
Never Smile at Strangers
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Anne Johnstonbrown
About this listen
When teenage girls vanish in what was once considered a safe, Louisiana bayou town, the lives of four desperate young locals take unexpected turns, begging the question: Do you every truly know those closest to you?
When 19-year-old Tiffany Perron vanishes from rural Grand Trespass, Louisiana, best friend Haley Landry's relationship with her boyfriend becomes increasingly strained. To make matters worse, her impressionable younger sister Becky has begun idolizing an impetuous, seductive 15 year old who's encouraging her to do dangerous things.
Meanwhile, Erica Duvall, a reclusive 19-year-old aspiring writer, befriends Haley. Ten years earlier, Erica's mother abandoned her, leaving her with the womanizing used car salesman father she loathes. She's decided to write a novel based on Tiffany's disappearance; a novel that she hopes will lead to a reunion with her estranged novelist mother.
Rachel Anderson, a 36-year-old mother of two, is having trouble coming to terms with her husband, Tom's, affair with the missing girl - a relationship that supposedly ended shortly before Tiffany's disappearance. What's more, she comes to the blood curdling realization that someone is watching her through the large back windows of her house.
A disturbed man also lives in the area. Ever since his mother's murder four years earlier, he's been raising his insolent teenage sister, Allie, who sleeps with truck drivers for money. He considers women to be dangerous - and his world revolves around his fear and hatred for them. He's terrified of his sister, knowing she's intent on pushing him over the edge.
©2011 Jennifer Minar-Jaynes (P)2012 Inkbug Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
Malice
- By: Jennifer Jaynes
- Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Daniel Winters has a beachfront home in Malibu, a career as a respected pediatrician, and a gorgeous new wife, Mia. For a man whose past was rife with mental illness, addiction, and thoughts of suicide, it seems too good to be true. Then Daniel learns that a fellow pediatrician and his family were found slaughtered in their home. It’s just the first chip in the facade of Daniel’s perfect life. Little by little, everything starts to fall away. At work, his career becomes at risk when he’s asked to remain silent about a dangerous new drug. At home, Mia has gone from an affectionate newlywed to a mysterious woman carefully hiding secrets.
-
-
UNPUTDOWNABLE!!!!
- By shelley on 10-01-18
By: Jennifer Jaynes
-
Disturbed
- By: Jennifer Jaynes
- Narrated by: Carly Robins
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Halloween night five years ago, Chelsea Dutton's college roommates were viciously stabbed to death, and Chelsea was critically injured. She was found hiding in her apartment's bathtub, barely clinging to life. With only fragments of shattered memory, she's been trying her best to move past the nightmares ever since. Now in Boston, she lives a somewhat reclusive life, working from home as a medical transcriptionist and bingeing on mindless television shows.
-
-
Foster families BEWARE!
- By shelley on 11-09-17
By: Jennifer Jaynes
-
The Stranger Inside
- By: Jennifer Jaynes
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After mystery author Diane Christie loses her husband to suicide, she and her son move to the small coastal town of Fog Harbor, Massachusetts. Her daughter is attending college nearby, and Diane hopes that her family can now begin to heal. But rebuilding their lives after the tragedy isn't so simple. Diane's depressed college-age daughter, Alexa, still avoids her, critical of everything Diane does, and even her generally amiable teenage son, Josh, has started acting out.
-
-
Could easily have been a 5 star book...
- By shelley on 06-07-17
By: Jennifer Jaynes
-
Do Not Disturb
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Holly Adams, Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quinn Alexander has committed an unthinkable crime. To avoid spending her life in prison, Quinn makes a run for it. She leaves behind her home, her job, and her family. She grabs her passport and heads for the northern border before the police can discover what she's done. But when an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road, Quinn must take refuge at the broken-down, isolated Baxter Motel. The handsome and kindly owner, Nick Baxter, is only too happy to offer her a cheap room for the night. Unfortunately, the Baxter Motel isn't the quiet safe haven it seemed to be.
-
-
Good story
- By Ana Camp on 10-24-22
By: Freida McFadden
-
Finders Keepers
- By: Natalie Barelli
- Narrated by: Rachel Leblang
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of course, I’m not going to murder her in the night. I need my laptop back first. That’s the whole point of making friends with Emily Harper, author of the hugely successful novel Diary of an Octopus. So I could get into her apartment and take back what’s mine. Emily doesn’t know who I really am. She thinks I’m her biggest fan, her new best friend who happens to need a place to stay for a few days. She doesn’t realize the laptop she found—and took—from a busy airport almost two years ago was mine. I don’t care about the laptop, just what's on it: my diary.
