Watching from the Dark

A Novel

By: Gytha Lodge

Narrated by: John Hopkins, Vinette Robinson

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

You never saw him. But he saw it all.

When a vibrant young woman is murdered while on a video chat, a small-town detective wades into a circle of friends and lovers with dangerous secrets - from the acclaimed author of the "enjoyably chilling" (The New York Times Book Review) She Lies in Wait.

Aidan Poole logs on to his laptop late at night to Skype his girlfriend, Zoe. To his horror, he realizes that there is someone else in her flat. Aidan can only listen to the sounds of a violent struggle taking place in the bathroom - and then the sound of silence. He is desperate to find out if Zoe is okay. But then why is he so hesitant to call the police?

When Aidan's cryptic messages finally reach them, Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens and his team take the case - and discover the body. They soon find that no one has a bad word to say about Zoe, a bighearted young artist at the center of a curious web of waifs and strays, each relying on her for support, each hiding dark secrets and buried resentments. Has one of her so-called "friends" been driven to murder? Or does Aidan have the biggest secret of them all?

©2020 Gytha Lodge (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Gripping." (Publishers Weekly)

"Lodge alternates between chapters following the investigation into Zoe's death and chapters that recount the final 20 months of her life, allowing the reader to understand Zoe as a fully rounded and complicated character, not just a victim. This choice, trendy in thrillers but almost always effective when the characters are strong, consistently reminds us to look beyond simplistic binaries of victim and perpetrator, innocent and guilty, and recognize that all humans make problematic choices, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad. Lodge's choices celebrate the complexity of humanity and elevate this police procedural." (Kirkus Reviews)

great book

loved it! good narration! kept me interested the entire time! love books with the twist at the end. think i even gasped! hahah

good series

I have enjoyed the Jonah Sheens series. I hope more are coming. The narrators did a good job.

Loved it!

I absolutely love this series and I can’t wait to listen to the next book!

Great story line and narration

This was just what I was looking for in a mystery, lots of twists and turns. Really good writing!

Overall Great

Firstly, I would like to mention that this is a sequel that in theory is stand alone, however, if you wanted to read the first book at any point... there are very brief spoilers (mainly hinting at who isn't the person of that first book). I personally find Gytha's work very compelling. I very rarely desire to find more stories done by one author, but she does a great job with her mysteries. I highly recommend reading/listening to them.

My main issue with this story was that the female narrator sounded like she was about to break down crying for most of her lines. Personally, this wouldn't have been an issue if it had lined up with the parts of the story that were sad, however this was not the case. If you can get past that however, I'd still recommend this book. It wasn't bad enough to drive me away entirely. It only caused some cringe moments when she started her chapters.

If you like a well developed world and a mystery that's hard to crack, I'd recommend Gytha's work. I spent a credit on it and had a good time.
If you have a very hard time getting past iffy voice acting, if I recall correctly the first book didn't have any issues and these are technically stand alone books. They just carry over the police department and lead DCI


*potential SPOILER - depends how much you don't want to know ANYTHING about a book before you read*

Gytha does a very good job of making it hard to pin down the murderer until it's about to be revealed, or sometimes until it's right there in your face. I think the only complaint within this story is the typical villain tell all at the end. If the culprit did such a good job before that final moment, it's hard to see why they'd just confess everything once they're caught. I'd rather it be an overview like "through the trials information slowly came to light" sort of thing. But maybe that's just me

good cop who done it

I enjoyed the story and trying to solve the case along with the detectives.

I am a #1 fan of British thrillers. Brilliant!

This complexellent thriller deserves a second listen. Indeed!

Sometimes you just choose a perfect audiobook and this one is it! An intricate and exciting murder mystery that kept my attention throughout. My second audiobook by author Gytha Lodge proves indeed that these will not be my last. Narrators Vinette Robinson and John Hopkins are precisely paired; I look forward to more by this tremendous trio. So highly recommended with 🍒 🍒 🍒 on top! Worth a cherished credit. Screaming from the rooftop, “Epic, I say, EPIC! EPIC! EPIC!”

👏✍🏻⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✍🏻👏

liked the first one

meh... liked the first one. thought I would give #2 a try. tuned a lot out. didn't hold my interest.

Great Performances, So-So Story

The problem with all the Johah Sheens novels is that while the chapters on the activities of the detectives are very good, they alternate with chapters about the victims, suspects and witnesses, and these characters are almost invariably so silly and shallow that it's hard to care much about them, so that I find myself impatient for these tedious chapters to end. In addition, the author's emphasis on the beauty of the female characters who are attractive to men is retrograde. It's the twenty-first century; time to endow your characters with other sources of appeal.

The narrators for the series, on the other hand, are very good, particularly John Hopkins—the pleasure in listening to him to some degree offsets the vapidity of many of the characters.