Hermit

By: S. R. White

Narrated by: Helen Walsh

Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

He disappeared for 15 years...until the morning of the murder. 

After the puzzling death of a shopkeeper in rural Australia, troubled detective Dana Russo has just 12 hours to interrogate the prime suspect - a silent, inscrutable man found at the scene of the crime, who simply vanished 15 years earlier.

Where has he been? And just how dangerous is he? Without conclusive evidence linking him to the killing, Dana must race against time to persuade him to speak. But over a series of increasingly intense interviews, Dana is forced to confront her own past if she wants him to reveal the shocking truth. 

Compulsive, atmospheric and stunningly accomplished, Hermit introduces a thrilling new voice in Australian crime fiction, perfect for fans of Jane Harper and Chris Hammer.

©2020 S. R. White (P)2020 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

A waste of time.

I generally don’t do anything but the stars, but for anyone reading this, it is the worst review I have EVER given a book. It is WAY to long. One character’s narration is SO bad. The whole story covers 12 hrs. You wait and wait for something that is the true crux of the narrative and the book just stops. So what did happen 20 yrs later? You will never know. I have listened to the equivalent of 2 yrs of non stop audio. I am an English major. I have the credentials to write this review.

So slow

Staccato narration and so slow. At least it helped me fall asleep!!! Not for me .

A slow burn that goes deep

This book is not your average crime novel, it’s more of a deep dive into what childhood trauma does to an individual years down the line. Yes, there is a murder and there is a team of detectives, but the way the book is structured is more of a novel of cause of effect, of the effect of growing up without love and how that affects a person’s choices. The ending is extremely abrupt and it almost feels as if there should have been at least one more chapter to the book. If you’re looking for a crime drama with all the lines of enquiry neatly tied in a bow by the end, this is not that book.
Still, it is very powerful and the author clearly skilled, so I’ll look out for more by S R White!

OK story - dreadful narrator

The story takes a while to get going and leaves a big cliff hanger at the end (about the back story not the crime - that's tidied up). Presumably that'll be covered in the next book. Which I probably won't read if read by the same person. Their characterisation and inflection of the (quite funny) office banter was painful.

I read a lot of crime books and I've never before felt a book'd be better enjoyed as a TV series. Possibly because a lot of the more tedious bits would have been cut out.

Still, pleasant enough, but would have been much happier with the whole thing if it'd been 8 hours rather than 14