Listen to Best Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Historical Popular Authors

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Title: The Confabulist

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Steven Galloway

Narrator: Jason Culp

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-01-14

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, an exciting new novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a tale of magic, intrigue, and illusion.

What is real and what is an illusion? Can you trust your memory to provide an accurate record of what has happened in your life?

The Confabulist is a clever , entertaining, and suspenseful narrative that weaves together the rise and fall of world-famous Harry Houdini with the surprising story of Martin Strauss, an unknown man whose fate seems forever tied to the magicians in a way that will ultimately startle and amaze. It is at once a vivid portrait of an alluring, late-19th/early-20th-century world; a front-row seat to a world-class magic show; and an unexpected love story. In the end, the book is a kind of magic trick in itself: There is much more to Martin than meets the eye.

Historically rich and ingeniously told, this is a novel about magic and memory, truth and illusion, and the ways that love, hope, grief, and imagination can - for better or for worse - alter what we perceive and believe.

Members Reviews:

A good deal of the book is a highly fictionalized story ...

A good deal of the book is a highly fictionalized story about Houdini. I think this will be most interesting to readers who know nothing about Houdini because it's all new to them. Even if Houdini's life weren't fictionalized, his life is a good story, and Galloway explains some of his methods. However, the narrator is a very flat character, and it doesn't jibe that a person with false memories of Houdini would have the knowledge of an omniscient narrator. Apparently, there's supposed to be a similarity between Houdini's faults and the narrator's faults, but I don't see that. The theme of truth and illusion isn't well explored. It's a quick read.

Now this is an interesting read - If one is ...

Now this is an interesting read - If one is interested in the mechanics of magic tricks this could be the novel for you - if one is interested in a thriller using the celebrity Houdini as a foil then this could be the novel for you - no matter, what your choice is, it would be favorable time spent reading - one caveat I have about novels using extensive research about a subject not having anything to do with the author, other than to tell a fictionalized story on the subject, is, I am frustrated by the lack of personal involvement and emotional involvement vis a vis a Hemingway or Fitzgerald or Faulkner -

If you're a fan of magic like I am

An intriguing story that combines fact and fiction around the life of Erich Weiss, aka Harry Houdini. For me the story fell apart toward the end, with a surprise reveal that, well, wasn't entirely a surprise. If you're a fan of magic like I am, it is a fascinating read nonetheless. If magicians and illusions are not your things, this story will disappear from your mind like...well, like magic.

Twisted Ending

I almost gave this book 3 stars instead of 4 ... because of its conclusion. It was a good read right up until the end. The ending unhappily forced me to completely re-think the plot. Perhaps others will like or, even love, the ending, which is a real twist.

I have been very happy with Steven Galloway's OTHER books, all of which I'd give 5 stars.

Entertaining and thought provoking!

I'm a big fan of Galloway's work - including this, his latest effort.

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Title: Highland Hawk

Author: Lois Greiman

Narrator: Gemma Johansson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-22-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Scotland, 1524

Known as the Hawk, ruggedly handsome Haydn McGowan is the most loyal and fearsome warrior in the kings guard. Invulnerable to the temptations of boozing and women, Haydn shares his secrets with no one

Until the enchanting Catriona, a gypsy lass, enters the castle to perform with her family and troop for the young King James. Sensuous, erotic and wild, Cat is everything that Haydn shuns in his life as a warrior. But try as he might, Haydn cant resist the charms of this alluring girleven though hes certain shes hiding secrets of her own.

Its true that Catriona is on a mission, a desperate one at thatand the man standing in her way is a very big and decidedly sexy obstacle. Seduction is her game and, surely, this rugged soldier wont be too much of a challenge

But an unexpected passion grows between the gypsy lass and the single-minded hero - a passion and sensual love that neither wants to ignore. Each has secrets worth hiding, but so much more to lose if they cant reveal their hearts

Critic Reviews:

An emotional, romantic triumph! (Romantic Times)"Greiman's writing is warm, witty and gently wise." (New York Times best-selling author Betina Krahn)

Members Reviews:

Good finale to the Highland Bride series

i had read all of the books in the Highland Brides series except for #7 Highland Hawk. It had not been available for the Kindle when I was initially looking for it. I checked my bookstore and could not get it there either. I was trying to buy it as used paperback when I found the Kindle version while looking for something else. I am so glad I found it. I wanted to finish the series.

