Isabella Moon [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Laura Benedict (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2007

Two years ago, in idyllic Carystown, Kentucky, nine-year-old Isabella Moon disappeared on her way home from school. Is it just coincidence that Kate Russell, a young woman with no discernible past, arrived in town just months before Isabella’s disappearance? When Kate walks into Sheriff Bill Delaney’s office to tell him that Isabella’s ghost has led her to the child’s hidden grave, he immediately views her as a suspect. Mystery follows mystery as a local athlete drops dead, inexplicably, on the basketball court, and someone close to Kate is viciously murdered. Quiet Carystown was to be Kate’s salvation, and she’s settled into a comfortable job, a charming cottage, and a blissful romance. But having lied to her boyfriend, Caleb, for so long about the terrors of her past life, she finds she can’t trust him to understand the terror that Isabella Moon has now brought. And Kate’s best friend, Francie, is too wrapped up in her own troubles - particularly a secret affair with a man she at once loves and despises - to give Kate the help she needs. Utterly alone, Kate is torn between finding justice for the dead child and keeping away old ghosts of her own. The unsolved disappearance of Isabella Moon has been the biggest disappointment of Sheriff Delaney’s career. But he senses that Kate is trouble. As he investigates her impossible claims, he also uncovers a series of unsettling truths about Carystown itself. Behind his hometown’s genteel façade is a morass of lies and murder, drugs and destruction. And Carystown’s residents are about to discover that even though the past is buried, it can rise again - with a vengeance. Dark and suspenseful, tense and eerie, tinged with the supernatural, Isabella Moon is an engrossing, beautifully written debut novel, a breathtaking and artful story of the dark mysteries that can lurk in the most bucolic of places - and the ghost of a little girl who watches as evil rises unstoppably to the surface.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Laura Benedict’s short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and a number of anthologies. For the past decade she has worked as a freelance book reviewer for The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan and other newspapers. She lives in southern Illinois with her husband, Pinckney Benedict, and their two children. Isabella Moon is her first novel.

From AudioFile

Part ghost story and part murder mystery, this story of an unsolved child disappearance shifts between realistic novel and suspenseful mystery. Rene Raudmans flexible voice allows her to negotiate the various demands of this hybrid genre. Her ability to take on several vocal personas simultaneously keeps the constantly shifting narrative point of view clear. She uses lower tones for male characters, various distinguishable Southern accents for a variety of female ones, and an eerie quality for the ghost childs voice that interjects into the main characters thoughts. Raudmans adaptability makes this intricate narrative accessible instead of the frustrating experience it might have been. M.R. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142333437X
• ISBN-13: 978-1423334378
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Struggle to finish., August 12, 2009

By 

M. Meyers (Westernport, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Isabella Moon (Audio CD)

I listen to a lot of audiobooks on CD in my car. The story was just barely interesting enough for me to want to see how it ended. Plus, I hate paying good money for an audio book that I don't finish. But in the actual end, it wasn't worth it and I wished I had given up after the first CD. I felt it was poorly written - and even worse for the audio format because of the way the story jumped from present to past and from this character to that character without clarity. There was no clear point of view and I felt like I was being bounced around all over the place without any clear guidance of where my frame of reference for character and story should be. There was really no likeable character in the story. Maybe the author was trying to create complex characters, but it was too much. I didn't care about anyone in the story - not even the supposed "heroine." I especially hate plots about supposedly smart characters who do seriously idiotic things just to move a plot point. This book was full of that. Technically speaking, I felt it was poorly read. The Kentucky accents weren't very good. The southern accent was worse and the characterizations of the men's voices were positively annoying. It passed the time on a long drive, but just barely, and I was sorry I wasted my time on it after it was over. All in all, it was a major disappointment.