spine chilling

found it slow at first but soon caught my attention. gently leads you down the path. end realisation is subtle but still shocks. good narrator. thoroughly enjoyed, late for work as couldn't turn it off!

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Good book

Excellent read, enjoyed the book very much, narrator was good except for the too long a pause between chapters

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Great premise but felt cheated by cop-out twist

What did you like best about Gone Without a Trace? What did you like least?

The mysterious beginning ... a man vanishes without leaving a trace of his existence .... great set up wondered how it would all pan out and then felt cheated. So best the great set up and some lovely pacy writing and excellent narration .... worst the twist in the tale explanation. I returned the last book I got as the same tired cheating cliche ... there is a mystery but then oops turns out the narrator has had mental health problems previously and now we have to question is this a psychological thriller or just rather sad inner ravings from a psychiatric patient .... please please please more thrillers which do not pivot solely on the sanity of the protagonist. I just returned "The stranger Inside"for the same reasons and intend to ask for a refund for this too. Shame as I enjoyed the writing, the narrator though the Scouse character accents did seem to be at odds with the main narration which I enjoyed and the dramatisation was excellent.

What will your next listen be?

Another psychological thriller - maybe The Woman Next Door or The Sisters .... or change of pace with Black Rabbit Hall. I only wish I could find anything to compare with Magpie Murders which was just fabulous! No idea who is publishing these disappointing thrillers but it seems like one in four is not disappointing but can recommend In a Dark dark Wood, Behind her eyes, The Woman In Cabin 10,any of the Robert Galbreith trilogy Cuckoo's Calling, Silk Worm and Career of Evil, especially the first two which I enjoyed very very much,The Girl Before, Rebound, The Widow, Lie with Me, Local Girl Mising, The Marriage Lie, The Last Breath - anything by the wonderful Tana French and Try Not to Breath and Dear Amy also worth a listen

Which scene did you most enjoy?

All of the mysterious set up was very intriguing and well written .... and most of the book very good .....but did not deliver with a disappointing and arduous plot reveal which is so similar to many others not in content but in overall theme - as in we should have never bothered to believe a word we had been told which is a bit of a cheat in a mystery thriller as far more fun to have been given a fighting chance to have solved the mystery instead of just had the wool pulled and led a merry dance only to find out much ado about nothing except personal delusions.

Do you think Gone Without a Trace needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No I think the themes and characters have been amply explored. But I would love to read another book by the same author, similarly well written with a similarly intriguing plot but with a more plausible and well thought out ending.

Any additional comments?

Well written, great narration and would love to hear more books read by Emily Pennant Rae - just the plot twist seems a bit of a lazy cop out to me. Liked the author, loved the set up but just felt cheated when all explained with the denouement and felt what a waste of time it had been listening. much much better written than so many but just such a similar weasel of a plot reveal. Please authors read some quality and classic mysteries which have well thought out plots which do not depend on fugue states, repressed memories, madness and plots which are as annoying as "A masked man on a horse kissed me and stole my bag then vanished in a flash of lightening ... er or wait a minute did I mention I am a bit bonkers and maybe that never happened? "

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Loved it

Went a bit iffy near the end but really really enjoyed it. World be fabulous as a film, unsettling

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Fantastic!

This book had me gripped from start to finish. The story was not what I had anticipated and was so well performed that I couldn't leave it alone.

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Gone Without a Trace

Prepare to sit on the edge of your seat with this hypnotic thriller. I have just had a sleepless night unable to stop listening until I got to the end. Terrific plot and beautifully and believably read.
If I have a criticism it is in the sometimes repetitive nature of some chapters. We get that she is missing Matt but labouring the point over and over gets tedious as do some of her scenes with Katie and in the office. I could not see the point of Sam who remained only a plot device. I also felt she had known Katie for so long that she would have sensed her treachery long before.
However, as the book developed and got deeper and her childhood began to be revealed it became horribly fascinating. I won't reveal the ending but the last few chapters were a total shock.
Hannah, and indeed all the characters, except Hannah's mother and perhaps, Mike, were unlikable. However, they were meant to be and this terrific read about delusion and betrayal is a true thriller in all senses of the word. It is very rare that I don't guess an ending and this ending was chilling.

1 person found this helpful

Amazing Book - completely enthralling

This is very well written and has a brilliantly inventive plot with excellent characterisation. It held my attention so well that I couldn't stop listening. I finished it in a day by carrying my MP3 player and speaker EVERYWHERE I went, even shopping, when I swapped my speaker for headphones, so loath was I to switch it off. An amazing debut by Mary Torjussen and I hope very much that we don't have to wait too long for a second book.

As to the narrator..... All I can say is - Accents! she would have done much better to have read the story straight through without trying to add merseyside accents to the characters. They were written as well educated and sharp - to hear them ALL saying "wha?" (missing t intended), in a liverpool intonation was irritating and did not fit with any of the character types. If I had written this book I would have been most upset to hear this, as I am sure it was not what the author intended.

100% recommended!

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Wow! Totally mesmerising

It's really hard to do this justice when I'm still recovering from so many twists and turns.

Very likeable main character who was expertly portrayed. Possibly the best I've ever listened to and certainly the least predictable. A great antidote to the previous story I listened to.

I actually prefer the accents to only be used when characters are speaking and not for their thoughts or the narration but I imagine everyone feels happiest listening to a voice they can relate to which for me is female southerner.

I'll definitely be looking out for both the author and narrator in future - excellent work from both.

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You think it's one thing, but...

I'm very wary of plot spoilers in thrillers and 'detective stories 'so I will be circumspect.

Hannah comes home from a work trip to Oxford and finds her world has turned upside down. She is the detective in this story, piecing together what has happened. But all is not as it seems...

I can't say more than that for fear of spoiling the denouement, but I can assure you that this book has a plot that will keep you on tenterhooks all the way through. It's immaculately written and paced - just when I wanted to shriek at Hannah, it moved on again and left me wanting more.

It's twisty mind-bending stuff, and if you liked Gone Girl you'll like this.

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The weirdest narration ever?

I am unable to get through this book because the narrator seems to think that a first person narrator thinks, writes and texts in one accent (in this case RP, Home Counties, middle class) and then speaks in a completely different accent (here it's straight out of Brookside - working-class Liverpudlian). THIS IS JUST WEIRD and renders the book un-listenable to.

Does the actress think that those of us with regional accents think and write in a nice RP agent like hers and only resort to our regional accents when we speak? Did no-one else in the production of this book think this was plain weird?

Unfortunately for Mary Torjussen, the book is going back.

3 people found this helpful