This book brings together two characters, Hayden the Hawk McGowan and Princess Catriona the beautiful gypsy dancer, introduced earlier in the Highland Bride series for a love story of their own. Both Hayden and Catriona have strong personalities and have loyalties that are at odds with one another. Somehow despite court intrigue, danger, deception and a villain's greed love does conquer all. Several other members of the Forbes and McGowan families and Catriona's family also appear in the book.

I would recommend reading the other books in the series before reading this one as the book is more enjoyable if you know the history of the characters. I think that this more true of this book than of any of the previous ones.

Four Stars

Good

Highland Hawk Boring!

Highland Hawk was the most boring book of all the Highland Warriors books that i have read. and i have read over one hundred and thirty! I could barely wait to finish it as I never quit reading until i have finished a book. i kept waiting for it to get better but it was the same all the way through. If you want to chance it, by all means go ahead, our views may be much different i like a good sexy, real adventure story. Haydon, The Guard of the young king of Scots and Cat The gypsy girl, were just plain boring! Enough said. I'm sorry that i wasted my time.

Another Great Get Away

A favorite time period and place of mine to read about is only the beginning. The characters are colorful and will

if you have a sense of humor laughing til the tears run. Great story line and a book that you just can't put down

until you know how it will all turn out. If escape if your goal this colorful read will take you away.

book review

Best book of the series. The old man gets the young girl. The sexual content was clean.

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Title: The Visitors

Author: Sally Beauman

Narrator: Laurel Lefkow

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-08-14

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Sent abroad to Egypt in 1922, 11-year-old Lucy is caught up in the excitement that surrounds the hunt for Tutankhamun's tomb. When she meets Frances, the daughter of an American archaeologist, the two girls spy on the grown-ups and a lifelong bond is formed. Haunted by the ghosts of her past, the mistakes she made, Lucy disinters her past. And she finally comes to terms with what happened after Egypt, when Frances needed Lucy most.

Critic Reviews:

"Once you start reading a Beauman book, you can't put it down" (Guardian)

Members Reviews:

A sad, sad, sad story

This book was probably the saddest I have ever listened to - The Street by McCarthy being a close second.

The story is that of 11-year old Lucy who loses her mother in a typhoid infection that leaves her on death' door. To distract her, her father, being an absent, disparaging, misanthropic Cambridge scholar, ships her off to Egypt with a nurse/governess in the year 1922.

In Egypt, Lucy meets Frances, daughter of an American egyptologist. Lucy is drawn into the circle around Carter and Lord Carnarvon...

80 years onwards, a tired Lucy is being interviewed for a tv series on Tut. She reminisces about her life and the story skips from her life then and her life now.

I've said it once and I'll say it again: this book has made me cry buckets. I wept. It is not chick-lit, nor uplifting as, say, Major Pettigrew. But it describes life as it is. In this case, a life full of losses, deaths, departures and sadness.

Lucy is eye-witness to one of the greatest archeological finds of all times, and through her (flawlessly researched) eyes I too was witnessing the now lost Egypt of a hundred years ago. She isn't one of the persons on the center stage, but she is there, one the fringes, watching and observing. It made me long to go there, to glimpse what is left.

I had my issues with the story as well: Lucy practically never speaks or comments, so I never really got a feeling of her. She remained a canvas for the other people. Somebody to be spoken to, to have adventures with, yet she herself remains strangely inexistent.

The other thing, kind of spoilery: The last hours of the book wrap up the first third of her life, adding more losses, more tragedy, and I was left to wonder how anyone could live on like that for another 60 years. It is not being mentioned what she did in this time, but it can't have been happy, or Lucy wouldn't have been the person she was at the age of ninety-something.

Even so, full five stars for making me feel as depressed and hopeless as rarely before.

A gem of a book

I didnt know what to expect but was rewarded with over 20 hours of captivating story-telling. Its an excellent historical novel that gives a revealing account of the discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb through the eyes of a fictional character, Lucy Payne, whose imagined life-story adds emotional depth to the book.

The book starts with an aged Lucy being quizzed for details by a film-maker preparing a documentary about the momentous discovery, but soon reverts to 1922 with an 11 year old Lucy witnessing the discovery. Her first-hand account brings to life those actually involved in the search and the conditions under which the archeologists worked. I was drawn into Lucys imagined life as she matured into adulthood and her path crossed over the decades with those she met in Egypt.

