Narrator Elisabeth Rodgers voices a range of characters in this locked- room mystery. Twenty-five years ago, a student and a writing professor disappeared in the caves near Briarwood College. Alumni and faculty gather now on a December evening to honor the victims, and a snowstorm prevents them from leaving campus. The dean, once a work-study student at Briarwood who felt she didn't fit in, notices haunting similarities with the past. It's not until one alumna dies the same way a character did in a story she wrote as a student that the group really becomes frightened. Rodgers uses an excessively fearful voice for one student, but her convincing Long Island accent, raspy voice for an older character, and menacing whisper enhance the story. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
The Bones of the Story: A Novel
Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers
Carol GoodmanUnabridged — 10 hours, 2 minutes
The Bones of the Story: A Novel
Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers
Carol GoodmanUnabridged — 10 hours, 2 minutes
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Overview
The twisty locked-room mystery from two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author Carol Goodman, about a group of former classmates trapped on their college campus-with a murderer among them.
""One of the best and smartest locked-room mysteries I've read in a long time. A page-turner with both heart and brains. Don't miss it!""-David Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe and She's Gone
One by one, their pasts will reveal the deadly truth...
It's been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the double tragedy. Now, the college President is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.
On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.
When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?
Editorial Reviews
★ 05/22/2023
Goodman’s superior locked-room mystery (after The Disinvited Guest) sees college dean Nell Portman facing down a gruesome episode form her past. Nell works at upstate New York’s Briarwood College, where she herself graduated 25 years earlier. During an annual tradition in which students carry candles up a nearby mountain in recognition of the impending winter solstice, one of her students falls into a cave and finds human remains. The discovery revives the local legend of the “ice cave girl,” who’s rumored to resurface every 25 years to cannibalize a new victim—and also the mystery of one of Nell’s own classmates, who disappeared while they were in school together. Nell decides to organize a memorial for that former classmate, and a winter storm traps her and her fellow alumni on Briarwood’s campus. Then someone dies, and it’s time to suss out a murderer in their midst, reckoning with the sins of the past in the process. Goodman is superb at doling out reveals gradually, and toggling between past and present to build ample tension. Admirers of Riley Sager’s The Last Time I Lied will be enthralled. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (July)
Superior… Goodman is superb at doling out reveals gradually, and toggling between past and present to build ample tension. Admirers of Riley Sager’s The Last Time I Lied will be enthralled.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Carol Goodman's The Bones of the Story deftly and intriguingly combines a decades-old campus mystery, a powerful winter storm, and a batch of suspects and potential victims to create one of the best and smartest locked-room mysteries I've read in a long time. A page-turner with both heart and brains. Don't miss it!" — David Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe and She’s Gone
“Carol Goodman's The Bones of The Story delivers the perfect mix of dark academia and locked-room thriller vibes in a tense cat-and-mouse game where decades-old secrets haunt every page and lead to deadly consequences.” — Darby Kane, #1 International bestselling author of Pretty Little Wife
“This smooth cocktail of refreshingly chilly suspense is sure to win [Goodman] new fans.” — Publishers Weekly on The Disinvited Guest
“Goodman, a master genre-blender, has integrated elements of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s ‘had-I-but-known’ gambit and Agatha Christie’s ‘alone-on-an-island’ theme to come up with a real winner.” — Booklist (starred review) on The Disinvited Guest
“The Disinvited Guest is a tense, fever dream of a thriller in an extraordinary, atmospheric setting, gripping from first page to last. In a world under attack from a new virus, seven friends take refuge on a private, fog-drenched island where memories are both long and unreliable, illness lurks, the terrain is treacherous and even the island’s history has claws. Carol Goodman is a brilliant writer, and she shines here. Loved it.” — Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author
“[A] superior thriller…The plot takes many terrifying twists and turns en route to the surprising climax. Those with a taste for the gothic will be richly rewarded.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Stranger Behind You
“A mesmerizing narrative that culminates in a poignant ending to a brilliant journey. Gothic? Note the phantom lye and bleach stench and wait for it! Make sure fans of Shari Lapena and Alison Gaylin get their hands on this one.” — Booklist on The Stranger Behind You
Narrator Elisabeth Rodgers voices a range of characters in this locked- room mystery. Twenty-five years ago, a student and a writing professor disappeared in the caves near Briarwood College. Alumni and faculty gather now on a December evening to honor the victims, and a snowstorm prevents them from leaving campus. The dean, once a work-study student at Briarwood who felt she didn't fit in, notices haunting similarities with the past. It's not until one alumna dies the same way a character did in a story she wrote as a student that the group really becomes frightened. Rodgers uses an excessively fearful voice for one student, but her convincing Long Island accent, raspy voice for an older character, and menacing whisper enhance the story. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940176762808 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 07/11/2023 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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