
The House on Vesper Sands
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Narrated by:
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Charles Armstrong
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By:
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Paraic O'Donnell
About this listen
With all the wit of a Jane Austen novel and a case as beguiling as any in Sherlock Holmes' casebook, Paraic O'Donnell introduces a detective duo for the ages and slowly unlocks the secrets of a startling Victorian mystery.
London, 1893: High up in a house on a dark, snowy night, a lone seamstress stands by a window. So begins the swirling, serpentine world of Paraic O'Donnell's Victorian-inspired mystery, the story of a city cloaked in shadow but burning with questions: Why does the seamstress choose to jump out of that window? Why is there a cryptic message sewn into her skin? And how is she connected to a rash of missing girls, all of whom seem to have disappeared under similar circumstances?
On the case is Gideon Bliss, a young Cambridge dropout who is in love with one of the missing girls, and his partner, Inspector Cutter, a detective as sharp and committed to his work as he is wryly hilarious. There's also Octavia Hillingdon, a young reporter determined to tell stories that feel important despite her employer's preference that she write a women's society column.
By turns clever, surprising, and impossible to pause, The House on Vesper Sands peels back the mystery layer by layer, offering in the strange undertow of late 19th-century London a startling glimpse at the secrets we all hold inside us.
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Excellent Read, Terrific Reader
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Was expecting a mystery
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Convoluted
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Weird
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The narration is fantastic and adds a next level shiver to the story. The setting of Victorian London, the oppressive class system, and historical references, add depth and context to an already strong story.
All I can say is I hope this won’t be the last “special assignment” for Cutter and Bliss.
Excellent mystery with supernatural underpinning
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Interesting story - can be hard to follow
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Similar to some other reviewers I don’t know that the second narrator (in the story, Octavia) was necessary and the end didn’t come together as well as I’d imagined it could have. Overall though it was great! I would say if you’re not familiar with this style of writing it can take a little longer to process initially.
A fun immersive read
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Silly narration, will read instead
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Immediately engaging
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What a grand surprise.
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