04 Feb / The Grownup by Gillian Flynn [in Library Journal]
*STARRED REVIEW
While Gillian Flynn’s high-flying Gone Girl hasn’t wandered far from bestsellers lists, the wait is on for what she’ll publish next. She’s reportedly working on a delayed new novel – a murder set in the Midwest – and has signed on with the Hogarth Shakespeare series to reimagine Hamlet any way she sees fit.
For the time being, her audiences can listen to this stand-alone novella. Originally titled “What Do You Do?,” it won a 2015 Edgar Award after appearing in George R.R. Martin’s 2014 collection Rogues.
A twentysomething woman once “gave the best handjob in the tristate area” until she was forced to quit because “carpal tunnel syndrome is a very real thing.” Well read – in books and people – she moves on to interpreting auras at Spiritual Palms. One rainy April morning, Susan Burke walks in, then comes back four days later. Soon enough, our narrator finds herself in Susan’s creepy Victorian home – and she’s definitely not alone.
Verdict: Veteran narrator Julian Whelan is the perfect voice for Flynn’s latest seductive thriller. She’s got just the right inflections to lure, mislead, divulge, and shock. Here’s your gloriously creepy warning: Don’t believe a thing you hear!
Review: “Audio,” Library Journal, February 1, 2016
Readers: Adult
Published: 2015