Secrets Beneath the Sea

The Forsaken Series, Book 4

By: Phil Price

Narrated by: Kevin E. Green

A child goes missing, taken from her mother by a powerful family. Soon after, the father of the girl is banished for violating the code of the tiny Cornish hideaway.

Emma Thorne has come to the edge, not knowing if her daughter is alive or dead. The village offers no clues and gives away no secrets. In desperation, she enlists the help of a local private investigator, holding out hope that Lauren can be found.

But the investigator Jake Stevenson knows how to find missing people. He’s done it before, traveling to places beyond our understanding. But where can he begin his search, and what clues can the village of Towan Point offer him?

In an ancient lighthouse, cut off from the outside world, a doorway pulses gently in the darkness. A doorway that no one comes out of.

What lurks on the other side? And can he discover the secrets beneath the sea?

©2020 Phil Price (P)2021 Phil Price

Good read

This was a good story. The character work was good and the story held my interest. The narrator did a great job on the voices throughout. I would recommend.

Not a Stand-Alone story

Note: This is Book 4 in the series and it does not work well as a stand alone story.

So I jumped right into the book thinking it would work as a stand alone novel. Audible only has book 2 and book 4 and book 2 is narrated by someone else. So I thought this indicated that this would work pretty well on it’s own but that was not the case. Because of this, I did have trouble connecting with the characters and caring about the plot.

I do like the main character Jake. He’s a PI who has the ability to dig into the supernatural side of things, if need be. That’s the case when a young girl (Lauren) goes missing and her mom (Emma) hires Jake to find her, since no one else has come up with anything.

I was intrigued by Jake’s daughter Alicia, but also a bit confused too. Sometimes the other characters treat her like a young kid, perhaps 7 or so, but sometimes her word choice and sentence structure makes me think she’s 12. I don’t recall the story telling me how old she is, so I was left guessing throughout the book. Her vampire blood is mentioned but I got the feeling that this had been thoroughly explored in an earlier book.

Wilf is another intriguing character. He’s come forward in time, and I think Jake had something to do with that, and he’s still learning how to read. I’d like to know his back story too, but once again, I feel like it was thoroughly explored in a previous story.

The plot moves a little slowly and then ramps up for the ending. I wanted to enjoy what might well be an epic ending, but because I wasn’t fully invested in the story, I had a hard time rooting for our heroes or booing down the bad guys. I do like the use of the lighthouse. All told, 3/5 stars, and yes, I am weighing in the fact that I jumped into book 4 and it would have probably been better if I had read the previous books.

The Narration: Kevin E. Green did a decent job. His voice for Jake is spot on but his female voices could use a bit more femininity. There was also some inconsistency for young Alicia’s voice, as she sometimes sounded like a little kid and sometimes like a teen. Green had good pacing and sounded totally interested in the story. There were no tech issues with this recording. 4/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own.