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The Village

By: Caroline Mitchell
Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
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Publisher's Summary

From the bestselling author of the DI Amy Winter series comes a thriller about a shocking disappearance—and the village that has conspired to keep the truth buried.

Ten years ago, the Harper family disappeared. Their deserted cottage was left with the water running, the television playing cartoons, the oven ready for baking. The doors were locked from the inside.

Overnight, the sleepy village of Nighbrook became notorious as the scene of the unsolved mystery of the decade, an epicentre for ghoulish media speculation.

For crime journalist Naomi, solving the case has turned into an obsession. So now, with Ivy Cottage finally listed for sale, it’s her chance to mount an investigation like no other. And her husband and stepdaughter don’t really need to know what happened in their new home... do they?

But Nighbrook isn’t quite the village she expected. No one wants to talk to her. No one will answer her questions. And as she becomes increasingly uneasy, it’s clear that the villagers are hiding something—that there is something very dark at the heart of this rural idyll. And the deeper she digs, the more it seems her investigation could be more dangerous than she ever imagined... In raking up the secrets of the past, has she made her own family the next target?

©2022 Caroline Mitchell (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic Reviews

“Listeners are privy to some of the inner thoughts of characters, which is unsettling, and narrator Elizabeth Knowelden does a great job of portraying them in a chilling way.”Library Journal

“Be warned: Mitchell keeps digging deeper even after the main mystery is solved for more and more nasty revelations.”Kirkus Reviews 

“A creepy read that ramps up the chill factor all the way to the end.”—Tariq Ashkanani, author of Welcome to Cooper 

What listeners say about The Village

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Great story, lots of twists

Enjoyed the twists and turns in this book, finish wasn't what I expected, kept me engrossed

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book

I’d forgotten how great Caroline Mitchell books are. This one is no exception, the stories are always different, and worth the wait!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great listen

You think you know what’s going on but there’s twists and surprises right till the end.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Clever

Once I had my head around the various characters this was a compelling story. Not a happy topic, but it had an appropriate level of detail. I listened to the key chapters at the end twice and found myself reflecting on the content for days after.

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  • Overall
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Great read

Great story and narrator. So many twists and turns that you just don’t see coming.

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Great twists and suspense

I enjoyed the story and suspense, and there were quite a few twists to keep me guessing. The narrator was very good too. It made a boring car trip enjoyable.

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    2 out of 5 stars

Starts strong & becomes a mess


The plot started strong and became a shamozzle in the end.

The big twist was obvious from very early on which was fine because you’re still invested in finding out the details & what becomes of the protagonist who is seeking it all out. However, as that twist should become more apparent to the protagonist & her stepdaughter but they still don’t see it, they start to come across as frustratingly stupid.

Add to that irrational & exceptionally careless choices or mistakes when the stakes are clearly high, & I really ended up absolutely hating both characters.

The bad guys are clearly very bad & this is made clear in lots of ways, including via internal dialogue. Then suddenly the author tries to go 180 on all of these characters right at the absolute very end after the obvious twist has already been confirmed. It is as though she tries to rewrite the entire book in a few pages to try & create a bigger plot twist. And it doesn’t work. It completely undercuts the entire concept of a whole village keeping one secret from the world for a decade. It takes a barely plausible concept & makes it unbelievable nonsense.

There are multiple choices that are completely inconsistent with the nature of the characters she’s created. It’s very disappointing in a book that started out so strong. I would spell out all these inconsistencies but I don’t like posting spoilers. I can pose just one - why would a person terrified of being abandoned by their family take a job (with all the many other jobs available in the world) that meant they were always travelling away from the family they are sinisterly possessive of? They just wouldn’t. It’s the opposite of what that person would do, & that’s just one example of how the final pages turn the whole thing into a plot-hole filled mess. If she had made some changes before that it could’ve been a really good ending but it just becomes ridiculous because no story elements up that point support any of her final character reveals.

The narrator did a fine job although sometimes she drew out some already tedious page-filler writing that made it drag even more than it would have if I were reading it. There were also some really odd pronunciations. Ock-Olt for occult, for example. Other than that, she was pleasant to listen to.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.