The Manuscript

By: Nathan Hystad

Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin

Four old friends.

An unpublished manuscript.

A long-buried secret.

Jeremiah Trent works as a Seattle homicide detective. When he’s contacted by a friend from his childhood, he packs his bags and heads to a mansion in remote Colorado. As he arrives at the best-selling author’s home, Jerry can’t shake the feeling it was a mistake visiting the people from his past.

The mystery deepens when Jay offers them a chance to read his newest manuscript, one chapter at a time. When Jerry digs in, he finds the story is their own from 25 years ago, only with different character names and a changed setting.

Abby, Ken, Jay, and Jerry’s tale unravels, and when a body is discovered by the local police department, one that has been there for years, everything escalates into a shocking conclusion.

The Manuscript is a suspense thriller by Nathan Hystad, the author of The Event and Lights over Cloud Lake.

©2019 Nathan Hystad (P)2020 Tantor

Suspenseful to very end.

Very well written and the narration was excellent. This book was very difficult to put down. Highly recommend.

Loved it

I could not wait until I had time to listen to this book. Really loved the story everything about it, the back story just great.

Good for an afternoon listen.

A bit reminiscent of Stephen King and the story line he dips into with true kids from Dairy. Interesting and story deepens as the book goes on. Not sure if I would have paid for it, but as it was a fee listen- I enjoyed it enough to listen to the end.

Great murder mystery and thriller well written

Nathan Hystad is best known for his work in the science fiction genre. However, in the past few years, he has dabbled outside of his best-known element, He has now written horror, paranormal/UFO and now mystery thriller. He is surely demonstrating a high level of talent in each of these series. I was very skeptical as to whether he could pull it off. But he did. Really, really well.

The story focuses on 4 "friends for life" who grew up in a very small rural town. In their middle teen years, they started to grow up a little and progressed from kids messing around as kids to teens with raging hormones and the typical problems - including interest in the opposite sex. Bad things start happening to their relationships, and then traumatic, life-changing events ensue.

This story is about the characters as adults, now aged about 40, 25 years later. One of their numbers has become a famous author and struck it stupid rich. On a supposed weekend to rekindle their "friends forever" vows, things get ugly. And low and behold, Jay the author's latest book is about their traumatic experience as teens, and they are the main characters!

Now the question is, can they make it out alive. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so read and or listen to find out.

The narration of this book was really, really well done. James Cronin delivered a smooth narrative performance with just enough variation between voices and characters to really give authenticity to who was speaking, what they were thinking, and their own perspective. There were no recording issues or flaws save for 1 that I picked up, and that was so small that 99% of listeners won't hear it.

Nathan's strength as a writer is his ability to paint pictures that are so real you can see them, and scenes, characters, and dialogue really come to life with him. He has a habit of placing our four-legged friends in many of his works, and I have to say they add life and realism to the story. Sally the collie dog, who belongs to Jerry the main character, who's narration drives the book, is one such animal. She is so realistically portrayed, that visions of Lassie and other collies I have known (in person) kept coming to mind. This is a huge strength for Nathan. It makes the stories so real and commonplace, The relationship between Jerry and Sally brings reality into the often bizarre and life-threatening scenes portrayed and makes the whole story hang together much better.

Overall this is an incredibly good book, with a smooth performance that leaves you wanting more, and hanging on the edge of your seat for what is going to happen next. I was as surprised as it is possible to be by the ending and I didn't see it coming at all. But the clues were there all along.

I highly, highly recommend this audiobook. Kudos to Nathan for delivering the goods one more time. If you are a fan of his writing or a good murder mystery/thriller, this should definitely be on your list.

Great read!!

I downloaded this for free and it was really excellent. It kept me in suspense for a while, and it really grabs you in! Highly recommend!!

An Excellent mystery

This was an interesting, fast paced and exciting mystery with a psychological twist. It is written as two stories in one. I loved it.

good but glitchy

Narrator confused characters in real life and fictatios characters of book a couple of times calling them by each other's name, other than that great story.

Really Good!

The narrator is good. The story and characters are great. It’s a great mystery. I couldn’t stop listening bc I just wanted to know more! Loved it.

I know what you did that summer.....

Four childhood friends with a secret 25 years old.

One writes a book 'loosely' based on this secret. Then a weekend away, and bodies appear... suspicions arise. Solid Mystery.

It was a good book, I had a few issues with some plot points, but overall it was very entertaining. The narration by James Patrick Cronin was excellent and kept me in the book as much as I was.

Fantastic!

I loved this book!!! It was a good setting, in a lonely, but fantastically beautiful mansion with no others around, stormy and secluded. I enjoyed every minute of this well told story. Loved hearing the build-up about the lives of the four people at the mansion and what led up to the murders and what happened next..