The Restorer

The Graveyard Queen, Book 1

By: Amanda Stevens

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

Audie Award Nominee, Fantasy, 2013

Never acknowledge the dead.
Never stray far from hallowed ground.
Never get close to the haunted.
Never, ever tempt fate.

My name is Amelia Gray. I'm a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I've always held fast to these rules passed down from my father…until now.

Detective John Devlin needs my help to find a killer, but he is haunted by ghosts who shadow his every move. To warn him would be to invite them into my life. I've vowed to keep my distance, but the pull of his magnetism grows ever stronger even as the headstone symbols lead me closer to truth and to the gossamer veil that separates this world from the next.

©2012 Amanda Stevens (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Khristine Hvam draws the listener in with a Charleston twang and a variety of Southern dialects, including Gullah, each slightly and delightfully different. She speaks with a vulnerability that creates an affection for the characters, especially Amelia." ( AudioFile)

As a mystery it was good,

but I wanted an interesting relationship, either romance or friendship, which it did not have.

This is told in first person. It reminded me of the TV show Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury - but a younger heroine. Amelia is 27. Her job is researching and restoring cemeteries. Bodies are found by the police in a cemetery she is restoring. So the detective asks her advice about things in the cemetery. She also gives him copies of the photographs she took. She is curious and asks questions of other people. There are mysteries about multiple bodies. Two were killed years ago, others were killed recently. So what is this book about? Someone who is not a police detective or private investigator who investigates and solves mysteries. In the process she may be in danger as she gets close to figuring things out. By the end one mystery is solved, but there are other mysteries about other characters which I assume will be solved in sequels.

What makes this mystery unique is that Amelia can see ghosts. But she must never let the ghosts know she can see them. If they know they will latch onto her forever. They will be with her and touch her and take energy from her - forever. Another character in the story has ghosts that have latched onto him, and Amelia is worried about it.

It was pretty good. It kept my interest. I think the author has an excellent writing style and a good voice. But I wanted some kind of interesting relationship, even if it were with a friend or coworker. Although there is some lust between Amelia and John, there is no relationship development. This is not a romance.

The ending climax with the bad guy was not well done. Some of his actions did not make sense. I wanted more explanation of things, for example. Why put an external bolt on a door, then leave it open for a victim to escape?

NARRATOR:
The narrator Khristine Hyam was excellent. I enjoyed her southern accent.

Genre: fantasy mystery.

Ok listen

This took me a minute to finish because I had just forgot about it. This book was ok. I had some issues with it but I think I might read the next in the series if I can get it from the library. The romance was blah. I didn't really like Devlin for her. Just something about him I'm not connecting with. The person who did it was in my mind from the beginning but I had a feeling the author wouldn't go that way because it would be too obvious but she went that way. I didn't really like the predictability of that.

Khristine Hvam is one of my favorite narrators and she did an awesome job as always.Loved the narration.

Great Book..... Great Narrator

Love that the story takes place in the south. Narrator did an excellent job. I highly recommend.

Great characters and story outdated tech

I loved this book and plan on continuing the series. The characters were likable and felt like real people with real reactions to situations. The story was interesting and kept me guessing to the end on the motives for the murders. My biggest complaint was that twice in the book Amelia needs to light her way, once she uses the screen on her phone which I would think she would more than likely have a smart phone with a built in flashlight in case she needed to take a quick picture and didn't want to get out her digital camera. The second is she has a flashlight she drops and breaks the glass on it which destroys the flashlight. I mean if I was an archeologist/graveyard restorer I think I would want LED flashlights or Maglite brand flashlight for my work especially when I might find rattlesnakes in the mausoleums I am restoring. I know it is a bit of nitpicking however it was enough to pull me out of the story and the desired creepy trapped in the dark feeling the author was going for was lost on me.

Great series, fabulous reader

Where does The Restorer rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is one of the best series I have come across, and I listen to a lot of books in every genre.

What did you like best about this story?

The southern atmosphere, along with the ghosts, and romance make this series a fun but spooky listen.

What does Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

with the southern drawl and her characterizations,Khristine Hvam makes the book.