Narrator Sarah Mollo-Christensen's grave, introspective tones are well suited to this grisly yet cerebral mystery. When Dixie Wheeler was a baby, her family was brutally murdered. Twenty-five years later, Dixie moves into her ancestral home, yearning to confront her past. Vandelly spares few details, and Mollo-Christensen vividly unfurls bloody scenes, disturbing visions, and bizarre encounters that leave listeners unsure of what is real and whom to trust. Her evocative characterizations range from antagonistic family members and well-meaning neighbors to a gruff boyfriend and the grizzled detective still hoping to solve her case. Mollo-Christensen's intonations urge listeners to stay with Dixie in her winding, dangerous search for answers. K.S.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Theme Music: A Novel
Narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen
T. Marie VandellyUnabridged — 14 hours, 28 minutes
Theme Music: A Novel
Narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen
T. Marie VandellyUnabridged — 14 hours, 28 minutes
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Overview
She didn't run from her dark past. She moved in.
*
For the lucky among us, life is what you make of it; but for Dixie Wheeler, the theme music for her story was chosen by another long ago, on the day her father butchered her mother and brothers and then slashed a knife across his own throat. Only one-year-old Dixie was spared, becoming infamously known as Baby Blue for the song left playing in the aftermath of the slaughter.
Twenty-five years later, Dixie is still desperate for a connection to the family she can't remember. So when her childhood home goes up for sale, Dixie sets aside all reason and moves in. But as the ghosts of her family seemingly begin to take up residence in the house that was once theirs, Dixie starts to question her sanity and wonders if the evil force menacing her is that of her father or a demon of her own making.
In order to make sense of her present, Dixie becomes determined to unravel the truth of her past and seeks out the detective who originally investigated the murders. But the more she learns, the more she opens up the uncomfortable possibility that the sins of her father may belong to another.*As bodies begin to pile up around her, Dixie must find a way to expose the lunacy behind her family's massacre to save her few loved ones who are still alive-and whatever scrap of sanity she has left.
Editorial Reviews
05/27/2019
Dixie Wheeler, the narrator of Vandelly’s chilling, enthralling debut, was the sole survivor of a massacre in which her father, Bill, took an ax and, just before breakfast one Thanksgiving, killed his wife and their three sons—ages 15, eight, and four—before slitting his own throat. Only 18-month-old Dixie was left unharmed in their Franconia, Va., home. The press nicknamed her “Baby Blue” because that Badfinger song was playing when the police arrived. When the Wheeler house comes on the market 25 years later, listed as a “stigmatized property,” Dixie impulsively buys it, despite vehement objections from her boyfriend and the aunt who raised her. Dixie furnishes it with the family’s furniture that was stored in the garage of her late uncle, who was adamant that Bill was innocent. The suspense rises as Dixie hears noises, finds items moved or missing, hallucinates about her dead family, and taps into her own dark side. Driven by a believable plot and populated with realistic characters, this delicious mix of horror, ghost story, and mystery marks Vandelly as a writer to watch. Agent: Zoe Sandler, ICM. (July)
Praise for Theme Music
“This is the scariest book since The Haunting of Hill House. . . . The most gripping and suspenseful debut novel of the year . . . Theme Music is more than compelling; it is mesmerizing.”—New York Journal of Books
“[Theme Music] promises to be one of the strangest and most enchanting works to come out this year.”—CrimeReads
“[A] chilling, enthralling debut . . . Driven by a believable plot and populated with realistic characters, this delicious mix of horror, ghost story, and mystery marks Vandelly as a writer to watch.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A story as frenzied and hard-hitting as the characters bound within it . . . Readers will be bombarded with uninhibited descriptions and dauntless curveballs.”—Fangoria
“This one works really well for fans of dark mysteries, psychological thrillers, and horror—you’ll be kept on the edge of your seat and on your toes the entire time.”—Book Riot
“Vandelly shows a deft touch at creating characters and spinning plots, leading to an almost unbearably terrifying and bloody climax in this gripping debut.”—Booklist
“[Theme Music’s] many twists, surprises, and reversals will keep readers hooked.”—Kirkus Reviews
“What a riveting and disturbing read this is! Charting the return of Dixie Wheeler to the childhood home where her parents and brothers were killed in front of her, Theme Music is a fierce and intense slice of psychological horror that will leave you vowing, ‘Never Go Back. Never.’ ”—Louise Candlish, bestselling author of Our House and Those People
“A hypnotic blend of mind-bending, quasi-supernatural suspense and dark family secrets—readers will find themselves completely immersed in the utterly convincing world [Vandelly] crafts. . . . Vivid and lush, intricate and downright addictive. Read it with ALL the lights on, but make sure you read it.”—Crime by the Book
Narrator Sarah Mollo-Christensen's grave, introspective tones are well suited to this grisly yet cerebral mystery. When Dixie Wheeler was a baby, her family was brutally murdered. Twenty-five years later, Dixie moves into her ancestral home, yearning to confront her past. Vandelly spares few details, and Mollo-Christensen vividly unfurls bloody scenes, disturbing visions, and bizarre encounters that leave listeners unsure of what is real and whom to trust. Her evocative characterizations range from antagonistic family members and well-meaning neighbors to a gruff boyfriend and the grizzled detective still hoping to solve her case. Mollo-Christensen's intonations urge listeners to stay with Dixie in her winding, dangerous search for answers. K.S.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
2019-04-28
A waitress moves into the home where, as an 18-month-old baby, she witnessed the ax murder of her mother and three older brothers in this debut thriller.
Dixie Wheeler is shopping for a house to buy with her boyfriend, Garrett, when she discovers her childhood home, scene of the notorious Wheeler Massacre in 1992, is on the market. Garrett refuses to live there, but Dixie, compelled to find out what really happened to her family, arranges a month-to-month rental and moves in with her family's furniture, which her Aunt Charlene had kept in storage. Dixie suffers from gruesome nightmares and has reason to believe the creepy house in Franconia, Virginia, is haunted. Mysteries pile up: Did Dixie's father, Billy Wheeler, actually kill his wife, Debbie, and their sons, Josh, Eddie, and Michael, and then slit his own throat? Did Dixie suffocate her cousin Leah? Did Dixie's childhood friend Rory Sellers push his girlfriend Erin Doyle down the stairs to her death? Is Dixie insane? Before long Dixie isn't sure whether she can trust her own instincts about who killed whom or why she's "linked to every bad thing that's happened."
Multiple violent crimes make this novel somewhat disturbing, but the many twists, surprises, and reversals will keep readers hooked.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172227295 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 07/23/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,048,177 |
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