-
-
Narration, Subject and Pacing Issues & Challenges
- By M on 11-19-23
By: Natalie Barelli
-
The Girls in the Snow
- Nikki Hunt, Book 1
- By: Stacy Green
- Narrated by: Kate Handford
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the remote forests of Stillwater, Minnesota, you can scream for days and no one will hear you. So when the bodies of two 15-year-old girls are discovered frozen in the snow, Special Agent Nikki Hunt is sure the killer is local: Someone knew where to hide the girls and thought they would never be found. Though Nikki hasn’t been home in 20 years, she knows she must take over the case.
-
-
Everything was just...bad
- By Theotokos on 03-27-21
By: Stacy Green
-
Malice
- By: Jennifer Jaynes
- Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Daniel Winters has a beachfront home in Malibu, a career as a respected pediatrician, and a gorgeous new wife, Mia. For a man whose past was rife with mental illness, addiction, and thoughts of suicide, it seems too good to be true. Then Daniel learns that a fellow pediatrician and his family were found slaughtered in their home. It’s just the first chip in the facade of Daniel’s perfect life. Little by little, everything starts to fall away. At work, his career becomes at risk when he’s asked to remain silent about a dangerous new drug. At home, Mia has gone from an affectionate newlywed to a mysterious woman carefully hiding secrets.
-
-
UNPUTDOWNABLE!!!!
- By shelley on 10-01-18
By: Jennifer Jaynes
-
Disturbed
- By: Jennifer Jaynes
- Narrated by: Carly Robins
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Halloween night five years ago, Chelsea Dutton's college roommates were viciously stabbed to death, and Chelsea was critically injured. She was found hiding in her apartment's bathtub, barely clinging to life. With only fragments of shattered memory, she's been trying her best to move past the nightmares ever since. Now in Boston, she lives a somewhat reclusive life, working from home as a medical transcriptionist and bingeing on mindless television shows.
-
-
Foster families BEWARE!
- By shelley on 11-09-17
By: Jennifer Jaynes
-
The Stranger Inside
- By: Jennifer Jaynes
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After mystery author Diane Christie loses her husband to suicide, she and her son move to the small coastal town of Fog Harbor, Massachusetts. Her daughter is attending college nearby, and Diane hopes that her family can now begin to heal. But rebuilding their lives after the tragedy isn't so simple. Diane's depressed college-age daughter, Alexa, still avoids her, critical of everything Diane does, and even her generally amiable teenage son, Josh, has started acting out.
-
-
Could easily have been a 5 star book...
- By shelley on 06-07-17
By: Jennifer Jaynes
-
Do Not Disturb
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Holly Adams, Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quinn Alexander has committed an unthinkable crime. To avoid spending her life in prison, Quinn makes a run for it. She leaves behind her home, her job, and her family. She grabs her passport and heads for the northern border before the police can discover what she's done. But when an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road, Quinn must take refuge at the broken-down, isolated Baxter Motel. The handsome and kindly owner, Nick Baxter, is only too happy to offer her a cheap room for the night. Unfortunately, the Baxter Motel isn't the quiet safe haven it seemed to be.
-
-
Good story
- By Ana Camp on 10-24-22
By: Freida McFadden
-
Finders Keepers
- By: Natalie Barelli
- Narrated by: Rachel Leblang
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of course, I’m not going to murder her in the night. I need my laptop back first. That’s the whole point of making friends with Emily Harper, author of the hugely successful novel Diary of an Octopus. So I could get into her apartment and take back what’s mine. Emily doesn’t know who I really am. She thinks I’m her biggest fan, her new best friend who happens to need a place to stay for a few days. She doesn’t realize the laptop she found—and took—from a busy airport almost two years ago was mine. I don’t care about the laptop, just what's on it: my diary.
-
-
Narration, Subject and Pacing Issues & Challenges
- By M on 11-19-23
By: Natalie Barelli
-
The Girls in the Snow
- Nikki Hunt, Book 1
- By: Stacy Green
- Narrated by: Kate Handford
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the remote forests of Stillwater, Minnesota, you can scream for days and no one will hear you. So when the bodies of two 15-year-old girls are discovered frozen in the snow, Special Agent Nikki Hunt is sure the killer is local: Someone knew where to hide the girls and thought they would never be found. Though Nikki hasn’t been home in 20 years, she knows she must take over the case.
