Children of Chicago
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Narrated by:
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Sofia Willingham
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By:
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Cynthia Pelayo
About this listen
This horrifying retelling of the Pied Piper fairytale set in present-day Chicago is an edge-of-your-seat, chills-up-the-spine thrill ride.
When Detective Lauren Medina sees the calling card at a murder scene in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, she knows the Pied Piper has returned. When another teenager is brutally murdered at the same lagoon where her sister's body was found floating years before, she is certain that the Pied Piper is not just back, he's looking for payment he's owed from her. Lauren's torn between protecting the city she has sworn to keep safe, and keeping a promise she made long ago with her sister's murderer. She may have to ruin her life by exposing her secrets and lies to stop the Pied Piper before he collects.
©2021 Cynthia Pelayo (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Snow falls softly outside Molly Bradley’s home on a frigid January night. Inside, half a dozen close friends are gathered to celebrate the fortieth birthday of Molly’s psychologist husband, Jay. Candlelight gleams against dark wood, wine flows, and the house rings with laughter. Everybody loves Jay, Molly most of all. Yet next morning, Molly discovers Jay dead on the floor of his office, his throat brutally slashed.
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Story meh, Rita was GREAT
- By Monica on 01-21-23
By: Terri Parlato
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The Echo Killing
- A Mystery
- By: Christi Daugherty
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A city of antebellum architecture, picturesque parks, and cobblestone streets, Savannah moves at a graceful pace. But for Harper McClain, the timeless beauty and culture that distinguishes her home’s Southern heritage vanishes during the dark and dangerous nights. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Not even finding her mother brutally murdered in their home when she was 12 has made her love Savannah any less.
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Wow! Great Book
- By Amazon Customer on 04-30-18
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All the Pretty Girls
- Taylor Jackson, Book 1
- By: J. T. Ellison
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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When a local girl falls prey to a sadistic serial killer, Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene – the prior victim’s severed hand.
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Distracting subplot and uninteresting characters
- By Ed on 05-13-10
By: J. T. Ellison
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Red Creek
- A Horror Novel
- By: Nathan Hystad
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Once a best-selling horror author, Paul Alenn is in a slump. His wife and daughter are across the country, moved away to the West Coast, leaving him alone in his Central Park-adjacent New York townhouse. When his sister calls, asking for help packing up his estranged mother’s house in his old hometown, Red Creek, he decides to put the past behind him and face his demons.
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Story lacked... understanding
- By Sara on 02-21-19
By: Nathan Hystad
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The Boy from the Woods
- Wilde, Book 1
- By: Harlan Coben
- Narrated by: Steven Weber
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn't know where he comes from, and another child has gone missing. No one seems to take Naomi Pine's disappearance seriously, not even her father - with one exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school. Hester asks Wilde - with whom she shares a tragic connection - to use his unique skills to help find Naomi.
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Coben could do a whole series on Hester!!!!
- By shelley on 03-18-20
By: Harlan Coben
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Liar, Liar
- By: Lisa Jackson
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty years ago, ex-beauty queen Didi Storm worked the Vegas strip as a celebrity impersonator. Now, in death, she’s finally getting the publicity she always craved. To the police, it looks like suicide, or a stunt gone wrong. Her estranged daughter, Remmi, knows the answer isn’t so simple. Though dressed in Didi’s clothes and wig, the broken body on the sidewalk isn’t Didi...
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Tons of Lead-Up; Crammed up ending
- By celeste curley on 07-30-18
By: Lisa Jackson
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Dragonfly Summer
- By: J.H. Moncrieff
- Narrated by: Natalie Gold
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Original Recording
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Jo Carter never thought she'd return to Clear Springs, Minnesota. But when the former journalist receives a cryptic note about the disappearance of her friend Sam twenty years before, she's compelled to find out what really happened. During her investigation, she learns another high school friend has died in a mysterious accident. Nothing is as it seems, and Jo must probe Clear Springs' darkest corners and her own painful and unreliable memories to discover the truth - and save herself from the killer who could still be on the hunt.
