
The Shadow Key
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Richard Harrington
About this listen
“The Shadow Key ushers us into Gothic darkness. . . . What sets this novel above your run-of-the-mill Gothic dread-fest is Stokes-Chapman’s skillful deployment . . . and above all, narrator Richard Harrington’s masterly performance. A Welshman himself, Harrington has a beautiful, dark brushy voice that alters in pitch to capture men and women and darkens as the perfidy and malevolence unfold. He brings such lyric grace to the occasional Welsh-language passages that they become as haunting and seductive as music.” — The Washington Post
On an isolated estate in late-eighteenth-century rural Wales, a young English doctor uncovers dangerous secrets that may threaten his own life in this spellbinding Gothic tale from the bestselling author of Pandora.
Dismissed from his post at a prestigious London hospital, Dr. Henry Talbot has little choice but to accept a mysterious offer of employment as a private physician from an inscrutable lord in rural Wales, Lord Julian. Arriving at Plas Helyg, the isolated estate, Henry can’t speak the language and finds himself treated with hostile suspicion by superstitious villagers, whose beliefs in myths and magic he’s inclined to dismiss. But when he discovers that his predecessor died under peculiar, inexplicable circumstances, his determination to uncover the truth leads him down a path fraught with danger—made all the more perilous by his headstrong, reluctant ally Linette, Lord Julian’s cousin.
Linette has lived a lonely life as Plas Helyg’s unconventional mistress: Julian treats her with disdain, her father is long dead, and her mother, long plagued by strange spells and believed by everyone around her to be deeply unwell, spends most of her time locked away in her rooms. Fiercely self-reliant, Linette refuses to wear women’s clothes, has no interest in marriage, and takes an interest in the welfare of the men working in Lord Julian’s mines, against his wishes.
Linette has always suspected something is not quite right in the village, but it is only through Henry's dogged investigations that the dark truth about those closest to her will come to light—a truth that will bind hers and Henry's destinies together forever in ways neither thought possible.
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Story
1940 - Stasia always found comfort in the idyllic French countryside where she spent her childhood summers, roaming the gardens of an old chateau and finding inspiration for fairy tales full of bravery and adventure. But these days are much darker, and with Nazis storming across Europe, she soon finds herself one of the most hunted agents of the Resistance. The only safe haven she can think of is Chateau de Montissaire. But she’s about to discover that it just may be the center of her biggest mission yet.
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Leaned so much about resistance in Normandy
- By paula wright on 08-02-23
By: Kelly Bowen
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Gods of Howl Mountain
- By: Taylor Brown
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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In Gods of Howl Mountain, award-winning author Taylor Brown explores a world of folk healers, whiskey-runners, and dark family secrets in the high country of 1950s North Carolina. Bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood - a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted 1940 Ford coupe.
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Appalatia Noir
- By meanwhile on 09-18-18
By: Taylor Brown
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The Story of the Forest
- By: Linda Grant
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1913 when Mina, the young and carefree daughter of a Jewish merchant, roams into a forest on the edge of the Baltic Sea looking for mushrooms. Instead, she encounters a gang of unruly, charismatic Bolsheviks—an adventure that will become the stuff of familial lore for generations to come. Intending to save her from further corruption, and in an act that forever changes the trajectory of their family’s life, Mina and her eldest brother, Jossel, board a ship to England.
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Beautiful story connecting to Jewish History.
- By kathy lipchutz on 11-17-24
By: Linda Grant
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Wolf at the Table
- By: Adam Rapp
- Narrated by: Paul Sparks
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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As late summer 1951 descends on Elmira, New York, Myra Larkin, thirteen, the oldest child of a large Catholic family, meets a young man she believes to be Mickey Mantle. He chats her up at a local diner and gives her a ride home. The matter consumes her until later that night, when a triple homicide occurs just down the street, opening a specter of violence that will haunt the Larkins for half a century.
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extraordinary writing.
- By michelle martinez on 05-23-24
By: Adam Rapp
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The Day Tripper
- By: James Goodhand
- Narrated by: James Meunier
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1995, and Alex Dean has it all: a spot at Cambridge University next year, the love of an amazing woman named Holly and all the time in the world ahead of him. That is until a brutal encounter with a ghost from his past sees him beaten, battered and almost drowning in the Thames. He wakes the next day to find he’s in a messy, derelict room he’s never seen before, in grimy clothes he doesn’t recognize, with no idea of how he got there. A glimpse in the mirror tells him he’s older—much older—and has been living a hard life, his features ravaged by time and poor decisions.
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Can you change your life?