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Title: Blue Bullet

Subtitle: The Horsemen, Book 4

Author: Gary McCarthy

Narrator: Maynard Villers

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-14-14

Publisher: Books In Motion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Ruff Ballou and his sister Dixie journeyed west with trouble at their heels. But luck is on their side in Rum River, New Mexico, where they race one of their champion thoroughbreds to victory. A rich mans greed pits their good fortune against Ruffs life and they must take up a money-making challenge to capture Blue Bullet, the legendary stallion that no man has yet tamed. But their worst enemy is time. A bounty has been placed on Blue Bullet, dead or alive, and savage killers are out to collect that reward.

Members Reviews:

Believable. Enjoyable and Engrossing.

I'm writing a review on this book, but really only using it to cover all of this series. I've read every Gary McCarthy book available on Amazon. That should tell you my opinion of them but, just in case it doesn't, I thoroughly enjoy Mr. McCarthy's books and will be looking forward to more. He writes action without centering solely on graphic gore and installs romance without depending on purient sex. I appreciate his ability to build his characters into believable people to whom the reader is able to relate. If you enjoy western novels you will certainly enjoy any and all of Mr. McCarthy's works.

Exceptional Series

I can't stop reading these books. It will be a big letdown when they finally end. Maximum excitement and it just never ends. As good as it gets.

Blue

When a horse gets used to running free, no amount of training can tame him. Especially if he is a stallion with a large following of mares. This book is another great story in The Horseman Series.

Fun reading about their struggles and adventures as they try ...

Rufus and Dixie get into more trouble than I have ever seen! Maybe too proud of the South and their thoroughbred farm during the war, struggle to get to Denver to start over with horse breeding. Ruff can't keep his mouth shut and Dixie at the age of 15 has a lot to learn about people. Fun reading about their struggles and adventures as they try to get to Denver, Colorado to start the breeding farm again. I must say I will be very sad if I don't see another book by Gary as I want to follow them to Denver and watch them grow the new breeding farm and be a success! Gary......................I am waiting. Don't make me have to track you down!

From and by Barbara

Blue Bullet the second book in the Horseman series, just got through reading it. A very interesting, good story! I don't know who stuck out in my mind the most of the secondary characters, Jack Guinn, the richest man in Rum River and boss , Dick Hastings or Starving -----Bear. I'm sorry I can't remember the middle name. They are all very highly interesting people! Mr. McCarthy makes them all stand out without taking anything away from the main characters, Ruff and Dixie. I highly recommend this book! You will really enjoy this western tale!

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Title: The Chemist

Subtitle: Based on a True Story

Author: Chris Blewitt

Narrator: Zachary Wilson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-18-14

Publisher: Chris Blewitt

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Charlie White leads a simple life in 1920s Philadelphia as a chemist at the Dupont Corporation. One day, as he's walking home from work, he is approached by two men and is forced into the world of bootlegging, corruption and murder. When tragedy strikes, Charlie must decide whether to continue his double-life or tell the world his story before it's too late. The Chemist is based on a true story during Prohibition.

Members Reviews:

A lot of mistakes for such a short book

Verb tense wanders from past to present in the middle of paragraphs, often.

Dialogue is dull, characters are flat and stereotypes.

A character refers to Superman at least 5 years before the comic came out.

Were there blinking Christmas tree lights on trees in public hospitals during Prohibition? (Did lights blink then)?

And so on.

Don't pay for it.

Chris Blewitt--The Chemist

Chris Blewitt has written a riveting short story titled The Chemist, which is based on true events. Inspired by an article "The Chemist's War," written by Deborah Blum, a writer for Slate Magazine, who recounts the government's poisoning of alcohol during Prohibition as a means of deterring people from drinking the illegally made liquor, Blewitt has created an enthralling short story that places the reader at the center of this controversy and allows the reader to experience the events as if he or she was there in the thick of it.

Blewitt's story is set Philadelphia in the 1920's during Prohibition. The main character Charlie works as an industrial chemist for the Dupont Corporation. The story opens with an intense chase scene, causing Charlie to end up in the hospital. He is then forced to make a decision that, if agreed to, would set his brother free of prison. He doesn't realize his decision would have dire consequences until too late, his life as well as the lives of hundreds of others being changed forever. The story ends with his desire to rectify the problem that he has helped to create.

