In Another Light

A Novel

By: A. J. Banner

Narrated by: Vaneh Assadourian

Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

“A riveting psychological thriller...[will] keep you guessing till the very end.” - Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The death of a look-alike stranger leads a grieving woman down a troubling path in this riveting novel by A. J. Banner, bestselling author of The Poison Garden.

Three years ago mortuary cosmetologist Phoebe Glassman lost her husband in a tragic accident. No longer the hopeful wife and mother she once was, Phoebe is disappearing into her grief and into the quietude of her job - restoring to the dead the illusion of life. Then the body of a woman named Pauline Steele arrives in the mortuary, and for Phoebe, everything changes.

Pauline is unmistakably Phoebe’s mirror image and bears an alarmingly familiar tattoo. Even more startling is that among Pauline’s effects is a faded photograph of Phoebe. Aided by an eccentric colleague, her curiosity sparked, Phoebe investigates her doppelgänger’s life and death - and uncovers surprising clues to a shared past.

Phoebe’s emotional journey soon leads to shocking revelations about those closest to her...and even herself. When she’s driven to the brink, how much of what she discovers can she trust?

©2021 Anjali Writes LLC. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“The twisty plot builds to a satisfying resolution. Banner knows how to keep the reader guessing.”—Publishers Weekly

“What a beautiful…and completely engrossing book this was…It’s a heavy hitter, this book, and one you shouldn’t expect to come out of unaffected…the heavier moments are interspersed with some gorgeous interludes of beautifully written moments of normal life…A. J. Banner has written something very special here.”—Mystery & Suspense Magazine

“Blending mystery with a story about grief and trauma, there’s plenty to focus on, and readers who enjoy domestic suspense will love this one.”—The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

Goo Listen

The narrator was excellent, struggled to keep track around the middle of the story.

odd narration

I had a difficult time getting passed the narration. It sounded as if a computer voice did the reading.

Interesting concept

Psychological thriller??".... Absolutely HORRIBLE NARRATION- "stilted", 'fake sing-song pace", sounds worse than a very old computer narration.
Phoebe is a sculptor who works in a mortuary. Her life is turned upside down when her " doppelganger " is brought in. A little slow at first, but then it picked up "speed" and I couldn't put it down. It would be 4 stars except for some rather contrived plot points that made up the last chapters.

Ok - worth a listen

Not in my normal Genre and I have been lucky reading others. This one was meh. Am I glad I finished it? Yeah, I guess so. Do I feel like I wasted some hours, yes. A woman works in a mortuary and sees a person brought in and it looks just like her. Her husband and daughter were killed in an accident 3 years prior. She is stuck in the past and it is the anniversary of when the accident happened. This person brought into the funeral home sets off a need in the woman to figure out exactly what happened with this woman and with her husband's accident. It was a little slow but a decent book.

A.J. Banner is Mystery's Hidden Gem!!

Typically A.J. Banner books are my absolute favorite books, but In Another Light wasn't the case so much! Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it, just like like I have all of her other books, and I've read ALL of her other books!

The book definitely picked up towards the middle and end, but the beginning was pretty slow for me! But man, that ending! It totally took you on a twisty windy road, that not only you didn't see coming, but left you with a gaping open mouth! Some parts of the story were like that train wreck that you just can't shield yourself from...some instinct makes you watch, so you keep watching, as Phoebe gets deeper and deeper into what I'd like to call a psychosis and you want to scream at her not to do it but she does it anyway, but in the end, it creates a glorious book!!

In Another Light is narrated by Vaneh Assadourian and this is honestly my first listen with her narrating so I don't exactly know how I feel about it at this point. Now that I think about it, maybe that's what I felt was dragging in the beginning! Nevertheless, I would still give her another shot at narrating!

Overall, a little slow in the beginning, but super twisty read in the end! If you haven't made yourself familiar with A.J. Banner yet, you should do yourself a favor! I think she is Mystery books best kept secret...a little hidden gem! But absolutely one of my favorite and go-to authors!

Narration is better at 2x

Great story - different for the thriller genre . Interesting and truly suspenseful. Narration is a turn off ,

Narrator sounds like a robot

I only got a few hours in as I just couldn’t get past the narrator lol how sounds like a robot.

Terrible performance

This is one of the worst performed audiobooks I’ve ever listened to. There’s no emotion, and it sounds almost monotone.

Good story - poor narration

It sounds like the narrator may not speak English as a first language and compensated with stiff, robot pronunciation. The emotion was often entirely missing or just off. It’s a shame because the story would have been much more enjoyable with some emotion in the mix. Overall I felt like we didn’t get to know most characters very well but it was still an enjoyable story with twists and turns.

A Different Suspense!

This was a book that keeps you guessing along the way. I kept fluctuating between thinking this women I was totally insane to wondering how everything she suspected could have validity. Well worth the read. The narrator did a great job also.