Audiobook Review: Every Secret Thing by Emma Cole/Susanna Kearsley
Every Secret Thing by Emma Cole, pseudonym for Susanna Kearsley
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: January 10, 2017
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Kate Murray is deeply troubled. In front of her lies a dead man, a stranger who only minutes before had spoken to her – about a mystery, a long-forgotten murder and, most worryingly, her grandmother. His story was old, he had told her, but still deserving of justice. Soon Kate is caught up in a dangerous whirlwind of events that takes her back into her grandmother’s mysterious war-time past and across the Atlantic as she tries to retrace the dead man’s footsteps. Finding out the truth is not so simple, however, as only a few people are still alive who know the story…and Kate soon realizes that her questions are putting their lives in danger. Stalked by an unknown and sinister enemy, she must use her tough journalistic instinct to find the answers from the past in order to have a future.
Every Secret Thing is a combination of a historical fiction and a modern day mystery novel. However, the pacing was to slow for a true mystery or thriller. I also thought the author spent too much telling and not enough showing. One character had a very long monologue with information that I thought could be handled better by putting the events in the action.
I had trouble keeping the characters straight but that happens to me sometimes when I listen to a mystery or thriller on audio. The print version may have helped me because I could have flipped back and forth.
I liked the love story between Deacon and Kate’s grandmother more than the murder plot line. I would have liked a romance novel just about the two of them. Deacon is a great character. I thought it was neat that the book The Language of Flowers played a part in it, since I have read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.
The narrator for Every Secret Thing, Katherine Kellgren, did a good job of having a different voice for every character. Even though she was a female, she was able to do realistic male voices. I liked the choice of using a different voice for Kate’s internal narrative and her dialogue. The narrator also brought excitement to the book in the dramatic way she read the exciting or surprising parts of the book.
This book has tons of five star reviews on Amazon so I am clearly in the minority of not loving it. If you like historical fiction about the intrigue associated with WWII, then you may very well enjoy this book.
(I received a complementary copy of this audiobook for review.)
