
The Quick
A Novel
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 $24.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Simon Slater
-
By:
-
Lauren Owen
About this listen
An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London
1892: James Norbury, a shy would-be poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Through this new friendship, he is introduced to the drawing-rooms of high society and finds love in an unexpected quarter. Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Alarmed, his sister, Charlotte, sets out from their crumbling country estate determined to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine city that greets her, she uncovers a hidden, supernatural world populated by unforgettable characters: A female rope walker turned vigilante, a street urchin with a deadly secret, and the chilling "Doctor Knife". But the answer to her brother's disappearance ultimately lies within the doors of the exclusive, secretive Aegolius Club, whose predatory members include the most ambitious, and most bloodthirsty, men in England.
In her first novel, Lauren Owen has created a fantastical world that is both beguiling and terrifying. The Quick will establish her as one of fiction's most dazzling talents.
Named one of the Top-10 Literary Fiction Books of the Season by Publishers Weekly
©2014 Lauren Owen (P)2014 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Small Angels
- A Novel
- By: Lauren Owen
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Tamsin Kennard, Rebecca Lee, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucia and her sisters grew up on the edge of Mockbeggar Woods. They knew it well—its danger, but also its beauty. As a lonely teenager, Kate was drawn to these sisters, who were unlike anyone she’d ever met. But when they brought her into the woods, something dark was awakened, and Kate has never been able to escape the terrible truth of what happened there. Now, Kate is returning home for the first time in years—for Sam and Chloe’s wedding. But the woods are stirring again, and Kate must reconnect with Lucia, her first love, to protect Chloe, the village, and herself.
-
-
Dark and poetic
- By Heather on 08-10-22
By: Lauren Owen
-
Relic
- Pendergast, Book 1
- By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human.... But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.
-
-
Non-Perishable
- By Snoodely on 05-26-10
By: Douglas Preston, and others
-
Still Life
- Chief Inspector Gamache, Book 1
- By: Louise Penny
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.
-
-
A rare find
- By Alex on 01-16-15
By: Louise Penny
-
Magpie Murders
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Samantha Bond, Allan Corduner
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the best-selling crime writer for years, she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan's traditional formula has proved hugely successful.
-
-
A British Whodunit
- By Sara on 07-24-17
By: Anthony Horowitz
-
The Priory of the Orange Tree
- By: Samantha Shannon
- Narrated by: Liyah Summers
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
-
-
In a word, WOW
- By Kevin Potter on 03-09-19
By: Samantha Shannon
-
Mexican Gothic
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
-
-
Lacking, Disappointing, Not Developed
- By Bitten and Seven Forever on 07-10-20
-
Small Angels
- A Novel
- By: Lauren Owen
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Tamsin Kennard, Rebecca Lee, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucia and her sisters grew up on the edge of Mockbeggar Woods. They knew it well—its danger, but also its beauty. As a lonely teenager, Kate was drawn to these sisters, who were unlike anyone she’d ever met. But when they brought her into the woods, something dark was awakened, and Kate has never been able to escape the terrible truth of what happened there. Now, Kate is returning home for the first time in years—for Sam and Chloe’s wedding. But the woods are stirring again, and Kate must reconnect with Lucia, her first love, to protect Chloe, the village, and herself.
-
-
Dark and poetic
- By Heather on 08-10-22
By: Lauren Owen
-
Relic
- Pendergast, Book 1
- By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human.... But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.
-
-
Non-Perishable
- By Snoodely on 05-26-10
By: Douglas Preston, and others
-
Still Life
- Chief Inspector Gamache, Book 1
- By: Louise Penny
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.
-
-
A rare find
- By Alex on 01-16-15
By: Louise Penny
-
Magpie Murders
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Samantha Bond, Allan Corduner
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the best-selling crime writer for years, she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan's traditional formula has proved hugely successful.
-
-
A British Whodunit
- By Sara on 07-24-17
By: Anthony Horowitz
-
The Priory of the Orange Tree
- By: Samantha Shannon
- Narrated by: Liyah Summers
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
-
-
In a word, WOW
- By Kevin Potter on 03-09-19
By: Samantha Shannon
-
Mexican Gothic
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
-
-
Lacking, Disappointing, Not Developed
- By Bitten and Seven Forever on 07-10-20
-
Warrior Girl Unearthed
- By: Angeline Boulley
- Narrated by: Isabella Star LaBlanc
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep. Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all. But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes.
-
-
Captivating!!
- By Nova❤ on 06-01-23
By: Angeline Boulley
-
The Year of the Witching
- By: Alexis Henderson
- Narrated by: Brianna Colette
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet's word is law, Immanuelle Moore's very existence is blasphemy. Her mother's union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement. But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches.
-
-
Meh
- By Elizabeth F. Therneau on 09-15-20
By: Alexis Henderson
-
The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
-
-
Great buildup to nowhere
- By Nifty Hokie15 on 04-03-18
-
A Discovery of Witches
- A Novel
- By: Deborah Harkness
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 23 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
-
-
A feast for the mind and imagination
- By Barbara on 02-21-11
By: Deborah Harkness
-
The Passage
- A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)
- By: Justin Cronin
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Adenrele Ojo, Abby Craden
- Length: 36 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born". An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy - abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued, and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape - but he can’t stop society’s collapse.
-
-
You love it or you hate it...