-
-
Everything was just...bad
- By Theotokos on 03-27-21
By: Stacy Green
-
The House Beyond the Dunes
- By: Mary Burton
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lane McCord wakes up in a hospital having survived a near-fatal fall at a North Carolina beach cottage. Her boyfriend, Kyle, wasn’t so lucky. A senseless tragedy on their first romantic getaway. All Lane remembers is lying at the bottom of the stairs in Kyle’s pooling blood. Confused and grieving, Lane plans to return to the cottage, collect her personal belongings, and get out. Until a winter rainstorm leaves her stranded and vulnerable, but not alone. A concerned neighbor, who claims he heard a violent argument before the accident, has come out of the storm.
-
-
It's not easy to keep me guessing
- By PLM on 09-23-23
By: Mary Burton
-
The Perfect Son
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens, Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Erika Cass has a perfect family and a perfect life. Until the evening when two detectives show up at her front door. A high school girl has vanished from Erika's quiet suburban neighborhood. The police suspect the worst - murder. And Erika's teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive. Erika has always sensed something dark and disturbed in her seemingly perfect older child. She wants to believe he's innocent, but as the evidence mounts, she can't deny the truth - Liam may have done the unthinkable.
-
-
If you love animals give this one a miss!
- By Rachel on 08-18-22
By: Freida McFadden
-
Til Death Do Us Part
- By: Daniel Hurst
- Narrated by: Gareth Bennett Ryan, Francesca Waite
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Megan thinks that she has the perfect husband and the perfect life. Craig works so that she doesn't have to, leaving her free to relax all day in their beautiful and secluded country home. But when she starts to long for friends and purpose again, Megan applies for a job in London, much to her husband's disappointment. After Megan goes against his wishes and attends the interview, Craig decides that it is time to act. Locking her away in their home, Megan realizes that her husband never had her best interests at heart, nor did they meet by accident. Craig has been planning this.
-
-
Good Book
- By Debbie on 05-11-23
By: Daniel Hurst
-
Want to Know a Secret?
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Alyson Krawchuk
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has secrets. YouTube baking sensation April Masterson knows the secret to the perfect gooey brownies. Or how to make key lime squares that will melt in your mouth. But if you keep watching her offline, you may find out some other secrets about April; secrets she’d rather you didn’t know - like where did her son go when he snuck out of the house? What was she doing with the local soccer coach behind fogged windows? And what’s buried in her backyard?
-
-
Great story!
- By Kristen Chappell on 01-06-22
By: Freida McFadden
-
A Flicker in the Dark
- A Novel
- By: Stacy Willingham
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.
-
-
Enjoyable story and narrative
- By Patricia on 01-14-22
By: Stacy Willingham
-
Her Last Move
- By: John Marrs
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career - and she knows that it will make or break her. But she can’t catch the culprit alone. Together with facial recognition expert Joe Russell, she strives to get a lead on the elusive murderer, who is always one step ahead of them. Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list?
-
-
Great story line but
- By Gerg on 01-04-19
By: John Marrs
-
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- A Lisbeth Salander Novel
- By: Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland - translator
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
-
-
A Classic Mystery with Wonderful Characters
- By Robert on 12-22-08
By: Stieg Larsson, and others
-
The Secret Witness
- Shepard & Gray, Book 1
- By: Victor Methos
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is Reaper speaking. So begins an anonymous letter published in a Utah newspaper after a young couple is viciously murdered. Tooele County sheriff Elizabeth Gray leads the investigation into the double homicide, which is eerily reminiscent of a string of brutal killings years ago. When the letter leads detectives to yet another body, Gray calls on an old friend for help.
-
-
Too Much
- By Lisa on 07-16-22
By: Victor Methos
-
#1 in Customer Service
- The Complete Adventures of Tom Stranger
- By: Larry Correia
- Narrated by: Adam Baldwin, Larry Correia
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether he’s underwriting for an overlord, or wearing a pocket protector in a pocket universe, Tom Stranger has just one policy: providing Quality Customer Service. No alien menace is too menacing, no galactic rift too rifty for the multiverse’s most-trusted Interdimensional Insurance Agent in these three brand-new adventures and two classic escapades.
-
-
First half good
- By Ben Koch on 01-07-20
By: Larry Correia
-
The Witness
- By: Nora Roberts
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daughter of a cold, controlling mother and an anonymous donor, studious, obedient Elizabeth Fitch finally let loose one night, drinking too much at a nightclub and allowing a strange man’s seductive Russian accent to lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. Twelve years later, the woman now known as Abigail Lowery lives alone on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks.
-
-
Classic Nora - Outstanding!!!!
