Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Good Neighbor by Cathryn Grant Narrator: Emily Durante, Steve Marvel
Published by Tantor Audio on February 11, 2020
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Length: 8 hours, 57 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Libro.fm
When 14 year old Brittany disappears one night, her parents are devastated, certain she has been taken.
They can’t bear to think about who has done this and what might be happening to their precious girl.
Even worse, the police seem to see them as suspects, implying that they may have had a part in their own daughter’s disappearance. Only their neighbor, Taylor, is a rock. She organizes search parties, feeds the volunteers, works night and day to help them find Brittany.
But as this affluent California community becomes focused on the hunt for the missing girl, it slowly becomes clear that her disappearance is linked to terrible secrets from the past.
Secrets that must be kept hidden at all costs….
OK, The Good Neighbor was totally not what I expected. I thought it would be a story about looking for the missing girl with her family’s terror and some police procedural detail and the suspense of not knowing what had happened to her. I also kind of expected that the neighbor would be a key support for the family (based on the title). I will not spoil this story by sharing any of the twisty, mind-bending facts.
We do get the point of view of each of the parents a little bit, and two of the neighbors, a woman, Taylor, and a teenage boy, Luke and the girl herself, Brittany. Until I went back and checked I would have said it was almost all from the point of view of the neighbor, Taylor. Perhaps that is because some of the others, particularly Moira doesn’t seem very reliable. We get a better sense of how the loss and search affects Taylor than the parents. I guess the title would hint at this, and actually it has a double meaning in the end.
I was blown away with the world created, with everything seeming unusual. The police don’t act the way I would expect, especially with the parents. There was a lot which didn’t seem to make sense, until it did. I enjoyed this odd and creepy story.
Narration:
I really enjoyed the female narrator and she handled both the adult women and the teen, Brittany with different voices which seemed appropriate. I thought the male narrator was fine, although maybe too old sounding for Luke. I definitely enjoyed both in the audio performance. Each chapter was a different character point of view, with Durante narrating if the character was female and Marvel narrating if it was a male character view. I listened at my normal 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Emily Durante
Emily Durante has been acting since the age of seven, performing in a number of stage plays professionally, in the community, and at the college level. Other performance credits include commercial and industrial voice work, educational live theater, and singing telegrams. She has been narrating audiobooks for over ten years. Her titles include the Midnight Twins trilogy by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Casting Off by Nicole R. Dickson, Impossible and Locked Inside both by Nancy Werlin, and Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas. She has also directed audiobooks, including the Earphones Award-winning performance of Heaven’s Keep narrated by Buck Schirner. Emily resides in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two children.
About Cathryn Grant
Cathryn’s fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines, The Shroud Quarterly Journal, and The Best of Every Day Fiction. Her story “I Was Young Once” received an honorable mention in the 2007 Zoetrope Fiction contest.
She’s the author of the Alexandra Mallory Psychological Suspense series, Psychological Thrillers, Suburban Noir novels, The Haunted Ship Trilogy, and the Madison Keith Ghost Story series.
When she’s not writing, Cathryn reads fiction, eavesdrops, and tries to play golf without hitting her ball into the sand or the water. She lives on the Central California coast with her husband and two cats.
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I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER Friends
Ooh! Odd and creepy…not what you expected…I can’t wait! Great review, Anne?
Yes different is good. It means it wasn’t the standard plot line and not predictable. Thank you.
odd. creepy. great cover. sounds like a winner to me
It is a winner for me!
I’m sharing about this for the tour this week. Now I wish I’d had time to read it!
I thought it was different and good. Maybe you can read it in the future.