At the end of the short story, Blewitt offers an interview with Anne Helmenstine, a scientist and scientific writer, who explains how moonshine was made during the 1920's. She notes that certain types of alcohol can be used for human consumption while other types are poisonous. She adds that during Prohibition government officials, as a means of deterring bootleg alcohol consumption, added poisonous substances to the alcohol.

Blewitt's short story, The Chemist, is a very interesting and informative read, revealing some of the horrors of consuming bootleg liquor during Prohibition, incidents that were not widely reported on during that time. This story is a must-read for history buffs.

Great glimpse into prohibition

Fascinating look at 1920's "bathtub gin" era. I remember my mom telling me that many people went blind drinking bootleg booze. I wasn't aware of this part of it, though, so I was really interested and it makes me want to know more. Very good writing and kept me interested throughout.

Five Stars

Loved it

Good book for teens

This ebook is a historic novel about a time in American history. A time when a country tried to change the habits of its citizens. Fast moving and well written.

Buy, read/listen, rate and write your review, your opinion is important, as it gives many others a clue as too an ebook.

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Title: The Day of the Butterfly

Author: Norah Lofts

Narrator: Annie Aldington

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-03-14

Publisher: Soundings

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

When Daisy Holt was dismissed from her post as a nursemaid she set off cheerfully into the jungle of mid-Victorian London. When Kitty Hammond, proprietress of the select establishment off Leicester Square discovered her she was quick to realise that Daisy has a rare talent and would make a successful entertainer. And there it was that she met the impoverished artist John Skelton. To him Daisy represented the perfect model the one to inspire his work. But Daisy fell completely and hopelessly in love with him a love which was to launch her on a stormy career in which luxury, admiration and suffering were all to play a part

Members Reviews:

Very enjoyable. Glad I read it.

Daisy, the main character, seems to be rescued from poverty by her physical beauty more than anything else, but as she gets older (in this case, older doesn't mean wiser) she begins to get into a situation that makes you wondering if she'll ever find happiness...in any form at all.

Nora Lofts has so much class! I'd recommend this story just so another person could enjoy an elegant writing style. The story itself is very good, though, and you'll pull for Daisy throughout.

My favorite books by this author: The Townhouse, and How Far to Bethlehem.

Modern Classic

Historically accurate, fast paced and very enjoyable. Daisy, 15, a simple country girl is soon turned away from her new position in Victorian London. Her May Day celebration in the street and her spirited defense of her pagan abandonment are offensive to her employer as are her supreme beauty and grace. In all innocence she enters a fashonable brothal in search of "a place to sleep." It is soon apparent to Madame Kitty that she has considerable talent and is employed as an entertainer with a new name "Hebe" (Goddess of youth and spring, cupbearer to the Olympian gods). But this is a tragedy... So it is her glory (her passionate nature) which is her undoing. Of course, one must remember that a tragedy may yet end well, or at least ambiguously. I expect this book will increase in reputation over time, although today it is relatively unrecognized.

Delightful Story

This book is about Daisy, an extremely beautiful woman who finds herself out of work in London during the 1700s. By mistake she finds herself in Kitty's place, a reputable brothel. Unfortunately our heroine is not the brightest, and has no understanding of what is going on around her. She thinks that she is in a hotel! She is adventually rescued from her plight before her reputation is permanently damaged. She then bumbles from one distaster to another. This book is fun to read, and like all Norah Lofts books-relaxing. It isn't very taxing to read, but it is a great book anyhow. The only down side to the book is that the main female character, Daisy, is an idiot.

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Title: Thimble of Soil

Subtitle: A Woman's Quest for Land (Trail of Thread Series, Book 2)

Author: Linda K. Hubalek

Narrator: Pam Dougherty

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-08-14

Publisher: Butterfield Books Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Follow the widowed Margaret Ralston Kennedy (a relative of the author) in this second audiobook of the Trail of Thread series, as she travels with eight of her thirteen children from Ohio to the Territory of Kansas in 1855.

Thousands of American headed west in the decade before the Civil War, but those who settled in Kansas suffered through frequent clashes between pro-slavery and free-state fractions that gripped the territory.

Told through her letters, Thimble of Soil describes the prevalent hardships and infrequent joys experienced by the hardy pioneer women of Kansas, who struggled to protect their families from terrorist raids while building new homes and new lives on the vast unbroken prairie.

