A Window in the Earth

By: Matthew Fish

Narrated by: Katie Welburn

It's the summer of 1993. After the death of their parents at the hands of a drunk driver, city-dwelling teenage brothers Christopher and James Janes are sent to live with their widowed grandfather in the remote Ozarks of Missouri. There, the brothers must learn to cope with the drastic turn their lives have taken and the unfamiliarity of their surroundings, as well as their grief. By some stroke of fate, there is one other person their age in the area: a girl named Kylie. She tells the brothers of a local mystery about a girl who disappeared one day in a nearby ancient cave used by Native Americans, and the three spend their summer together exploring it, eventually finding that there is still a bit of magic left in a world that seems bereaved of hope.

©2016 Matthew Fish (P)2016 Matthew Fish

Enjoyable paranormal mystery

A Window in the Earth is a paranormal murder mystery, written by Matthew Fish. It is a story of loss and love, and tells the tale of two brothers, James and Christopher, who have lost their parents in an accident, and moves in with their elderly relative in an older house, in the countryside. There they meet a local girl, and hear the tale of an old murder, where a young girl disappeared in a cave. Being young and adventurous, they of course have to go to said cave and explore, and here they find much more than they have ever imagined…

I found the book well written, and down to earth. Despite having paranormal aspects, it felt very grounded, and the author never pushed the story too much to become too unbelievable. The pacing was quite nice, with a good buildup in the beginning, and quite believable characters. I did feel the ending to be a bit clichéed, but that was a relatively minor thing, and the story still ended differently than I had anticipated which was nice. The plot wasn’t too complex, but I still found it enjoyable and well contained, as the characters and setting bore a lot of the weight of the story.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Katie Wilbur. She did a good job overall, although I could have used a bit more diverse set of voices for the characters. Especially the elderly relative, sounded quite off in my opinion. But again, I enjoyed her narration, and her pleasent speech was well matched to the setting of the book.

If you like a contained story or a simple mystery, with some mysterious tones throughout. that is well written, then this is for you.

I received this audiobook for free in return for a review. I have no affiliation with the author, the narrator, the publisher, or their pets (Although I am sure the latter are quite nice!).

A magical, fulfilling journey.

This is one of those hidden gems that sneak up on you by surprise and take hold of you, making you crave more. I could not out this one down. I would stay in my car, much longer than needed, just to see what happened next. This book has moved into my top favorites.