Fadeaway Girl

A Novel

By: Martha Grimes

Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest

The beguiling young sleuth Emma Graham returns.

Martha Grimes returns to her twelve-year-old heroine, Emma Graham, in this suspenseful sequel to the bestselling Belle Ruin. Emma continues her investigation into the strange disappearance of the four- month-old Slade baby from the Belle Ruin Hotel more than twenty years before. The sudden appearance in town of the baby's father, Morris Slade, makes her even more determined to learn the truth. Then a mysterious drifter named Ralph Diggs appears at the Hotel Paradise, looking for work, ingratiating himself with everyone there. Everyone, that is, except Emma.

The perceptive Emma is bound once again to delight fans of the previous books Hotel Paradise, Cold Flat Junction, and Belle Ruin, and certain to win new readers with her intuition and humor.

Cliff hanger

I loved this book! The only thing that was VERY irritating is that it ended without answering one of the biggest questions that I had when reading it. Pretty irritating!

Ending

Disappointing ending expected at the very least to get an answer to the mystery two books ago
Who killed Fern?

Great!

Great story line and the series keep you wanting more! I did not prefer this narrator at all and wished the author would have continued with Robin Miles!!!

Take a listen before you buy

I just started listening to this book and am disappointed in the narration. The narrator tries to sound like a whimsical young girl. The audio is very high pitched and I found myself trying to increase the bass just so I could understand the narrator. It is very difficult to understand what is being said. I wish I had sampled it. I normally do, but I have always been a fan of Martha Grimes and that clouded my judgement. Maybe after I get farther than five chapters, I'll change my mind.

Confusing

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Knowing how much this novel depends on Belle Ruin to be understood

Any additional comments?

The primary difficulty with this book is the degree to which it depends on Belle Ruin, Grime's first book using this central character. I did read the book several years ago but certainly don't remember the characters and that is key to understanding Fadeaway Girl. It was like coming into a play during the middle of Act II, where you are given clues upon which to make assumptions about what happened before your arrival. I felt like I was missing a lot of the connections. So as the mystery unraveled, my interest was limited by not really understanding the previous relationships among the characters. So if you are going to read this book, by all means read Belle Ruin first