Mary does it again !

Another masterpiece by M L Hamilton, pure genius, beautiful creation ! Her writing style is excellent, so easy to understand and follow which just makes you fall in love. This is one of those books that you just can’t put down no matter what ! Excellent story full of twists and turns, guaranteed that all will love this one so I can without a doubt full heartedly recommend this one to all !!! My honest review even so that I got this audiobook for free.

1 person found this helpful

Well written and narrated but very, very dull.

The narration was good and the characterisation in particular was excellent. There were issues with the audio in places though, I suspect due to heavy handed use of a noise gate, but it didn't detract from the performance. The story, however, was incredibly dull. It wasn't a 'mystery' and the principal character was a nice person but was capable only of deferring to men. She did what she was told and had no agency of her own. There was no excitement or intrigue - it was just the story of part of a woman's life while things went on around her. Her stupidity/ lack of common sense was also beyond belief, except when it came to nurturing people - in that she was an expert. The 'clues' in the story were mind-numbingly obvious. I kept waiting for twists, for something unexpected to happen, but instead I had to patiently wait while the nice lady failed to notice the obvious and accepted her fate I received this audiobook for free and am leaving a review voluntarily.

Be strong, Lainie!

A newspaper picture of a young girl, recently missing, caught the attention of Elaine. Not so much the girl herself, but the pendant she was wearing. She'd seen that pendant before. Twelve years earlier, she had been a teacher and husband, Roy, a police detective when a girl in her charge had been lost from a group she was escorting. Never found, the girl had worn an identical necklace, custom made by her father. Both husband and wife lost their jobs over the disappearance, Elaine for actually losing the girl, Roy dismissed because he felt someone in authority had not wanted the girl found. Now, another missing youngster was wearing her pendant. This nicely crafted and well written book is not so much an investigation into that initial disappearance as the consequences that follow after Roy does, indeed, find out who took her, although this is not revealed until quite late in the story. Instead it builds a picture of emotional friendship, trust, loyalty - and betrayal. Perhaps somewhat predictable, it is nevertheless is a thriller with tensions building as Lainie simply does not know who to trust. Characterisation is excellent, these three dimensional people growing ever more real as the story progresses. This is additionally assisted by the excellent performance of narrator, Jenny Hoops, whose warm and pleasing voice captures the nuances of Elaine's emotion, the reading well paced and modulated. As well as becoming the voice of the main protagonist, she also breathes extra life, through the dialogue, to all of the other characters giving each very individual and appropriate voice, be they female or male. My thanks to the rights holder of The Pendant, who, at my request via Audiobook Boom, freely gifted me a complimentary copy. Although I usually avoid stories of abducted children, this one felt different, a celebration of life and hope rather than wallowing in the depravity of the crime itself. Which isn't to say that excitement is missing - far from it - but it is the people who are formost and their relationships with each other.