- By Nikki on 06-23-10
By: Justin Cronin
-
The Paris Winter
- By: Imogen Robertson
- Narrated by: Rebecca Night
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academie to paint, and to flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all her courage to escape, but Paris, she quickly realizes, is no place for a light purse. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling decadence of the Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving, and dreading another cold Paris winter, Maud is hired by Christian Morel as companion to his beautiful, young sister, Sylvie. But Sylvie, Maud discovers, is not quite the darling she seems.
-
-
A good one
- By Dustie K. Robeson on 04-14-15
By: Imogen Robertson
-
The Golem and the Jinni
- A Novel
- By: Helene Wecker
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
-
-
Enchanting Debut Novel - Delicious!
- By Tango on 04-26-13
By: Helene Wecker
-
Into the Water
- A Novel
- By: Paula Hawkins
- Narrated by: Laura Aikman, Daniel Weyman, Imogen Church, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely 15-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from - a place to which she vowed she'd never return.
-
-
Don't Hold Your Breath
- By Mel on 05-07-17
By: Paula Hawkins
-
Clockwork Angel
- The Infernal Devices, Book 1
- By: Cassandra Clare
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 16-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.
-
-
Melodramatic teenage story in an intriguing world
- By Luke on 09-15-11
By: Cassandra Clare
-
The Little Shop of Found Things: A Novel
- Found Things, Book 1
- By: Paula Brackston
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Xanthe has always had an affinity with some of the antiques she finds. When she touches them, she can sense something of the past they come from and the stories they hold. When she has an intense connection to a beautiful silver chatelaine, she has to know more. It is while she’s examining the chatelaine that she’s transported back to the 17th century, where it has its origins. She discovers there is an injustice in its history. The spirit that inhabits her new home confronts her and charges her with saving her daughter’s life, threatening to take Flora’s if she fails.
-
-
unavoidable disappointing ending
- By Adam Tobi Smith on 11-12-18
By: Paula Brackston
-
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
- By: Theodora Goss
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents' deaths, is curious about the secrets of her father's mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father's former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture...a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes. But her hunt leads her to Hyde's daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns.
-
-
Cute, erratic, sloppy but not without charm
- By Rachel on 07-07-17
By: Theodora Goss
-
The Bane Chronicles
- By: Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Rees Brennan
- Narrated by: Various
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This collection of 11 short stories illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality, flamboyant style, and sharp wit populate the pages of the #1 New York Times best-selling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices.
-
-
Great sleeping pill.
- By Linda Wiliams on 03-05-15
By: Cassandra Clare, and others
Critic reviews
"A suspenseful, gloriously atmospheric first novel, and a feast of gothic storytelling that is impossible to resist." (Kate Atkinson, best-selling author of Life After Life and Case Histories)
"A cracking good read.... Owen takes the gothic conventions of the vampire novel in a refreshing new direction." (Deborah Harkness, author of A Discovery of Witches and The Book of Life)
"Reading the blurbs on the dust jacket of Lauren Owen’s first novel - from such luminaries as Kate Atkinson, Hilary Mantel, and Tana French - readers might think they’re about to embark on a high-handed version of the Gothic novel, full of metafictions and literary allusions. These do appear, along with some beautiful language, but by Page 100, when the first neck is about to be bitten, The Quick drops its cloak and becomes a good old-fashioned vampire novel.... [It’s full of] wonderful inventions, while still providing the torn collars and hungry looks the genre demands.... What fun." (The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice)
Not bad but not for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
28 chapters before this book sings
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not my cup of tea
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
not my favorite
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A lot of potential but fizzles out halfway through.
Disappointing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Would you try another book from Lauren Owen and/or Simon Slater?
I enjoyed Simon Slater's narration and would enjoy listening to more from him. I will also give other works by Lauren Owen a listen, but this story felt like the author had great plans and then didn't know what to do with it when they got it there.What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The most interesting aspect was that of the "monster hunters" and "Dr Knife". The least interesting were the failed/ruined relationships throughout the book.Have you listened to any of Simon Slater’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not listened to Simon Slater prior to this, but his vocal style is enjoyable.Was The Quick worth the listening time?
In my opinion it was not. It tried to be many different things when it should have just picked a core personality and grew it into something. At many times it felt like it was structured similar to be Bram Stokers Dracula with its many stories/letters/journals from different characters perspectives helping to tell the narrative, but I wasn't made to feel for any of these characters. What could have been unique and interesting characters and story arcs are just abandoned to wrap up the novel with a relationship of circumstance which withers and dies much like the story.It failed to entertain me and felt scattered
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mixed Reaction
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Well, it would have to have a cohesive storyline, continuity of action, and be a lot less confusing ... and alas, less boring. I found it a waste of my time. Very disappointed. The narrator was great, which is the only reason I followed it to the end.Any additional comments?
It's just not a very interesting story. Seems more like someone decided to try to copy other popular vampire stories, but utterly failed.The Quick: A Novel
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What would have made The Quick better?
What would have made The Quick better? Less words.Would you ever listen to anything by Lauren Owen again?
Don't know. I'm sure there will be Book 2, but will probably not read it.Have you listened to any of Simon Slater’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Narration is great. Wasted on this book.You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
The last 5th if the bookAny additional comments?
NoneGosh
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Could have been so much better
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.