Margaret was dedicated to the cause of the North, and while the male members of her family were away fighting for a free state, she valiantly defended their homestead and held their families together through the savage years of Bleeding Kansas.

Experience the terror of the fighting and the determination to endure as you stake a claim alongside the women caught in the bloody conflicts of Kansas in the 1850s.

Members Reviews:

Lovely, interesting true story.

Would you listen to Thimble of Soil again? Why?

I would listen to it again. So many interesting historical facts and so much of the actual daily lives of that time.

Any additional comments?

Linda Hubalek has a very gentle, homespun style of writing. I felt I was sitting next to her. Pam Dougherty does a marvelous job with the narration. Her voice is quite sincere and she conveys the story very, very well.

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Title: Kind One

Author: Laird Hunt

Narrator: Nick Sullivan, Robin Miles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-24-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

As a teenage girl, Ginny marries Linus Lancaster, her mother's second cousin, and moves to his Kentucky pig farm "ninety miles from nowhere." In the shadows of the lush Kentucky landscape, Ginny discovers the empty promises of Linus' "paradise" - a place where the charms of her husband fall away to reveal a troubled man and cruel slave owner. Ginny befriends the young slaves Cleome and Zinnia who work at the farm - until Linus' attentions turn to them, and she finds herself torn between her husband and only companions. The events that follow Linus' death change all three women for life.

Haunting, chilling, and suspenseful, Kind One. is a powerful tale of redemption and human endurance in antebellum America.

Laird Hunt is the author of several works of fiction and a finalist for the 2010 PEN Center USA Award in Fiction. Currently on the faculty of the University of Denver's creative writing program, he and his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, live in Boulder, Colorado, with their daughter, Eva Grace.

Editorial Reviews:

A meditation on cruelty, slavery, and memory in Antebellum south, Laird Hunts Kind One follows Ginny Lancaster who leaves Indiana to live with her new husband, Linus, in Kentucky. Linus turns out to be a brutal man, beating and raping Ginny and their two slave girls. Already wishing shed never left her family home, she learns a whole new perspective on servitude when Linus dies, leaving her alone with the girls. The audiobook jumps around in time from the early 1800s through the early 1900s, with Robin Miles setting a pensive sorrowful tone of an old woman looking back and the young woman she was making painful discoveries. Nick Sullivan performs the opening and ending pieces, bookending the piece chronologically and emotionally.

Members Reviews:

Didn't seem well concluded...

The book story line is right up my alley, but the ending didn't seem to be very satisfying. I was kind of hoping the end would bring the different perspectives together and be a good summary-not at all what you get.

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Title: The Gallery of Vanished Husbands

Author: Natasha Solomons

Narrator: Vanessa Benjamin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 08-27-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The success of The House at Tyneford made it clear that listeners adore Natasha Solomons. In The Gallery of Vanished Husbands, Solomons once again returns to an earlier era, this time to tell the story of one womans incredible life through the many portraits she inspired.

London, 1958: Its the eve of the sexual revolution, but in Juliet Montagues conservative Jewish community where only men can divorce women, she finds herself a living widow, invisible. Ever since her husband disappeared seven years ago, Juliet has been a hardworking single mother of two and unnaturally practical. But on her 30th birthday, thats all about to change. A wealthy young artist asks to paint her portrait, and Juliet, moved by the powerful desire to be seen, enters into the burgeoning art world of 1960s London, which will bring her fame, fortune, and a lifelong love affair.

Members Reviews:

A very dull book

Very dull story with very dull and flat characters. This novel had no surprises, no twists, no suspense, no mystery, no excitement. It just ambled along and was about as interesting as watching paint dry - an apt phrase since the book is about painters and their pictures, artists and their artwork.

In fact, there was very little to recommend.

Beautifully written

As are Solomons's other books, this book is beautifully written, such that the reader is almost magically drawn into each location and situation as a participant "in the room". One of Solomons's strengths in writing is to present difficult situations and follow with sensitivity the character's efforts to address the problem. Her characters never come across as victims, even in the apparently un alterable situation of not being considered divorced when the husband disappears.

