The Deadhouse

By: Linda Fairstein

Narrated by: Melissa Hughes

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A richly nuanced synthesis of history and suspense.

One of New York City's most haunting buildings is the Deadhouse. This abandoned structure - which sits on a small island in the middle of the East River like the ghostly remains of a castle - plays in the imagination as a likely place for murder.

It's the holiday season, but there's little reason for cheer at one of New York's most elite colleges. A respected professor is dead, strangled and dumped in an elevator shaft. Lola Dakota's lifeless fingers clutch a few strands of hair, and a piece of paper in her pocket reads "The Deadhouse".

Opportunistic murder seems unlikely as assistant DA Alexandra Cooper uncovers a distressing pattern of betrayal and terror. There's proof that Lola's husband wanted her dead. And why did Lola have a photograph of Charlotte Voight pinned to her office bulletin board? Charlotte left her dorm room eight months ago and vanished into the night. Are they both victims of the same predator?

Perhaps most puzzling of all are the words "The Deadhouse". What was Lola's connection to this desolate place where people once endured slow and agonizing deaths? And what danger awaits Alex as she targets Lola's killer?

©2012 Linda Fairstein (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"Linda Fairstein writes tough, beautiful prose about a world she knows firsthand." (Lisa Scottoline)

"The author's background as head of the New York district attorney's Sex Crime Unit is just one of the many assets she brings to her fast-paced, intricately plotted thrillers. What makes this one a standout is the wealth of historical detail about 19th-century New York, which adds an extra dimension of verisimilitude to an engrossing, atmospheric, and suspenseful read." (Amazon.com review)

Narrator not good

Didn’t like voice of person reading she didn’t adapt between characters well. Sounded very monotone

Narrator was very disappointing.

Would you try another book from Linda Fairstein and/or Melissa Hughes?

I enjoy all of Ms. Fairstein's books (unabridged ones) but I found the narrator Melissa Hughes very disappointing. Barbara Rosenblat has done a wonderful job of making the New York characters come alive for me in this series of books, so listening to another narrator is a real come down.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. The descriptions of the isolation of the location of the old prison and hospital sites and the bad weather added to the suspense.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Most definitely

Was The Deadhouse worth the listening time?

Yes. I dislike listening to abridged books because too much of the story gets left out.

Any additional comments?

In a series of books such as this you should not change narrators.

Barbara Rosenblat is much preferred

After listening to Barbara Rosenblat’s narration of later books in the series, Blair Brown does not match up. I’m glad the change to Rosenblat was made!

Bring back Barbara to narrate!

Great story with so much fun New York history. But The narrator just doesn't fit. I missed Barbara.

Impetuous

For such an "intelligent" protagonist, she often was impetuous and acted rashly. the issue with Jake and his CI was unrealistic.

Didn’t like the reader

I love this series, but I prefer Barbara Rosenblat as the reader. Melissa Hughes is not believable

Narrator ruined the story.

I can hardly stand to listen to the narrator as she reads the story aloud. It's choppy and so obvious that she's reading aloud from a text. The other narrator for the other books in the series (Barbara Rosenblat) really makes the character her own. Because of that, you are drawn into the story. This narrators is just terrible. It's so distracting to the story.so bad that it distracts from the story. Too bad. I regret buying this book. I'm going to move onto the next book in the series – thankfully the next book is not narrated by this person.

Almost impossible to follow

After listening to 25 chapters I still could not figure out the story so I started over. After re-listening to more than 25 chapters I realized that every character sounded the same, the reader spoke in a monotone voice so the book just made no sense.
I could not tell you whether it is a good story or bad...