Beneath Devil's Bridge

A Novel

By: Loreth Anne White

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo, Laural Merlington

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

A true crime podcast yields new revelations about a shocking murder in a riveting novel of suspense by Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author Loreth Anne White.

True crime podcaster Trinity Scott is chasing breakout success, and her brand-new serial may get her there. Her subject is Clayton Jay Pelley. More than two decades ago, the respected family man and guidance counselor confessed to the brutal murder of teenage student Leena Rai. But why he killed her has always been a mystery.

In a series of exclusive interviews from prison, Clayton discloses to Trinity the truth about what happened that night beneath Devil’s Bridge. It’s not what anyone in the Pacific Northwest town of Twin Falls expects. Clayton says he didn’t do it. Was he lying then? Or now?

As her listeners increase and ratings skyrocket, Trinity is missing a key player in the story: Rachel Walczak, the retired detective who exposed Pelley’s twisted urges and put him behind bars. She’s not interested in playing Clayton’s game - until Trinity digs deeper and the podcast’s reverb widens. Then Rachel begins to question everything she thinks she knows about the past.

With each of Clayton’s teasing reveals, one thing is clear: he’s not the only one in Twin Falls with a secret.

©2021 Cheakamus House Publishing. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Voice acting = 0, story = ???

This book is exactly what I want to read/listen to, but I am struggling to even get in to it because the actor voicing Trinity is so very annoying. When she changes her voice to read a male character it it absolutely comical. Probably not what you’re going for in a murder mystery.
40 minutes in and I haven’t given up yet, but I’m very close.
The voice talent can make or break an audio book. This is a break.

Creative-until the social justice lecturing starts. Regret the purchase.

Storyline is good. That the author writes speech like an author, not like a real person would speak, isn’t wildly annoying-until the hospital scene between 2 characters. Author takes the lazy route of wrapping up all of the questions in a confession, and, worse, the speech is ridiculous. It bothers me so much when an author can’t make the effort to write how someone actually speaks. It rips any authenticity right out of the novel. The “wrap it up in one conversation” thing is so common, but also stops me right there from caring about the characters or story. The podcast dictating people’s lives and actions-becoming a sensation-people hanging on it-and the way the author tries to make that believable-grater me from the start, but I was able to roll with it, until the end, and the clean happy ending, where love, fame and a juicy tv contract await. Ugh.
The worst was the social lecturing, absolutely all important, but the author’s method took on a tone of “You are all bad. You’ve never heard this before, right? We’re going to touch on so many major issues, and pretend one little podcast created a big international WOOHOO, NOW none of it will happen anymore!” Try-hard.
Again, the story overall was creative, and it did bring so many infuriating issues into play, all of which need to be addressed. But trying to play the vigilante author and, again, write as if you’re lecturing, is a huge turn-off.

WOW!

Excellent! I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

A man admits to the rape and brutal murder of a teenage girl. 24 years later he recants his plea in a podcast. Why would he confess to a crime he didn’t commit? The man has secrets and little by little he’s releasing information that can solve the murder. The podcast is called “It’s Criminal “. The hostess is Trinity Scott. She has secrets too.
One investigator has died of cancer. The other lead investigator is Rachel Hart. She knows there are loose ends but hey, the man confessed. She’s has suspicions but they may be too close to home for her to look into.
As the secrets come into the light it turns out that no one involved with the investigation told the truth. The ending is shocking.
Narration by Lauren Ezzo and Laural Merlington is wonderful.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
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Chilling, gripping, beautiful

I finished this entire book in one day. I couldn't stop listening. I listened while cooking, doing laundry, shopping, in between meetings. Loreth Anne White's writing is immersive. I was excited about the new book but didn't know I'd devour it like I did. Her writing is so descriptive you can smell the farm, feel the coldness under the bridge, hear the baby's cries. It's a beautifully tragic story with wonderful and important messages behind it. Secrets held inside destroy you.

I liked the narration. I thought both narrators did a stellar job. The one review on here mentions disliking the Trinity narration and that was my absolute favorite. Her voice, tone, and performance were spot on. We all hear and see things differently.

Great story. Uneven performance

This is a very good, interesting story. Lots of twists and turns with a good ending.

There are two narrators. One is pretty good. The other is pretty bad. Almost bad enough for me to stop listening. But not quite. Glad I finished.

Excellent and powerful story, a must read!

This story was so well constructed that I was completely drawn in and held there until the very end. The issues raised by the author are important for us all to think about as we may be called on to confront them in some way in our own lives. The writing was powerful, suspenseful, emotional, and heart wrenching. The performance was exactly what it needed to be to keep me enthralled.

Don't care for the narrator's.

Almost didn't continue listening to after hearing both narrators. One sounds nasal and the other just isn't pleasant to listen to. Also women doing the men's voices never turn out well.
The story and characters are well written so it seems a shame to scrimp on voices.

Every parent should read this.

Too bad middle schools across the land aren't asking permission to use this in the classroom. What a great example of lessons every young person and parent should be aware of.

Quite a Book!

Loreth Anne White has Done it again. She portrayed the worst in human nature. I can’t believe how much bigotry and hate created such a mess. Based on a true story, the results of of this brutal crime affected so many lives for year's. Expertly done the author does not disappoint! Both narrators did a good job also.

VERY INTERESTING

This book has so many twist and turns that you will never guess how it ends. Great writing Mrs White!!!

Great plot, variable performances - recommended

Have read this in two versions now - initially as Kindle and just finished audiobook. As always, it is interesting to have a slightly different perspective from each. The original reading on Kindle was good enough to prompt me to seek out other books from this author, now a firm favourite.

The audiobook performances had good and not-so-good elements. I liked the actress voicing Trinity - however found myself much more conscious of a distaste for the podcast element, and Trinity’s apparent lack of awareness of the impact it would have on anyone but herself (and her ratings). I didn’t like the performance of Rachel’s character - I could see that it was aiming to bring out the methodical police persona, but it was often quite slow and very stilted.

The plot remains as very good - complex on many levels, with some good characters. Recommended.

Voice not great

I feel her voice spoilt the story. It was very monotone. The story was interesting though.

Narrator spoiled it which was a shame

Great story but unfortunately ‘Rachel’s ’ narration was drab and annoying, hard to hear and almost robotic like.
Which was a shame as it was a good story. If you can get past Rachel , then give it a go.