The Blinds

A Novel

By: Adam Sternbergh

Narrated by: Stephen Mendel

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

For fans of Cormac McCarthy, Jim Thompson, the Coen Brothers, and Lost

Imagine a place populated by criminals - people plucked from their lives, with their memories altered, who've been granted new identities and a second chance. Welcome to The Blinds, a dusty town in rural Texas populated by misfits who don't know if they've perpetrated a crime or just witnessed one. What's clear to them is that if they leave, they will end up dead.

For eight years Sheriff Calvin Cooper has kept an uneasy peace - but after a suicide and a murder in quick succession, the town's residents revolt. Cooper has his own secrets to protect, so when his new deputy starts digging, he needs to keep one step ahead of her - and the mysterious outsiders who threaten to tear the whole place down. The more he learns, the more the hard truth is revealed: The Blinds is no sleepy hideaway. It's simmering with violence and deception, aching heartbreak, and dark betrayals.

©2017 Adam Sternbergh (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

What a find!

Great yarn! After ten years and hundreds of stories, I was beginning to think there were no more good books to be found here on Audible. It's so good to be proven wrong.

Get the print edition

I have no idea how he managed to do it, but the narrator gave everything but dialogue inflection. Pretty much all spoken dialogue was said flatly with no care to circumstance or emotional state, making every character sound drugged and boring. tense arguments where lives are on the line, moments of panic and anguish are stated the same way as talks of the weather. I'm sure the story would have come across far better with even a little animation to character voices.

Sternbergh is 3 for 3 with me

A really cool blend of mystery, noir, thriller with some neat psychological Prisoner-esque mind “buckery”.

Fantastic! Wonderful.

Great audiobook! Kept listening and listening. Hard to put down. Great performance and solid story.

On the edge of my seat

I chose to listen to this story for my one hour walk early morning Thought it would be a good listen over a week or so Second day finished my walk but couldnt shut the story so listened all day A satisfying story with a good dose of twists and turns

one of the best books I have read in a while

great genre blend well performed. very unique and creative and original. loved this. if you enjoy weird stories you will lo e it

such an amazing story

twists turn some you seen coming others hit you up side the head. An amazing unique story, enjoyed it alot, worth checking out!

Could have been better…

An interesting premise, with so much potential …. But I ended up disappointed. Let me first congratulate the author on coming up with an original story. Most people reading this review are avid readers and can probably attest that nowadays many books are variations on something already done. The idea of a town full of people who are either murderers or innocent witnesses was enough to peak my interest, however the execution of the story had me losing interest midway through. First, there were a lot of people to keep track of, and second, it took much longer than necessary to tell the story.
Overall I give this a 3, but it could have been a 4.

Bury your former identity

Really cool concept. it takes a little while to get into but i kept at it. Sort of like Under The Dome.

Messing with Minds

Residents come to the sparse and featureless town known as The Blinds in the remote Texas desert, most of them with a horrific criminal past. But with the help of a somewhat shadowy "Institute," their memories have been erased.

It’s better than the Witness Protection Program, where criminals have been known to use their newfound anonymity to commit new crimes. The Blinds “offers the ultimate alternative. Not even you know who you are, or what you’ve done. If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”

Upon arrival, they choose a new name. They are given a list of famous movie stars and another of ex-vice presidents, and pick a first and last name, one from each list.

With this strange and creative premise, Sternbergh steadily reveals more, and the mystery deepens rather than being solved. There are endless surprises, layer upon layer of them, as the population of The Blinds and their tangled pasts are revealed to be a jumble of unexpected relationships and secret agendas.

The scenario gives him a copious cast of characters to work with – characters with names such as Lyndon Lancaster, Orson Calhoun, and Ginger Van Buren. It’s a wild ride, messing with the minds of the residents – and ours. Stephen Mendel provides an expressive read.

I only wish it weren’t written in the present tense. It seems awkward.