The Lost Door

By: Marc Buhmann

Narrated by: Michael Gilboe

Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

River Bend. A peaceful scenic tourist town in rural Wisconsin. To outsiders it is a little slice of heaven, but to those who live within its borders a darkness lies in wait.

Four broken strangers are unwittingly tied to a tragic accident that happened more than 50 years ago. Stavic is the small town deputy investigating a series of grisly murders. Willem is still haunted by the disappearance of his abusive father when he was eight. Claire is an alcoholic mother who is hiding a terrible secret. And at the center of it all is David, an elderly man who has returned after a 20 year absence.

The Lost Door strategically weaves their four stories, culminating in a shocking final confrontation.

©2015 Marc Buhmann (P)2015 Marc Buhmann

Too many characters

Just way too many people to keep track of. This will make a great TV movie but as a book it is too drawn out.

The Lost Door

The Lost Door is a good read. Actually I listened to Michael Gilboes narration from Audible.He did a great job with the characters he was given.Set in the small town River Bend, Wisconsin, it follows the lives of 4 strangers who are connected by one demonic man named DeMarcus. It starts out with a kidnapping.We don't know how everyone is connected until well into the book.It is a bit confusing,but comes together in the end.
This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review

different flavor of science fiction/fantasy

The Lost Door weaves the stories of four strangers who as the story progresses turn out not to be strangers afterall. All four are in the rural town of River Bend for different reasons. The first characters introduced are Claire and her daughter Emily. But that is not strictly correct. The first few paragraphs leave the impression that someone/something else was sharing Claire’s soul. The story progresses quite a bit before that mystery gets revealed.

David is an older man returning to finish his life in River Bend and be buried next to his wife Lily who he lost years before. Nick Stavic came from Chicago looking for a slower pace. Willem is a sixty-four year old police officer. Claire, David, Nick and Willem are all tied to David’s dead wife Lily and a very evil person named DeMarcus. A good portion of the book has each character’s’ plot line developing separately until they finally begin weaving together towards the end. The end pulls all the seemly separate threads together to form the underlying story.

Several other reviews have described this book as being Lovecraftian. I have only read one or two short stories by Lovecraft so I cannot say whether it is in his tradition or not. It is definitely a different flavor of science fiction/fantasy that the normal. In that aspect, it was refreshing. It is more subtle in it’s approach to the big reveal at the end. Until this point the reader is not quite sure where on the genre radar the book falls. I cannot pin it down any better than science fiction/fantasy. It is a unique read. I never really found myself invested in the characters though. I think I spent so much energy trying to keep everyone’s plot line straight that I missed any emotional attachment. I may do better on a second or third listen through but on the first one I found it hard to keep everyone straight.

Michael Gilboe did a very nice job narrating. The production values were great. No issues with outside sounds or echoing. Mr. Gilboe’s voice is rich. He pitched his voice slightly higher for the women but not too high. He handles the emotional parts well. The only part I was not wild about was the villain’s voice. It did not sound particularly threatening. I would be willing to listen to another audio book narrated by Mr. Gilboe.

Audiobook provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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great book

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com"

really good listen

I like the premise, but not the execution...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Editing. There were some glaring errors that immediately turned my mild amusement into dislike. I powered through the last half of the story without enjoying it simply because the book wasn't edited well and certain things not researched well enough.

What could Marc Buhmann have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Research. A non-spoiler example: The Marvel Comic "X-men" did not publish until September, 1963. A character in the story references the comic as extant and known in 1961. There are other things that might require a little research and finesse like vehicle models, drug references, and the like. I think that a good editor should have found some of these mistakes.

Which scene was your favorite?

There is a scene in a basement about two-thirds of the way through the book that I thought was decent. The writing seemed more like a screenplay than a story, though, but I appreciated the way things went.

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

Maybe, but only if the screenwriter does sufficient research to correct errors and oversight.

Any additional comments?

There is at least one problem in the read: A sentence or two seemed to have been skipped in Chapter 6 (2:05:27). The other problems I noticed were either a failure in writing or in audio editing, but there seemed to be three missing sections. A character would describe seeing something that we had not been told about, and seemed to have huge implication on the story. While I do understand allusion, this seemed more than that, as if and entire chapter had been skipped. I will say that Michael Gilboe's performance, though lightly overdramatic at times, was very well done. There is something to be said for consistent and precise pronunciation, and he does indeed have that. His read is the only reason I was able to finish this story. I did like the premise of the story, but I think a lack of research and sub-standard editing made it less than enjoyable.

A Decent Payoff For Someone With Patience

If you could sum up The Lost Door in three words, what would they be?

