The House on Vesper Sands

By: Paraic O'Donnell

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

With all the wit of a Jane Austen novel and a case as beguiling as any in Sherlock Holmes' casebook, Paraic O'Donnell introduces a detective duo for the ages and slowly unlocks the secrets of a startling Victorian mystery.

London, 1893: High up in a house on a dark, snowy night, a lone seamstress stands by a window. So begins the swirling, serpentine world of Paraic O'Donnell's Victorian-inspired mystery, the story of a city cloaked in shadow but burning with questions: Why does the seamstress choose to jump out of that window? Why is there a cryptic message sewn into her skin? And how is she connected to a rash of missing girls, all of whom seem to have disappeared under similar circumstances?

On the case is Gideon Bliss, a young Cambridge dropout who is in love with one of the missing girls, and his partner, Inspector Cutter, a detective as sharp and committed to his work as he is wryly hilarious. There's also Octavia Hillingdon, a young reporter determined to tell stories that feel important despite her employer's preference that she write a women's society column. 

By turns clever, surprising, and impossible to pause, The House on Vesper Sands peels back the mystery layer by layer, offering in the strange undertow of late 19th-century London a startling glimpse at the secrets we all hold inside us.

©2018 Paraic O'Donnell (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Overall a very good book. Narrator excellent

The reference to Sherlock and Jane Austin are a very big stretch. This novel takes place in the early 1800’s and there are sinister goings on, but those do not a Sherlock make.
The novel overall is very good and worth a credit. Interesting characters and I particularly like the Scotland Yard detective. Most were well drawn. The author captures the mood and appearance of London very well.
I could almost smell the mud and filth. The author has an outstanding ability to use the English language and I was captured many times by evocative sentences and descriptions.
The narrator is outstanding and voices are varied and easy to identify when he reads conversations.
The book could be a chapter or two shorter if much of the explanations and back ground story were better told, without as much explanation.
I have not researched the author yet however I will seriously consider their next novel.
I’m getting older and words don’t come to me as easily. I hope this review is useful even tho it’s a bit clumsy.

What a grand surprise.

I got this ether from audible plus or a 2 for 1. I enjoy the Victorian crime novels. I was about half way through this when I looked for the next installments to find this was the only one. Wonderful narrator. Intriguing story and all around enjoyable. I can’t wait for what I hope will be the 2nd installment in a new series.

Fantastical Mystery! Absolutely Captivating!

Absolutely captivating! The narration was fabulous and the story and dialog impeccable! I just could not put it down.

Silly narration, will read instead

I had to stop listening to this book at 1 hour 19 minutes in--even though I find the plot intriguing. Nearly every character is given a sort of squeaky, Cockney-ish accent that is downright distracting.

Not for me

I’m a Big fan of this genre and by that I mean the kind of British who done it. I was really looking forward to this book and came away pretty disappointed. Near raider did a good job but I just did not find the story very compelling and a little hard to follow. I generally don’t like leaving negative reviews, but I thought I would put my two cents in. Many other people seem to really enjoy it so perhaps it just wasn’t for me.