The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt

By: Andrea Bobotis

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Some bury their secrets close to home, others scatter them to the wind and hope they land somewhere far away.

Judith Kratt inherited all the Kratt family had to offer - the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder that no one talks about - and she knows in her old bones that it's time to make an inventory of her household and its valuables. But she finds that cataloging the family belongings - as well as their misfortunes - won't contain her family's secrets, not when her wayward sister suddenly returns, determined to expose skeletons that the Kratts had hoped to take to their grave.

Interweaving the present with chilling flashbacks from one fateful evening in 1929, Judith pieces together the influence of her family on their small South Carolina cotton town, learning that the devastating effects of dark family secrets can last a lifetime and beyond.

©2019 Andrea Bobotis (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great time to hear a book like this.

The narration was so, so, so good.
Miss Bernadette was fantastic, best narrator for this book.
She had me feeling what she was thinking
Loved it ❤❤❤❤❤

A must read!

This is the best book I have read or listened to in many years. The imagery is exquisite, the narrator brings the story to life. My only regret was it ended.

Fantastic

The voice was Amazing. The story line incredible. I will definitely look for more from this author. Well done!

great book!

This book was a mystery with Southern connections- great book! Caught my attention right away & kept it all the way through.

Well written with many twists…

The book reads, almost as if an actual biography. A family of influence tied into a web of death, lies, and finding the truth after so many decades. Excellent character building. Easy to listen to. Make for a great road story.

Hard to stay interested

The narrator was robotic at the beginning. You can tell she does not have a natural southern drawl and it’s forced in many places. The story is slow and an old southern white woman’s rambling of their past in a small southern town with a family secret about a murder. The buildup is slow and not as satisfying as other reviews promised the end would be. It was predictable. The story is trying to be a Whistle Stop Cafe/Fried Green Tomatoes type story but the rambling stories of the main character gets hard to listen to and you want it to end to just have the main character stop talking. Not many historical facts and mostly fictional time period storytelling.

Good read

Narrator did an excellent job of portraying an elderly southern woman.
Storyline kept me interested and ended well.

I'm Glad I Hung In Until The End!

This book was a tough one to get into for me but in the end I did get there. The Narration was difficult for me to get used to, especially after the smooth southern drawl of the last book I listened to.

What I Liked:
The story builds slowly with decades of family secrets, racial tensions, sibling dynamics and hidden pain. When all the secrets reveal themselves it makes for an interesting story. I enjoyed each item on Judith's list revealing itself with a collection of memories that gave the item more meaning...both good and bad. In the end the story was satisfying but it's a journey to get there. BTW- It gave me new insights on how siblings have different views of shared events. I have found this true in my own life and could relate to it in this book.

What I didn't like:
The Narration... grating at time and not pleasant on the ear- although I did feel it was authentic to the Character. I really didn't like Judith for most of the book... and I'm not sure I did even at the end. Usually I cheer on the protagonist... to not like her was a new experience for me, but by the end I understood her, which I think was the whole point of the story, she's not what she seems. When you see life events through someone else's eyes, you realize that you might not have the full story. By the end I had Empathy for Judith, and felt she was harshly judged. The book was slow building... almost too slow at times.

In the end I'm glad I listened and I found value in the story, but had it not been included I might not feel as satisfied. I felt it was worth the listen as an included selection and would say if you have the time and patience there is merit to this story.

Old Southern Busybody, I know you well

My feelings on this one are complicated. Judith is not an especially likeable character. She reminds me of so very many people I've known. I spent most of the book actively disliking her. But the story was good enough to hold me to the end. The reader is spot on.

Not a favorite

This book started off slow. It also left some questions unanswered. I kept wondering if I was missing something. I replayed some chapters looking for answers. This book was discounted, thank God. I would have hated to waste a credit. It did get better around the middle of the book. I couldn’t tell if the Kratt’s were a black family or a white family. I thought they were black but latter discovered they were white although the mother had a child with a black man (Charlie) that did repairs. Her husband referred to by his daughter Judith as daddy Kratt was prominent. He owned some businesses, they had a nice house but he was a miserable, very mean fearful man. Quincy, Judith’s brother spied on people that worked for his father (daddy Kratt) so his father could use the information against them. Quincy also spied on Charlie. They had a sister Rosemary that was the youngest. Judith and Rosemary didn’t like each other. The mothers daughter with Charlie (Olva) is prominent throughout the story. It wasn’t clearly apparent that Olva was the mother’s daughter until much later. The story gets better around the middle to end but it’s not something that I would recommend.