on the case. But in law enforcement circles, he’s viewed as just another crackpot internet sleuth.

Every February, the remote New Hampshire village of Woodlark is the site of a candlelight vigil for Deirdre. Family, friends, and “supporters” of the long missing girl gather at the spot where she was last seen. This is Skylar’s first vigil, and his fans are excited, but maybe not as excited as the person who’s been anonymously emailing him coordinates to what this poison pen pal claims is Deirdre’s grave.

©2023 Josh Lanyon (P)2023 Josh Lanyon

enjoyed it

📖 Story comment: Good pace, interesting concept.
I feel like its hard to do much in the way of character depth with what I would deem a "novella", and at just over 3.5 hours, these characters felt a little flat. The story was interesting enough and I was entertained, but it's not one of my favorite Lanyon books - I feel like it needs to be fleshed out abit more and the ending was a little abrupt.

🎧 Narrator comment: Kale Williams has done a good performance of this book. He suits the characters, has good cadence, inflections and intonations and it's easy to distinguish the characters from each other. Overall an enjoyable performance.

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📌 Where does it fall on my personal scale? 5
• 1 not my thing • 2 didn't like the narration • 3 didn't keep my attention • 4 was good, but once was enough [3⭐] • 5 enjoyed it [4⭐] • 6 will listen again if i'm in the mood for the narrator [4⭐] • 7 goes on the "re-listen" list [4⭐] • 8 kept me up past bed-time [4.5⭐] • 9 recommended to family/friends [4.75⭐] • 10 own it in all formats [5⭐] • 11 keep a copy with me at all times [5⭐]

Great story. Great narration.

I grew up wandering around in the woods by myself at night. It takes some excellent word smithing and storytelling to convince me that wandering around in the woods at night is a perilous adventure. Josh Lanyon manged to make me feel the panic of losing control in just that situation.

The story was fairly short so there wasn't much time to get to know the main characters let alone the side characters, but I felt like I knew many of them well enough. I appreciated the slight connection to Lanyon's other series. I do enjoy hunting for Easter eggs.

I don't consider myself a true crime enthusiast, but I am familiar enough with the genre to appreciate how well this story was constructed. Maintaining an objective perspective while writing crime stories is exceedingly difficult, but this fictional story does a great job of showing why objectivity is important.

The mysterious setting was masterfully constructed, the misdirection was elegant, the characters were engaging, the romance fit beautifully into the plot, and the resolution was excellent. If you want an excellent romantic mystery to read by the fireplace one evening in your vacation cabin in the woods this is a good pick.

Great addition to the Art of Murder universe

Skylar Brennan and Rory are very likable characters and I enjoyed their intellectual chemistry. Setting the story around true crime podcasters/documentarians/authors fit the theme of the book perfectly. Those of us who have been intrigued by true crime stories -- and particularly the case that served as the inspiration for Deirdre's story -- will find many of the characters quite familiar. As always, Kale Williams narrates the characters perfectly, making it an absolute pleasure to listen to.

This novella is set in the same universe as Lanyon's Art of Murder series, which I love, and the two main characters in that series are referenced briefly in this story.

Excellent story and narration

The only thing I wish was that it was longer. Only because it was that good. Loved the narrator’s voice. Perfect for the story.

Novella

I was unsure about listening to this but I saw reviews that made it seem this was part of The Art of Murder series. It’s not. So if you’re on the fence, know that. It is a character that works for the BAU under Sam from that series. But nothing else is connected. It seems this is based off of a true crime story. It was hard for me to pay attention to, I kept zoning out. The narrator is great but there’s a lot of he said this, he said that, she said. There’s a glimpse of a little romance thrown in but it’s not romance. Maybe this would be start of a spin-off with these two MC’s and that would be great. Each book could be the focus of the Skyler’s podcast and the mystery solving. I’ve read two other series with something similar but it could definitely be done! If that happens, then I would reconsider my opinion on this one.

Really good!

The author is genius in packaging a mystery and a budding romance in relatively few words. This is then brilliantly enhanced by Kale Williams excellent narration.
Highly recommend!

Maura Murray Case Analysis

I did not like the veiled insults to James Renner. I was not expecting the case to be about Maura Murray. The story accurately depicts podcasters who sensationalize people’s tragedy for profit. Usually I enjoy Lanyons writing but I was very let down. Perhaps because I am a true crime buff I did not enjoy the case or the characters.