After Alice Fell

A Novel

By: Kim Taylor Blakemore

Narrated by: Amanda Leigh Cobb

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2022 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Historical.

Until she discovers the truth of her sister’s death, no one will rest in peace.

New Hampshire, 1865. Marion Abbott is summoned to Brawders House asylum to collect the body of her sister, Alice. She’d been found dead after falling four stories from a steep-pitched roof. Officially: an accident. Confidentially: suicide. But Marion believes a third option: murder.

Returning to her family home to stay with her brother and his second wife, the recently widowed Marion is expected to quiet her feelings of guilt and grief—to let go of the dead and embrace the living. But that’s not easy in this house full of haunting memories.

Just when the search for the truth seems hopeless, a stranger approaches Marion with chilling words: I saw her fall.

Now Marion is more determined than ever to find out what happened that night at Brawders, and why. With no one she can trust, Marion may risk her own life to uncover the secrets buried with Alice in the family plot.

©2021 by Kim Taylor Blakemore. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Kim Taylor Blakemore hits her stride in this well-plotted page turner of a novel. The prose shines with her unique lyrical voice. Cannot recommend highly enough!” --Terry Lynn Thomas, USA Today bestselling author of The Silent Woman, The Family Secret, and House of Lies

“After Alice Fell is an enthralling, haunting, and harrowing gothic mystery that sweeps the reader into a post-Civil War New England that consists of broken families and even more broken minds. Easily one of my favorite books of the year, this story stayed with me long after I’d read the last page. I absolutely loved it!” --Emily Carpenter, bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls and Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters

A Dark Delight

The most remarkable thing about this book is how it transports you to the 1860s. You feel the texture and sway of cloth, the wobbly creaking of a carriage, smells and sights. It's splendidly written, delightfully dark and moody. It is such a delight to savor the words that I avoided the audio version, once I realized the caliber of the writing.

Ah-mazing!!

My love-hate relationship with this book was never ending. Through it all, I never wanted to stop listening, though sometimes the direction of the plot really scared me!!!

great performance, great story

This is the first I've read by this author and found the story thoroughly enjoyable. the performance was marvelous.

Great Story

I really enjoyed the twists and turns. It was a pleasant change to experience a book from that era. Enjoyed the performance the best.

Unexpected twists and turns!

Although I did struggle at parts of the book, overall I found it mesmerizing. I was pulling for Marian all the way through. Made me realize how limited woman were in this time and how often they were dismissed.

Nice listen

The ending was a little weak but overall I really enjoyed this story. I like the tension the author built and the post US civil war setting. It is definitely more of a thriller than a mystery. The author did a good job of making the story hang on a thread until near the end of the book

Good ending

The book was a bit slow, but the description of how the mentally ill were treated was interesting and sad. The ending was quite good.

A dark and tired tale told too many times

Nothing new here, a dark story that is just a new version of a story told too many times. I found it dull, dark and boring

Pretty lame

It just drags on and not much happens. 1/3 thru I couldn’t care about characters and dynamics of the relationships is revealed too slowly for me. I quit and deleted.

Good book

This was a pretty good story. It was very predictable but I still liked it.