The Vanishing Type

Secret, Book, & Scone Society, Book 5

By: Ellery Adams

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

While January snow falls outside in Miracle Springs, North Carolina, Nora Pennington is encouraging customers to cozy up indoors with a good book. Even though the shop and her bibliotherapy sessions keep Nora busy during the day, her nights are a little too quiet—until Deputy Andrews pulls Nora into the sci-fi section and asks her to help him plan a wedding proposal.

His bride-to-be, Hester, loves Little Women, and Nora sets to work arranging a special screening at the town's new movie theater. But right before the deputy pops the question, Nora makes an unsettling discovery—someone has mutilated all her store's copies of The Scarlet Letter, slicing angrily into the pages wherever Hester Prynne's name is mentioned.

The coincidence disturbs Nora, who's one of the few in Miracle Springs who knows that Hester gave up a baby for adoption many years ago. Her family heaped shame on her, and Hester still feels so guilty that she hasn't even told her future husband. But when a dead man is found on a hiking trail just outside town, carrying a rare book, the members of the Secret, Book, and Scone Society unearth a connection to Hester's past. Someone is intent on bringing the past to light, and it's not just Hester's relationship at stake, but her life. . .

©2022 Ellery Adams (P)2022 Tantor

absolutely lovely

I love this series so much. The compassion and affection the main ladies have for each other is beautiful.

Another lovely installment

I throughly enjoyed this installment with Hester, June, Nora, and Estella in Miracle Springs. Each page feels like a conversation with an old friend. I’m never disappointed. I’ll be looking forward to the next book in this series.

The Vanishing Type

I enjoyed listening to this book and I'm intrigued to listen to more books in the series.

Excellent

I really liked the storyline of this book. It wasn’t until almost the end that I learned who the murderer was. Narration was great. Love the various accents. I would definitely refer this to any mystery-who done it seeker.
Thank you

Like a hug from a friend

The Secret Book and Scone Society is my favorite series by Ellery Adams. It was nice to have the warmth and caring friendships carry each other thru new dilemmas and murder solutions.

a simple thank you!

I am be so glad I got started at the beginning of this series. I binge read/listen to them just as soon as the next comes out. and then cannot wait until the next. this was my very first series with this author, I liked it so much that I went neck thru an entire series of an older set.

Love love love

I have loved this book series. I work in a bakery. All I do is read and work. I would love to have wonderful friends like these. I hope you continue the series. Great work. ❤️

Cozy mystery produces many coincidences

Don't get me wrong: I enjoy this series. It's always nice when we have time passing from book to book so we can see friendships deepen, new love interests appear, and long ago issues from their pasts come to light and sometimes get resolved. And I liked all the twists and suspects. Little things bugged me though, like I feel there wasn't enough of Nora's bibliotherapy for me because she was so busy with everyone else's problems, but she's a good friend trying to find answers for her loved ones, so I'll let it slide. My biggest hangup was the untangling of all the twists, you know, the big explanation at the end. It just felt like so many coincidences had to happen so that all the players could do the things they did. It didn't seem as realistic as the prior books always felt. I will say the life experiences each of our main ladies face are realistic and relatable. It was simply the end explanation that was convoluted and practically miraculous (see what I did there?) and made me knock a star off. But we finally get to hear Hester's tale! Worth it.

Maturity rating: adult mystery, some dead bodies, violent criminals, heart-wrenching turmoil; nothing in gory detail, but not something for kids either. It's pretty light this time around in drugs/drinking and swearing. This series isn't really heavy on romantic love, but we get sweet and sour experiences with love here for side plot.

ANOTHER COZY, BUT MYSTERIOUS BOOK BY ELLERY ADAMS

I enjoyed this book very much. It didn’t meander and get lost and overwhelmed by too many characters like I felt the second book in the series did. I’m glad I decided to stick with the series and read the third. Actually, I’m very sad that this is the third and final book in the series. I hope there will be one more, because I want to know how the story ends for Nora and Sheriff McQuade, Hester and Andrew, and Estrella and Jack. In a final book, I’d love to see June find someone who makes HER heart happy as well.

As in the first two books, I enjoyed the narrator’s female character voices — she did a great job; however, every male character sounds exactly alike. I don’t understand why a male narrator isn’t hired to do all the male parts — it would make the story so much more interesting (it may not bother other listeners as much as it does me).

The story itself was quite good. We learn all about Hester’s background and the way she was raised. After learning about it, I appreciated her sunny disposition even more. It was nice to have some of the loose threads about this character’s background tied up.

I hope Ms. Adams is hard at work on a new book for these four wonderful friends! I WANT MORE!

Wordsmith

This series is exceptionally well written. I love the book recommendations that are slipped in. The characters are a diverse, complex lot. They change over time. They come to terms with mistakes. Some love and support each other. My one criticism in the series is there’s more murder than strictly necessary. There’s plenty to engage the reader without so much violence. I think authors forget how involved we get with characters. The better the writer, the more real they seem. Just because we like murder mysteries doesn’t mean we want murder after murder.