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Home is not always where the heart is...
- By shelley on 02-15-20
By: J.H. Moncrieff
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Immoral
- By: Brian Freeman
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In a riveting debut thriller that has drawn comparisons to masters of the genre like Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly, Brian Freeman weaves obsession, sex, and revenge into a story that grips the reader with vivid characters and shocking plot twists from the first minute to the last.
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Intrigue in Minnesota.
- By Byron on 08-25-13
By: Brian Freeman
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Don't Look for Me
- A Novel
- By: Wendy Walker
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life. She doesn't want to be found. Or at least, that's the story. The car abandoned miles from home. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family that couldn’t be put back together. They called it a “walk away.” It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over. But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke?
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Better than Gone Girl!
- By Kristen Harris on 09-17-20
By: Wendy Walker
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One Last Child
- Tallman's Valley Detectives, Book 1
- By: Anni Taylor
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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It was summer in the mountains when five small children vanished from their nursery school picnic. The heat was stifling that day, the tinkle of an ice-cream van in the air.... Three-and-a-half years later, in the dead of winter, the children are returned to their families...one by one. All except for Ivy - the granddaughter of Homicide Detective Kate Wakeland. The other four children say Ivy is dead.
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Amazing book and amazing narration!
- By Jeffrey Yauch on 08-12-20
By: Anni Taylor
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Not what I expected!
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This was good
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What listeners say about Children of Chicago
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cecilia Copeland
- 07-09-22
Dark modern fairytale
I highly recommend this Bram Stoker Award Nominated story. It does not disappoint. Read her stuff if you are into horror or dark fantasy. Looking forward to reading more of Pelayo’s work!
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- Stephen W Strout
- 07-04-23
Thrilling twist on classic fairy tales!
I loved the story. A great and dark spin on folklore and fairy tales. Can't wait to get to the next book in the series.
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- latasha
- 08-10-21
more like this please!
I loved this story! Cynthia blended real life and fairy tales together so well. I would love to read or listen to more stories like this.
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- LiRo
- 03-09-23
Suspenseful Writing
Whew! This book kept me on my toes. Being from Chicago I could of course imagine each location described and that made the story come to life easily. Cynthia Pelayo’s writing style is easy to read and captures you from the first sentence.
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- Chelsea Woods
- 06-11-21
Great story!
Great story, especially since I live in Chicago. My only complaint is the narration; it was so robotic, almost like the computer voice that answers when you call Walgreens.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-29-21
Great Story
The storyline was different and that is refreshing. I read another review that said there were no likeable characters... I totally agree. The author added Chicago History and Literary Foklore in the plot. I felt like I was constantly learning while I was moving along with the storyline. It's definitely dark. Overall I'd say pretty good listen.
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- RiotousLevity
- 03-15-22
Great Detail of the Chicago Setting
being from the Chicago area it was really delightful to hear all the place names and culture called out. I thought the storytelling from the point of view of the lead character was done well. a good combination of description and dialogue as well as their own inner thoughts and feelings
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- Tyler D Bell
- 10-26-22
Did Not Finish - Dull, pointless, and badly read
Really just a dull, meandering book so far and I don't know that I'll continue. I'm going to give it another shot before the end, but I doubt much will change in my overall opinion. Pelayos prose is rough and boring, lacking any sort of rhythm or poetry and her narrative isn'tuch better. Bog standard lady detective nonsense with a massive, unconscionable amount of Chicago jammed into every other paragraph.
The narration is the worst part. Sofia Willingham couldn't narrate a Pop Tarts box without making me want to gouge my ears out. She does this weird, atonal upspeak thing the entire time that is just awful, and her character voices are completely uninspired. Probably she's normally a voice over artist for insurance company answering services and should stick to that going forward.
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- Persis
- 06-30-23
Too much unrelated history
The story wanders off into a history lesson more often than not for the city, the books and makes it hard to connect the dots to the big story.
And oh my goodness the protagonist is annoying and not well rounded-
The narrator is why I stayed but the story is meeehhhh
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