Grist Mill Road

A Novel

By: Christopher J. Yates

Narrated by: Dan Bittner, Saskia Maarleveld, Graham Halstead, Will Damron

Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

"Four distinct voices tell the story of a disturbing incident and its far-reaching aftermath...It's a labyrinth of shifting perspectives, but the narrators keep this grim story focused and mesmerizing." — AudioFile Magazine

The highly anticipated new audiobook from the author whose debut was called “The smart summer thriller you’ve been waiting for...The novel you should be reading tonight” (NPR’s All Things Considered) and was named a Book of the Year by NPR and an Entertainment Weekly Must-List Pick

Christopher J. Yates’s cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare writerly talent: a literary author who could create a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that listeners are immediately gripped. Yates’s new audiobook does not disappoint.

Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted, and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends—Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah—are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again—with even more devastating results.

More praise for Grist Mill Road:

"[Dan] Bittner, Will Damron, Graham Halstead, and Saskia Maarleveld bring the multidimensional characters vividly to life and narrate this complex and twisting tale of psychological suspense in a manner that keeps the listener involved and eager to follow along to its harrowing conclusion." — Booklist

©2017 Christopher J. Yates (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Narrators Dan Bittner, Saskia Maarleveld, and Graham Halstead do a marvelous job delivering first-person accounts leading to the same terrible crime. ... It's a labyrinth of shifting perspectives, but the narrators keep this grim story focused and mesmerizing." -AudioFile

"[Dan] Bittner, Will Damron, Graham Halstead,and Saskia Maarleveld bring the multidimensional characters vividly to life and narrate this complex and twisting tale of psychological suspense in a manner that keeps the listener involved and eager to follow along to its harrowing conclusion." -Booklist

"Brought to life with the superb performance of four talented voice actors, Grist Mill Road is the unabridged audiobook rendition of a tense thriller about cruelty in the past haunting lives in the present. ...Taut and suspenseful, Grist Mill Road keeps the reader riveted to the end, and is a worthy collection to personal and public library mystery/suspense audiobook collections. Highly recommended!" -Midwest Book Review

Extremely Weird

I wish I would’ve checked this out from the library. I want my money back. All I can say is EXTREMELY WEIRD.

Decent Read for Going in Blind

I picked this up on a recommendation from Kyle MacLachlan on Instagram. Why not? I was hoping for more of a weird Twin Peaks vibe, probably because of that. This book was very much a real-world sort of story. The writing was vivid and descriptive. The characters were a little bland to me, but in a real-world real-person sort of way. I felt enough for them that their ultimate fates made me sad. The narration was also solid. Not my favorite book, but not bad overall.

suspenseful with a let down

this book does a good jib of keeping you reading with moderate suspense but is overall dsiappointing it its climax.

WELL PERFORMED , WELL WRITTEN

Some troubling subject matter with males, one young but a uniquely written and well crafted interwoven performance by all 4. Intelligent mystery and suspense all the way through the end. Subjective Stories told by 3 main characters 26 years apart as young teens and then adults. Immersive story.

Not what I expected...

This is a very compelling book that draws you in and somehow keeps your interest throughout. The author has a great writing style but this is not edge of your seat material. Three children are involved in a very bizarre act that leaves a 13 year old girl with one eye. The other is shot out with a BB gun by a 14 year old boy while their 12 year old friend hid and watched. The initial act/crime in this book is far less then my expectations. From the book's description I expected a much darker set up for a secret that was held for 26 years.
The story unfolds slowly (but not boringly by any far stretch). It is told by each of the three people involved from each perspective. There is some repetition of incidents but there is variation with each retelling. It's not until the last hour of the book that everything comes together and the entire truth of events leading up to and following the BB gun incident are revealed.
Narration was excellent.
I recommend this book but more as fiction not a suspense.
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Thank You.

ugh the ending....

The buildup, the questions, the twists and turns and it was all headed towards amazing and that ending just didn’t do anything for me. It just ended, I get why, but I just didn’t like it. My opinion. The performance by all the narrators was great, it was just not the book I was hoping for with all the great reviews.

Unexpected story ending

Story took a long time to develop but then I was hooked. Lots of twists and turns and a fun book to follow while commuting.

Great

Great great great and I hope a movie comes out. I will be sure and see it

Are they nuts?

What did you like best about Grist Mill Road? What did you like least?

I loved the narrator but you can only do so much with material.

Has Grist Mill Road turned you off from other books in this genre?

The story line. I have read several of these types of books that jump around on the time line and they keep my attention. It has been a LONGGGG time since an author could not convince me to care about the characters.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

was able to bring me back into the book by changing his tempo

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

That ending...

After all that, the ending left me feeling a little ...er, um...pissed. Great book till the last chapter.