Grave Suspicion

By: Aaron Mahnke

Narrated by: Terence West

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Sam Hawthorne has lived a nomadic life, wandering through small Midwestern towns for the past two decades. He is known among the people he meets as an oddity and a troublemaker. He has a secret, however; one that has given him the chance to help dozens of people over the years. But that secret has also created a trail, and now someone with violent intentions has begun to follow it.

Forced to run for his life, Sam returns to his hometown for the first time since the death of his family. There, Roger Sandbrook - old family friend and local history professor - welcomes him in and gives him aid. Sam quickly learns that he isn't the only one with secrets, however, and that Roger just might be the only person who can help him.

From the tired small towns of the Midwest to the streets of historic Salem, Sam's journey will carry him through painful memories and across centuries of forgotten history. But ask the questions stack up, will he also find the answers he needs?

©2015 Aaron Mahnke (P)2015 Aaron Mahnke

He's my new favorite ...

The story is gripping, I liked the historical tones and the ending leaves room for a series... Love this guys work... Love his pod casts... If you like suspense and 'scary' content... Get it. ⭐️

Amazing

I could not stop listening, it was suspenseful and well thought out. I think everyone should get this audio book.

Mehhhh, Not Terrible

I really enjoy Aaron Mahnke's ability to tell a compelling story on his podcast Lore but this story felt very long and arduous, and really only propelled itself forward until close to the end. I found myself frustrated by the dialogue...it fell flat and was predictable.

I enjoyed listening, and kept going 'til the end to see when the story would "get good." But I found that I could see the end before I even heard it.

I wish the author narrated it instead of Terence West, too.

Aaron Mahnke proves he is the king of story telling

Absolutely loved the story. Can't wait for the sequel! If you enjoy stories that refer to American history (especially the Salem witch trials), you'll enjoy this story.

Good start

I like Aaron Mahnke's Lore podcast so I thought I would give his book a try. It was not bad, and I can see he is setting up for a series, but to be honest I was expecting a horror novel, this is more action adventure with a man witch.

Interesting witch tale

What did you like best about Grave Suspicion? What did you like least?

I love Aaron Mahnke's podcast Lore, so I thought I would try this out. It is a good story, but I didn't love it quite as much as his podcasts. I wish that it was narrated by Aaron, I feel like he would have done a better job.

What did you like best about this story?

The history woven into the supernatural tale, which is also my favorite part of the author's podcast.

Was Grave Suspicion worth the listening time?

Yes, in fact I may listen to it again to see if I missed things.

bland with potential

Love Aaron's podcasts and decided to try this out. I felt overall it was a nice paranormal/historical thriller through and through.

I had to grind my way through not taking the story too seriously. The historical part of it was nice but going to the realm of of paranormal I was hoping something more grim if not whimsical. over all lackluster. Other supplementary characters done have much meat to them I stopped keeping track and still got through the book normally.

Great performance from Terence. Although there being not a lot of varying characters with it being mostly men, he gets the job done.

Grave Suspicion: Jedi Training Academy

Would you be willing to try another one of Terence West’s performances?

I would love to listen to him read the news, but he novels are not his forte. He doesn't do voices well and his attempts and creating mood and emotion were misguided. It was as if a high school freshman drama student had been blessed with a nice voice and then asked to read an audio book professionally.

Any additional comments?

As with most of the reviewers, Mahnke's amazing Lore podcast brought me to this book. It's an intriguing story idea, but it was awkwardly read by the performer and not executed well by the author.

Short summary: thanks to a divergent strand of DNA (Midichlorians) the folklore that there were/are actually witches (Jedi) is true! During the final showdown with the villain, it finally dawned on me that this was a story about the early days of the Jedi rather than the systematic hunting of witches! :)

There were a lot of plot points that were brought up and then never resolved. It's clear he intends to build a universe here, but as a self contained story it fell kind of flat. Also, if it is possible, the book was overly wordy and too short at the same time.

Example of overly wordy (from memory, but you'll get the jist): "Sam looked into the study only to find it empty, and that included Roger." Yep, empty would imply Roger wasn't there. Along with the copious amounts of needlessly inserted "thoughs" (seriously, once you notice that it will haunt your listening to the book and the Lore podcast), Mahnke really could have used an editor to tighten up his writing.

Example of too short: Roger helps Sam understand he is capable of doing more than he knows. Sam levitates a spoon and then passes out from the headache it caused. Next time he attempts those powers, dude is a fully trained Jedi hurling objects with deadly accuracy.

Again, there is the kernel of a great story here. I sincerely hope he keeps working at it, but like another great story creator in popular culture whose worked it reminded me of, please feel free to use the help of an editor and dialogue writer.

Oh, and thank you for Lore. I love it!!

Great Build to a Disappointing Culmination

The story starts off slow and often has intense moments of description as if time stops in the story to let the listener really take it all in. The build up through the story is well done, however all of that build up results in disappointment in my opinion. The book leaves unanswered questions or answers to questions that are short and pushed aside which takes away from the slow deliberate story telling you get used to. The direct culmination in the epilogue is great but that last chapter really seemed like it was deserving of more than what it got.

want more Aaron mahnke books

loved the book looking for more stories from Aaron mahnke and his great imagination of this character