- By Lynda Engler on 12-19-24
By: James Goodhand
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The Lost for Words Bookshop
- A Novel
- By: Stephanie Butland
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Loveday Cardew prefers books to people. If you look carefully, you might glimpse the first lines of the novels she loves most tattooed on her skin. But there are some things Loveday will never, ever show you. Into her hiding place - the bookstore where she works - come a poet, a lover, and three suspicious deliveries. Someone has found out about her mysterious past. Will Loveday survive her own heartbreaking secrets?
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I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
- By Tammy on 11-09-18
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The Burning Chambers
- A Novel
- By: Kate Mosse
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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France, 1562. War sparks between the Catholics and Huguenots, dividing neighbors, friends, and family - meanwhile, 19-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: "She knows that you live." Before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, she meets a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon. Piet has a dangerous task of his own, and he will need Minou’s help if he is to stay alive.
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Another great read
- By Chester Johnson on 07-10-19
By: Kate Mosse
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A Queen in Hiding
- By: Sarah Kozloff
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Four books. Four months. Nine Realms. Exiled and hunted, Cerulia, Princess of Weirandale, knows she has one destiny. Her enemies failed to kill her, and no one harboring her is safe. Raised in obscurity, she has no resources, no army, nothing that can help her against her enemies. Except their gods.
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Polarizing Narrator, Excellent Tale
- By totallysighman on 04-27-20
By: Sarah Kozloff
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Black Butterflies
- A Novel
- By: Priscilla Morris
- Narrated by: Rachel Atkins, Priscilla Morris
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect makeshift barricades, splitting the city into ethnic enclaves. Each morning, the people who live there—whether Muslim, Croat, or Serb—push the barriers aside. When violence erupts and becomes, finally, unavoidable, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety in England. She stays behind, reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a few weeks. As the city falls under siege, everything she loves about her home is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops.
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Beautiful prose -simple story
- By Cco on 02-10-25
By: Priscilla Morris
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This Fatal Kiss
- By: Alicia Jasinska
- Narrated by: Kristyna Ruth Zaharek
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Cursed to haunt the river running through the magical spa town where she drowned, Gisela is a water nymph who dreams of returning to the living world and the family she left behind. All it takes to regain her humanity is a kiss from a mortal...but everyone sees her as a monster. And then there’s Kazik, the brooding, interfering, spirit-hunting grandson of a local witch. He's determined to rid the world of unholy creatures like Gisela. After Kazik botches Gisela’s exorcism, she strikes up a deal.
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It's so good!
- By Nicole on 05-19-25
By: Alicia Jasinska
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Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen
- By: Sarah Bird
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Powerful, epic, and compelling, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen shines light on a nearly forgotten figure in history. Cathy Williams was born and lived a slave - until the Union army comes and destroys the only world she’s known. Separated from her family, she makes the impossible decision - to fight in the army disguised as a man with the Buffalo Soldiers. With courage and wit, Cathy must not only fight for her survival and freedom in the ultimate man’s world, but never give up on her mission to find her family, and the man she loves.
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A Missed Opportunity
- By M Jones on 11-01-18
By: Sarah Bird
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The Crescent Moon Tearoom
- A Novel
- By: Stacy Sivinski
- Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since the untimely death of their parents, Anne, Beatrix, and Violet Quigley have made a business of threading together the stories that rest in the swirls of ginger, cloves, and cardamon that lie at the bottom of their customers’ cups. Their days at the teashop are filled with talk of butterflies and good fortune intertwined with the sound of cinnamon shortbread being snapped by laced fingers. That is, until the Council of Witches comes calling with news that the city Diviner has lost her powers, and the sisters suddenly find themselves being pulled in different directions.
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Loved the story, not the reader.
- By TyeAz on 10-14-24
By: Stacy Sivinski
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The Bookbinder of Jericho
- A Novel
- By: Pip Williams
- Narrated by: Annabelle Tudor
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrowboat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press.
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A superbly narrated insight into women's life on the home front during WW I.
- By Bill Hill on 01-03-24
By: Pip Williams
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The Hazel Wood
- By: Melissa Albert
- Narrated by: Rebecca Soler, James Fouhey
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away - by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: "Stay away from the Hazel Wood."
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dark and modern fairytale
- By Stephanie on 02-02-18
By: Melissa Albert
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The Orchid
- The Secret Code of Modern Goddesses
- By: Rocio Aquino, Angel Orengo
- Narrated by: Robin McAlpine
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Embark on a transformative auditory journey with “The Orchid: The Secret Code of Modern Goddesses,” where the serene whispers of self-discovery meet the echoes of empowerment.
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Finalmente sané heridas que no había querido sentir
- By Dore ferriz on 10-08-24
By: Rocio Aquino, and others
Enjoyable Read
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Slow burn!
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So fun!
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Don't Hesitate, Well Worth a Credit!
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Dark academia perfection
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it isn't what I expected, but still an enjoyable listen.
If you like old time mysteries with many unexpected twists, you'll enjoy this story.
A good way to pass the time
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