The House of Long Ago

A Cassiopeia Vitt Adventure, Book 4

De: Steve Berry, M. J. Rose

Narrado por: Natalie Ross

The time has come for Cassiopeia Vitt to sell her ancestral home. It sits on a Spanish bluff by the Mediterranean Sea, and bears the name Casa de Hace Mucho Tiempo, House of Long Ago.

Trapped inside its walls are memories from a time when Cassiopeia was growing from a rebellious adolescent into a thoughtful young woman - regretful times when she often found herself estranged from her parents. Also inside are 15 paintings, each one a masterpiece, together representing an investment in the 10s of millions of euros - her father’s private art collection - which she intends to donate to museums. But when an art expert declares all 15 paintings fake, and suggests that her father may have been involved with something illegal, she embarks on a quest to find answers.

From a secret repository in Andorra, to a mysterious yacht in the Mediterranean, then finally onto the streets of Paris and a horrific reminder from World War II, Cassiopeia must battle every step of the way to stay alive - a fight that will finally bring her face to face with the truth about the House of Long Ago.

©2020 Steve Berry and M. J. Rose (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Always a good listen.

I am a great fan of this Cassiopeia Vitt series and Cotton. Keep them coming. Thank you.

Good story, waste of a credit

Good story. Good story telling. But Edward Gibbon’s 12-volume unabridged monograph is 1 credit - and so is this. Once you start getting into the story (which again, is good) it’s over. It’s bittersweet. If these are teasers for full fledged novels, then by all means, the ideas certainly seem to be market-worthy. But on they’re own, they’re just appetizers.

Great history lesson!

I always love a book that has you googling about history. This one does just that in several ways. Very interesting story and history lesson from the POV of Cassiopeia Witt. Loved it!

Wow

I have enjoyed everything I've read by Steve Berry. I love a good conspiracy regarding history and he delivers with every Cotton Malone adventure.

I haven't been able to pick a favorite from his works, but this Cassiopea Vitt adventure may take that honor. This was an incredible story of regret, forgiveness, loss, recovery and of course, a car chase and guns. At least this time a world heritage site was spared.

Narration needs work

The narrator lacks the ability to do male voices and could narrate with a bit feeling

Cassiopeia vs the art thieves

What begins with a newspaper article on an art theft near Cassiopeia's childhood home, quickly escalates into hunt for answers from her past, millions of Euros of stolen artwork, billionaires, collectors, and six million people you probably never met, but should never forget.

This is also a story of a daughter trying to make sense of her long dead parents life and choices. In the end, this is a very moving story, perhaps the best of the Cassiopeia solo stories so far.

For time context, this story takes place at the same time that Cotton Malone is busy in Poland in the novel, The Warsaw Protocol. Cotton makes a couple appearances here as part of phone conversations and as advice in Cassiopeia's memory.

I enjoyed this story a great deal. Perhaps the authors might expand on the deaths of Cassiopeia's parents in some future book.... seems like they were know to rock the boat and probably annoy all the wrong people...Casseopeia ( and Cotton) would certainly have appreciated that about them.

Great story poor narration

CITROEN ! Prounounced Ci - tro - en! She keeps saying citron. It is driving me crazy. If you are going to narrate a story with words in another language, LEARN TO PRONOUNCE THE WORDS PROPERLY!

Other than that, praise for Berry and Rose. Great story.

Could have skipped.

I read the reviews, as well as previous reviews of these Cassiopeia Vitt shorts. I thought by buying the most recent one, some of the reviews may have been taken into consideration. I was wrong.

As with previous reviewers, I feel like the narrator had never read any of Berry’s previous full novels that had Cassiopeia in them. There was nothing about this that seemed similar. I do realize narration is *acting* and that is what the narrator brings to an Audible book. A narrator can often make or break the believability of the author’s work. Nothing here seemed like an attempt to capture the quick, thoughtful, action-oriented character of Vitt. Nowhere has it been mentioned she has an English accent. She grew up in Spain and now lives in France - not a trace of an accent that hints the narrator took time to get to know the character. It also sounds flat, read mostly like a woman in a romance novel or historic dream sequence. Read the books and find the character! Yes, the story is also off - likely written by the co-author more than Berry - but don’t add insult to injury by making a kick-ass, independent woman of Berry’s novels into a weak, private detective style caricature of a woman.

The art background was interesting and clearly something the co-author knows, but it’s not enough to make me think this Cassiopeia is the same one from the Berry novels with Cotton Malone.

I certainly won’t spend any further credits on these short stories. I hope others don’t waste time or money/credits either.