One Last Child

Tallman's Valley Detectives, Book 1

By: Anni Taylor

Narrated by: Caroline Lee

Winner, Earphones Award 2020

Five long-missing children are about to be returned.

It was summer in the mountains when five small children vanished from their nursery school picnic. The heat was stifling that day, the tinkle of an ice-cream van in the air....

Three-and-a-half years later, in the dead of winter, the children are returned to their families...one by one.

All except for Ivy - the granddaughter of Homicide Detective Kate Wakeland. The other four children say Ivy is dead.

Speculation grows that the mysterious abductor is enacting a cruel revenge plot due to a murderer that Kate put in jail years before.

Kate isn't sure what to believe. But one thing is certain - she's about to begin the battle of her life. When the children were first stolen, she was prevented from investigating the case.

But now, Kate will be relentless in uncovering the identity of the abductor and discovering what happened to Ivy.

©2020 Anni Taylor (P)2020 Podium Audio

Critic reviews

"Lee's delivery of both the narrative and the dialogue is flawless." (AudioFile Magazine)

Amazing book and amazing narration!

I absolutely loved this book! It was so good that I couldn't stop listening to it. I found myself doing chores just so I had an excuse to listen to it. It really kept you guessing all the way up until the end. This was my 1st book by this author and I'm now looking forward to reading the rest of her novels. This is a must read!

Unstable

Life got in the way of me reading this book. I went to sleep listening to it, garden listening to it, cooked & cleaned listening to it and I even CRANKED it up while showering. I am excellent at figuring out story plots but I must say this one through me for a loop. This is the first book I have listened to of Anni Taylor’s and it won’t be the last! She is AN AMAZING WRITER and it is so very obvious the in-depth research she does. I have already down loaded her other books! Anni Taylors book is a MUST READ !

Solid mystery let down a bit by the end

This was an entertaining story that had intriguing mysteries and sold character work. I particularly liked that the central character was a woman near retirement age, rather than being a ruggedly attractive man with an impossibly beautiful woman as his sidekick, as happens a lot in this genre.
The main thing holding this story back is that I don't quite buy the characters' motivations and all the mechanics needed for them to pull off the central mystery, when it's revealed towards the end. That's also unfortunately common in these mystery/thrillers. But it wasn't terrible, and I still liked it enough overall to get the next in the series.

We’ll written but Authors shouldn’t narrate

The story was good although I had expected several of the “twists” throughout it was still an enjoyable listen.
I would recommend the author gets a professional narrator, she is understandable but, it could have been much better.

Brought interesting female detective story

This is a story that involves little step by step detection and wonderful family story. Inter family relations focus on the line of mother-daughter feeling. The synergy between the story of the family and the tension in the detection makes this story great ..

Glad I stuck with it

For a minute there I was wondering if the story was actually going to move, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Narration was excellent (EXCEPT for the Americans…the one cop sounded like John Wayne).

Another great story

Love this author, everything she does is great! I finished this one in record time, as I was slightly obsessed with finding out the answers :)

Kept my interest

Enjoyable even if a little far fetched.
Many twists. I like books that involve children.

Super entertaining!

This wasn’t just a great story but I have no idea how one person can sound so different in each accent! Loved it!

Susan’s Reviews

I loved the story. The story is so much more than a mystery. It is a story of a family, their interactions and their growth. The story kept my attention throughout until the very last words.