The Village

By: Caroline Mitchell

Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden

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

convoluted

Story went on long after I thought it ended. Some critical parts strained credibility.

Great!!

Caroline Mitchell has outdone herself with this one!! Loved it and you will too!

A moving nightmare!

Enjoyable story. This tale starts 10yrs earlier, when the family living at Ivy House disappeared. Now, investigative journalist, Naomi, along w husband and stepdaughter, have purchased the house. Settling into the new home may prove to be more difficult than they think. The entire village is hiding a secret…will Naomi and her family survive? Very engaging story.

generally good book

generally a good book..... but.. not so sure about a sheltered 7 year old being savvy enough to research drug information/side effects online, or having the reading level necessary to understand the information, but other than that....a nice mystery.

Good story…

…but ending too predictable, unfortunately. Yes, there were a few twists (and typos) here and there, but overall predictable ending.

Great mystery!

This book kept me captivated the whole time with lots of twists towards the end.

Slow start

And left me feeling rather hollow. Story is okay, not what I am used to from Caroline Mitchell.

Hokey unbelievable resolution

Narrator not good at projecting a man's voice, so the dialogue becomes confusing. And the storyline was good until it took a hokey turn, which to me was sloppy and not well thought through.

Believable!

Loved it. I couldn't stop listening! I wanted the story to continue. So enjoyable and the suspense was not drawn out

Not a memorable one.

I truly feel like some people’s reviews are paid for. Someone mentioned how they wished it was longer but it was so well written that it didn’t really have to be. I disagree. It wasn’t that well written and not much emphasis was placed when big things were happening. I had to go back a couple times because the scene changed or a new character was introduced almost at the end of a sentence, then started changing the story. I didn’t care for the story. It was all very predictable. Not my favorite listen. Wasn’t worth the credit.