Confusing, strange, and odd simply because especially for the first part it really is. A lot of backstory and people get thrown at the listener and eventually as you hit the third act it starts coming together but up until that point I wasn't really sure what was going on.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most interesting aspect of the story was the concept of having different planes and whatnot while the least interesting might've actually been some of the childhood backstories, though perhaps I lost some of my interest in them because of the aforementioned confusion.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

My favorite part of the performance was the sense that Michael put everything into it and tried his best to give the characters the extra bit of emotion that would push them over the top. Unfortunately that also led into it being slightly melodramatic at times sometimes seemingly turning a high-tension point into a caricature of itself.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, for the reason that at the beginning I had no idea what was going on and had to go back here and check to see if I'd ever figure it out. Perhaps if I were to remove it from my memory to enable a re-listen I would do just that.

Any additional comments?

I received this for free in exchange for an honest review and it didn't change my perspective on the story. There was a lot of interesting stuff going on but in the end it didn't all come together for me but if I hear that the author is writing another story with that kind of a concept I'm in.

A Complex Tale

The Lost Door is an intricate tale of quite a number of people over two distinct time periods, which ties nicely by the conclusion.

I had a chance to get this as a review copy, and after checking some of the comments on Amazon for the Kindle version, saw some refer to it as a Lynchian novel, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity.

Be warned though that this book does require you to pay a lot of attention. Sometimes with audiobooks with lots of characters, I personally find myself getting lost on the POV or time changes as I guess in audio formats you don't have the visual queues you get in written form. I had to restart listening a couple of hours in as I got a bit lost and mistaken who was who - I had missed some transitions between some of the male characters, and then got confused when this character was talking about never been married, when the character I thought he was had actually been married. I do think that authors should try to keep audio listeners in mind more, and perhaps put more distinct breaks in, even prefixing a section change with a character name. And the narrators to introduce a more obvious pause. In some audiobooks I end up having to keep notes on who is who, but I didn't find this necessary once I could establish the characters in my mind.

Other than that though, I thought the narration was excellent, and he did a very good job (once I could identify characters) of keeping voices unique, including the female ones.

I found the story pretty unique too. Some of the concepts in use were pretty neat, and I did enjoy how everything tied together, and how the book shifted for a while with part two to provide the events of the past, before proceeding with the current time narrative and conclusion. I'm actually pretty impressed of all that was accomplished in the .story, and when I logged into audible to write this review, I was actually more than a bit surprised that the recording was only 8 3/4 hours long, or 270 pages in Kindle. I was sure my internal clock and audiobook familiarity was making me think it was a 15 hour book I'd just listened to.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and look forward to seeing what Marc Buhmann releases next, and I also hope Michael Gilboe does more novel narration.

The audio book was fairly good

Would you listen to The Lost Door again? Why?

I would and hopefully I would be able to understand some of it a little better

Would you recommend The Lost Door to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes I would recommend it

What about Michael Gilboe’s performance did you like?

Michael Gilboe as a narrator was very easy to listen to. I look forward to having him as a narrator again

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I didn't have the time to listen in one sitting

Any additional comments?

This audio book was gifted to me for an honest review. I enjoyed the storyline and the narrator. The only problem for me was that it jumped around a little too much but I did still enjoy it

A slow burning supernatural thriller

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Some of the characters were a little unbelievable in some circumstances. On the plus side, those said characters weren't your typical Hollywood 'flick type and I very much appreciated that.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I would say the complexity of the story overall, it certainly didn't try to rush it's self. The characters were your average types which gave credibility too.

Did Michael Gilboe do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Michael Gilboe read very well, not the first time I have listened to him narrate and again he didn't let me down.

Was The Lost Door worth the listening time?

Yes definitely. However my advice here is to stay with it and don't give up. The first half of the book is quite slow as it builds up the characters and lays down the plot. It is also a little complex and easy to miss an important plot line. But it's well worth it in the end.

Any additional comments?

An entertaining but complex supernatural book which deals with other planes of existance etc. Very entertaining.


I received this book for free in return to give an honest and fair review.

Well writen good naration

Would you listen to The Lost Door again? Why?

No. The book didn't really start to get interesting till towards the end. It took me a long while to get into this book.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The book was confusing in the beginning and a bit boring. Some lively dialogue or more action may of helped to provide a beginning hook.

What about Michael Gilboe’s performance did you like?

He was a very good narrator and did a fine job.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes there was a moment towards the end. To give specifics would be to also give spoilers.

Any additional comments?

“I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot come”

The book was very well written and well performed. It just wasn't my cup of tea in general.It is a fantasy paranormal book dealing with an alternate plane and reality. The first two thirds of the book is very slow moving and bit confusing until the four main characters finally start to mesh together.