WORTH THE READ

A COMBINATION OF OLD FASHION THINKING AND SELF DESIRE TO DICTATE HER OLD DESTINY. FRUSTRATING BY THE THE NEED TO GIVE BUT UNABLE TO GIVE TO THOSE CLOSES TO HER. HER FINAL DAYS ARE SAD BUT REWARDING BY THE CARING OF HER SON.

4 stars. I suspect hard-core literary critics will disagree.

About half-way through, I was giving "The Gallery of Vanished Husbands" four stars. By the final pages, I was thinking five. I finished, sat on it a while and was, in the end, back to four. I suspect hard-core literary critics will disagree.

Natasha Solomons does a great job of developing protagonist Juliet Montague's life over a span of 48 years with plenty of backstory. Juliet, who grew up in a tight-knit Jewish community in the London suburbs had a rebellious streak from the start. It was not a total surprise that she chose to marry a stranger--or that, after fathering a son and daughter, the man mysteriously disappeared, leaving Juliet as a gossiped about "aguna," a woman whose husband deserted without a divorce. Needless to say, her prospects of living happily ever after are dreary.

Everything begins to change on Juliet's thirtieth birthday. On the way to buy herself the birthday present she has saved up for, a refrigerator, she stops to admire a young painter's work and ends up spending the money to have him paint her portrait.

Solomon's writing is beautiful, funny and at times profound. She is clearly knowledgeable about paintings and Jewish culture. The characters and their lives grew on me. By the end, the well-developed plot wraps up all the threads, the main characters have changed and grown in realistic ways.

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Title: The Rathbones

Author: Janice Clark

Narrator: Erin Spencer, Cassandra Campbell, Malcolm Campbell, Gabrielle De Cuir

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-06-13

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A gothic, literary adventure set in New England, Janice Clark's haunting debut chronicles 100 years of a once prosperous and now crumbling whaling family, told by its last surviving member.

Mercy Rathbone, 15 years old, is the diminutive scion of the Rathbone clan. Her father, the last in the beleaguered dynasty, has been lost at sea for seven years - ever since the last whale was seen off the coast of Naiwayonk, Connecticut. Mercy's memories of her father grow dimmer each day, and she spends most of her time in the attic hideaway of her reclusive uncle Mordecai, who teaches her the secrets of Greek history and nautical navigation through his collection of specimens and moldering books. But when a strange, violent visitor turns up one night, Mercy and Mordecai are forced to flee the crumbling mansion and set sail on a journey that will bring them deep into the haunted history of the Rathbone family, and the reasons for its undoing.

As Mercy and Mordecai sail from island to island off the Connecticut coast, encountering dangers and mysteries, friends and foes, they untangle the knots of the Rathbone story, discovering secrets long encased in memory. They learn the history of the family's founder and patriarch, Moses Rathbone, and the legendary empire he built of ships staffed with the sons of his many, many wives. Sons who stumbled in their father's shadow, distracted by the arrival of the Stark sisters, a trio of "golden" girls, whose mesmerizing beauty may have sparked the Rathbone's decline.

From the depths of the sea to the lonely heights of the widow's walk; from the wisdom of the worn Rathbone wives to the mysterious origins of a sinking island, Mercy and Mordecai's journey will bring them to places they never thought possible. But will they piece together a possible future from the mistakes of the past, or is the once great family's fate doomed to match that of the whales themselves?

Inspired by The Odyssey by way of Edgar Allan Poe and Moby Dick, The Rathbones is an ambitious, mythic, and courageous tour de force that marks the debut of a dazzling new literary voice.

Editorial Reviews:

Editors Select, August 2013 - A gothic family epic so thick in metaphor that whats real and imagined is almost impossible to distinguish, The Rathbones is a novel you should let steep. The dream-like quality to the writing left me confused, unnerved, and unconvinced that I even liked this book. Its only after stepping away and finding myself still lost in a kind of haze that I realized it got me - hook, line, and sinker. I cant wait to hear what's bound to be a top-notch production with Erin Spencer, Cassandra Campbell, Malcolm Campbell, and Gabrielle De Cuir all taking part in a multicast performance.

Members Reviews:

If you're in the mood for some strange.

A bit strange. Some nice historic info about whaling. This family is surprisingly creepy.

Five Stars

VERY VERY GOOD

Poetically written, poorly thought out.

There was a lot of inconsistency in the plot and in how the characters reacted to things. I never even really got a feel for Mercy Rathbone, the main character.