All Saints' Secrets 5 Star review

All Saints' Secrets 5 Star review

Monday, 23 March 2015

 

• • Written by: Nicole Loughan
  • Narrated by: Suzy Lexington
  • Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
  • • Series: Saints, Book 2
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  Release Date:06-25-14
  Publisher: Little Spot for Stories
  Available from: Audible.com
  Publishers Summary
  "After her death the kids used to say her ghost haunted the plantation."
  The bayou holds many secrets. One of them is what really happened to Lisette, a beautiful Creole teenager who died on the last day of school. Everybody in Fanchon's reclusive bayou parish knows Lisette died in a boating accident, but when the police take a closer look, they unearth the dead girl and find a surprise in her grave.
  All Saints' Secrets is the sequel to To Murder a Saint. It is highly recommended that the Saint books be listened to in order.
  My Review
  First things first, I love the cover, it's also quite a rarity as it has an apostrophe in the right place!
  Now for the book: I thoroughly enjoyed the first in this series and had looked forward to catching up with Fanchon. This is a short listen and like the first book, is just packed full of action - no waffling here! Fitting so much in to a short space of time means that every sentence is important and meaningful, so don't get distracted whilst listening as you might miss something.
  Fanchon is still clinging to the forlorn hope of remaining in New York, the odds are stacked against her yet she insists on attending a pre arranged job interview for a pianist, which everyone but Fanchon herself knew she was doomed to fail. She is forced to face the reality of her situation, and that reality is her inability to cope alone with the activities of daily life, so, back to the bayou to be cared for by Abolina. Having lost both of her daughters to gruesome ends, Abolina pours love and care on to Fanchon, yet she tries to persuade Fanchon to contact her estranged parents.
  This is just the beginning of the thrilling bayou adventures, the search for Fanchons' attacker, the truth surrounding Lisettes' accident and the strange mysteries surrounding Fanchons' own family. For those of us unfamiliar with life in the bayou there are some fascinating facts to discover, the traditions of All Souls' Day and All Saints day, which serve to enrich the story. This is another great book from Nicole Loughan, and it lived up to my expectations, I'm eager for more!
  Narrator
  It's always pleasing when one narrator reads a series, especially when they perform as beautifully as Suzy Lexington. Consistently good, she brings the characters to life, Suzy connects her listeners to the characters and story, when I'm listening, they become real to me and as such, are difficult to forget. Great job.
   
  This audiobook was gifted to me in return for this, my honest opinion.
   
  

 

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To murder a Saint

To murder a Saint

Thursday, 19 February 2015

 

 

To Murder a Saint: Saints, Volume 1
 
Written by: Nicole Loughan
 
Narrated by: Suzy Lexington
 
Length: 1 hr and 53 mins
 
Series: Saints, Book 1
 
Unabridged Audiobook
 
Release Date:06-13-14
 
Publisher: Little Spot for Stories
 
Audible.com
 

Publisher's Summary

"The ground is too wet...If you bury the dead here, they can come back." Her father always warned her that the bayou was a mysterious and dangerous place. She never suspected that the greatest danger of her life was lurking in New York City. Before their bags are unpacked one of two Cajun girls in fresh from Louisiana is found savagely murdered in New York. All the clues point to a wild animal, a perplexing development for a third floor apartment. Lacking a suspect the police accompany the murdered girl's French speaking roommate back to her reclusive Southern Louisiana town in search of a lead. They are met with a warning that the killer is not finished yet and learn that this is not the first mysterious death in the family.
 
©2013 Nicole Utter (P)2014 Nicole Utter
 

My Review

One of my "not quite a cozy" picks, but a 5 star listen!

This is a short, but very intense listen where every word counts, it's action filled from the slightly disconcerting beginning to the wonderfully imaginative (and scary) ending.
 
Must admit, listening to Fanchons' creepy thoughts about her date at the start of the story had me thinking that she could be a top class psychopath
 
Fanchon and Josephine, two bright young girls from the Bayou who grew up together almost as sisters, have moved to New York to pursue their careers.
 
Fanchon returns home from her date and opens her door to sheer horror, there, in the blood splattered room she is faced with the ghastly scene, the butchered remains of her beloved friend Josephine.
 
Everything suggests the culprit is an alligator! Therefore, the police decide they must make further investigations back in Josephines' home. Fanchon accompanies Detective Banyon, a hard core New Yorker, to the Bayou. Fanchon finds herself explaining the mysteries of her home to Banyon, and acting as a buffer between this outsider and the family and friends of Josephine.
 
The author provides the listener with some wonderful descriptions of places and customs, she also wrote in a heartbreakingly beautiful way of how Josephines murder affected the family and Fanchon, especially in the light of a previous family tragedy.
 
Once Josephine has been returned home, Fanchon makes her way back to New York, against the wishes of everyone, and the advice of Madame DuPont - who sees all!
 
The police give up on Josephine, they create a crazy scenario to explain away her macabre death, make a public announcement, and that is that.
 
Except of course it's not!
 
The difficult part of reviewing a shorter story is the fear of revealing spoilers! All I will say is, the mystery unravels in a most unexpected and very entertaining way. Despite it being a slightly gory murder mystery it does contain some wonderfully humorous gems. I found it to be a truly creative, entertaining and beautifully written story. I loved this and I'm eager for the next in series.
 

Narrator

I can't fault the narration of Suzy Lexington, she is a wonderful story teller, she created all the characters so well for me, I could just picture them in my head. This is a short story, and within are moments of horror, fear, deep sadness and humour, yet Suzy portrays all the emotions so seamlessly.
 
The accents? Well, I don't know, I'm British/ Australian, but they all sounded good to me.
 
This is a well produced audiobook and I thoroughly enjoyed listening.
 
I received this audiobook as a gift from the author in return for this, my honest opinion
 
 
 
 

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