Lost Among the Living
By: Simone St. James / Narrated By: Justine Eyre
Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
It looks like Simone St. James is becoming a favorite of mine!
I got a previously reviewed Simone St. James cuz it was offered in Audible Escape romance package and was free to check out. Plus that audiobook had the plus of Mary Jane Freaking Wells as narrator, so I was THERE for using it as a Halloween Listen. Because St. James adds spooky like nobody’s business.
But let’s get the narration outta the way: It’s Justine Eyre this time, and this time I was using a credit so that was a DEFinite YES for me. But I’ve gotta tell ya, Eyre is an acquired taste and from reviews on Audible, it looks like ya either love her or hate her. It’s like this, see. The woman growls the last word of each and every sentence. I get used to it after a while, and I like how she does dialogue so well. Also, in this audiobook, her male voices didn’t come out sound like they’re sneering right and left at people. Gee, the growling? the sneering? Sounds like she’s a mess! Well, she kinda sorta is, but if you get used to her voice and rhythm of speech, she’s an AWEsome narrator who adds so much to the story. So there’s that…
In Lost Among the Living, widowed Jo Manders was left fairly destitute after the death of her husband Alex who was a pilot in WWI. It’s now 1921, she’s been forced to accept the position as companion for Dottie Forsyth, Alex’s cold and judgmental aunt, and after a trip to the Continent, Jo is back in Dottie’s estate Wych Elm House. There, Jo meets Dottie’s aloof husband, whose aloofness is altered only for the length of time he can spit out something spiteful and disgusting. And she also meets Dottie’s son, Martin, who is only now, three years after the war, coming home (He’s spent years in an asylum). Wych Elm House is also the site where Dottie’s daughter committed suicide, jumping from the roof at age 15.
So NATurally, this being Simone St. James, Jo sees a young girl, dressed in gray, with a strand of pearls about her throat first thing when she enters a parlor on her own. Gotta have a good haunting for a St. James story, doncha know! Soon, Jo is having nightmares of pretty awful things, is going about in a tired-eyed haze, and finds herself in the center of a matrimonial scheme of Dottie’s—Marry Alex’s cousin Martin, so Wych Elm House may finally have it’s heir… and soon… cuz the man is ailing and ain’t long for the world…
There’s a mystery, well, a few mysteries. And y’all know I’m baaaarely getting into Mysteries as a genre. If ya don’t know: In the past, I’ve only experienced mysteries as they unfold; I’ve never ever tried to guess whodunnit, and I’ve certainly amiably snapped at each red herring as the author tosses it my way, never ever feeling manipulated by the author. I’ve been pretty laidback about my approach to Mysteries, but the more I listen to them, the more I can truly feel what other reviewers, each avid readers/listeners of mysteries say. And I’ll offer it here: If you get peeved by a climactic scene where the guilty party spills all in one fell swoop, stay away from this book (Or if you haaaate sentences that end in a growl…). I must admit that, as much as I’m “All Things Simone St. James”, there’s just that kind of scene in this story… which also happened in her book The Broken Girls. I didn’t mind it then, but now that I know what all I’m supPOSed to get peeved by, well danged if I didn’t go and notice such a scene this time.
But anyway, I liked the haunting elements, and St. James is a master storyteller, expertly crafts moody atmospherics, and even if you do figure things out about Jo and Alex’s relationship early, there’s still the great writing to keep you engaged. That characters grow in likability is a definite plus; that the ending comes with such ambiguity, well, not so much. Taken as a whole, however, I must say that I’ll soon be hitting my Audible Escape account for the one other St. James available to check out.
And that one, dear Accomplice, is narrated by none other than Mary Jane Freaking Wells!!!
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