Dead of Winter

The Lily Dale Mysteries, Book 3

By: Wendy Corsi Staub

Narrated by: Melanie Ewbank

Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Just as a murderer dumps his corpse into the lake across Valley View in Lily Dale, Bella Jordan happens to be at her window, not quite realizing what she's seeing. Unbeknownst to her, the killer spots her silhouette and prowls straight to her door. That is, until he's interrupted by a black cat. A superstitious gambler, he takes off, but Bella's seen too much, and he vows to return.

Jiffy Arden, a neighborhood kid looking for the black cat and stumbling across the killer, begins to have premonitions of being kidnapped during the season's first snowstorm. Sure enough, when it strikes, he vanishes, never arriving home from the bus stop. While her son, Max, believes Jiffy has been kidnapped, Bella is convinced he's just wandered off as he typically does...until a body shows up in the lake.

Now everyone is pulling out all the stops to find the missing child, identify the victim, and collar the killer - and fast, because he's coming for Bella next in Dead of Winter.

©2017 Wendy Corsi Staub (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Dim Bulb

This series would be 5 star if Bella wasn't such an idiot and so clueless.

do not buy the audible!

I could not get past chapter one. It is not an enjoyable audio, I would not recommend it at all. Ewbank’s voice is strident and sharp and grating

A bit whimsical for me

Just not what I had expected based on other books by this author. It was enjoyable but did not capture me as much as I had hoped

Story good but Narrator Abrasive

When the Narrator uses her natural voice (which is often) it is like being scolded by an angry, annoyed, aging Aunt. Be warned. Otherwise, semi-cute story. If you don't like boys with ADHD, then avoid. I thought they were adorable.

Good story but awful narration

The storyline is intriguing but the narration is hard to listen to. It sounds like a school teacher reading to a group of toddlers. It is painfully slow and over articulated narration.

Great story!

This series has kept me very entertained from the first chapter to the last. Can’t wait to see what happens next. To think I was hesitant to start thinking it a paranormal. It was so cute I didn’t mind the “psychics”.

dead of winter

I thought many characters had the same voices. some women voices sounded like the childrens.

Narrator is…not great.

Story is good (as always) but the narrator is hard to listen to at times.

Robot narration, rather boring story

I really liked all the other books in this series, but this one was rather boring all around. The narrator sounded like a robot

Awful natration

Cannot follow this story because of awful natration. Is this narrator reading to one year olds??? That is the tone she is setting. So unnatural. She is yelling too. Too bad.

Awful narration

Having enjoyed another book by this author with a fantastic plot and narrator I downloaded this. Couldn’t listen to more than a chapter as the narrators voice is grating and ridiculously over the top on accents.

Real shame as the author is so good.

Stormy read

I did enjoy this book but found a lot of things got over explained several time which isn't necessary. The ghost aspect is something and nothing, either the ghost need to help or just leave it up to the premonitions. Nobody sees the ghosts (they she know what they are saying) but put everything slightly weird down to them, the singing of Christmas songs got annoying because everyone could hear them and tried to explain them away without interpreting there meaning. I loved every time Jiffy or Max were on the scene and they even invoked a couple of chuckles from me, the things children come up with. The story follows several characters as it unfolds, this works because there is a number of aspects to the case with a murder investigation and the search for the missing boy. Not my favourite ghost series but the characters are interesting enough for me to visit them again.
Jiffy has been predicting he will be kidnapped on a snowy day for months, so when he goes missing it is no surprise to his best friend seven year old Max. What is a surprise is the dead body the washes up on the shoreline hours before. The dead man had connections to the mob but why would his killer target a young boy? In Lily Dale of all places? Jiffy's mum uses her gift to try and track down her son but Bella (Max's mum) will have to decode strange texts and christmas music if she wants to find her son's best friend.
I like the narrator. She uses different voices for the characters, I especially liked the voice she used for the boys.

couldn't put up with narrator

gave up an hour in as narrator so grating and annoying. appalling English accent too. shame .

Good story

Please re-record using a better narrator, it’s done your book an injustice!!! I hope this gets re-recorded.

extraordinarily awful due to narrator

I can't stand this voice, it's truly awful. The book may be good, I'll never know because it's read so badly.

Passed the time

Standard fare for Wendy Corsi Staub, I recall reading some of her work many years ago. Light entertainment.

Good Story Not So Good Narration

I read the previous reviews and I totally agree with lots of them. Great listen to pass the time by if you can get past the robotic narration.

Beautifully written & narrated

When it ended I thought what a great place to live, sp spiritual.
hen after listening to Jiffy I came to the conclusion I must be related to him.

Couldn't listen!

I only managed to get as far as chapter 3 then had to give up! The narrator is dreadful so I can't even tell you if the story is any good

Better narrates than the previous book in the series

To my English ear, the narrator sounds a little robotic at times. It was more noticeable in the last book though.
The English accent for the English character is more consistent. In the last book it was a mixture of Mancunian and Cockney. This time it is more consistently faux posh English and more believable.

I didn’t guess at the outcome and was engaged with the book. So it fits into the ‘good yarn’ category.