- By M. Davis on 04-20-12
By: Nora Roberts
-
The Cuckoo's Calling
- By: Robert Galbraith
- Narrated by: Robert Glenister
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he’s living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with a shocking story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry - known to her friends as the Cuckoo - famously fell to her death a few months earlier.
-
-
Unbelievable debut mystery set in London
- By Tracey on 05-26-13
By: Robert Galbraith
-
The Black Echo: Special Edition
- Harry Bosch, Book 1
- By: Michael Connelly
- Narrated by: Titus Welliver
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.
-
-
Titus Welliver has really stepped in it!
- By George Moneo on 04-08-20
By: Michael Connelly
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Never Smile at Strangers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tena A. Hawkes
- 10-11-15
Gotta love Daily Deals!
Without the Daily Deals I probably would never have given this book a shot. So glad I did. Well written, with the characters well-defined. The story is good, if bit predictable in places; still, there was a bit of a a twist I didn't write see coming. Will be looking for more from this author!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Petra
- 07-15-15
Dark and gritty Southern mystery
If you could sum up Never Smile at Strangers in three words, what would they be?
Suspenseful, creepy, atmospheric
What other book might you compare Never Smile at Strangers to and why?
Can't think of any because this was quite unique in a way. There were no dominant characters as such, but quite a large number of people who were involved and the investigators were more in the background than in the usual crime thrillers.
What didn’t you like about Anne Johnstonbrown’s performance?
Her female teenage characters sounded all wrong. I was constantly picturing chain-smoking washed-out women in their forties or fifties not some 18-year-old girls.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Not at first because there were so many characters being introduced that it became confusing, and I actually had to stop listening and check the book to work out who's who. But after that I listened to the rest in one sitting because the plot really pulled you in and I had to find out how it was all going to end.
Any additional comments?
Very well done for a debut book, would definitely read more books by this author, but probably not listen to another audiobook with the same narrator
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 08-27-15
couldn't finish
i stopped listening about 10 chapters in because i could no longer stand the narrator.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- happyjo
- 11-20-18
Murder and crazy small towns
This was a really good murder mystery! Shamelessly bad manners and morals are continuously shocking in this small town story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cynthia
- 01-09-16
Very good!
I really enjoyed this book. I got it on Kindle unlimited and then was able to go back and forth between reading and listening. I thought I had the killer figured out but was surprised in the end. I liked it so much I am reading the next in the series!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jami
- 10-03-14
Fast Paced Mystery
This book was well written, particularly for a debut novel. The plot was good and moved along nicely. I thought that the characters were well developed and I was interested to see what happened to them. I would definitely read another book by this author. The narrator also did a good job with the characters' voices.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lifelong Book Lover
- 10-18-15
Good story, fair narration, fair grammar
Story is good, but it needs editing. I find grammar problems annoying. The author has difficulty with serial plurals. An editor would help.
Narration is fair. I find the attempt at speaking in a young child's voice to be cringeworthy. I prefer a normal adult voice simply reading the child's dialogue to be preferable.
The worst part of the narration is mispronunciation of common English words. The example that springs to mind is "mischievous." A simple phonetic reading of the word is all that is needed to see that it is a three syllable word, promounced "MISS-che-vous. The narrator butchers this word, creating a dreadful four syllable confabulation (miss-CHEE-vee-ous) that sets my teeth on edge. I don't think correct pronunciation is too much to ask when one purchases an audiobook that has professional narration. I have heard better reading on the free site, Librivox.
The third problem with the narration is weird, incorrect inflections that change the meaning of the sentence. It's as if the narrator is reading the material for the first time - or simply isn't paying attention to what is being read.
I won't listen again. This isn't literature. It is more like a guilty pleasure. I only wish the narration was better. Rather drove me batty.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- momgiraffe
- 07-07-16
Entertaining, but kind of a hot mess...
There are a lot of characters in this book and listening to it can be a challenge because you can get pretty far into a conversation before you figure out who is talking. I figured out the mystery pretty early. I couldn't be sure, so that kept me listening.
There are a lot of negative comments about the narrator. I thought she was okay. She matched the story, kind of a mess. She tried to do a Louisiana accent, but she sounded more like a character from Mark Twain's books at times. I think she tried too hard sometimes. The worst part about the narrator is her inability to do voices that you can differentiate. However this book had so many characters, that might be asking too much unless you use multiple narrators.
Solid 3 stars.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-24-16
A really good thriller...
A book that was hard to put down. I loved the narrator too. At times seemed to drag a little for me, but all in all I did enjoy it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen L. Nelson
- 11-28-23
Okay
I found this book hard to follow. Lots of back and forth among characters. The narrator was good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!