What Can't Be Seen

Dr. Gretchen White, Book 2

By: Brianna Labuskes

Narrated by: Kate Marcin, Chris Ciulla

A brilliant psychologist faces the secrets and lies of her own dark past in a shocking novel of suspense by the Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author of A Familiar Sight.

“Gretchen...What have you done?”

Psychologist and criminologist Dr. Gretchen White, top consultant for the Boston PD, has solved countless cases—but never her own. Since the age of eight, she has lived her life thinking she killed her aunt. After all, she was found standing over the body, clutching a bloody knife. Most people, including Detective Patrick Shaughnessy, believe the little sociopath got away with murder. Thirty years later, Detective Lauren Marconi wants to prove them wrong.

When plucking at the threads of the past unravels a decades-old case tied to the White family, both Lauren and Gretchen grapple with the question, What if Gretchen really is guilty? As old secrets come to light and Gretchen’s lifelong grip on her darkest impulses threatens to erode, Shaughnessy is there watching, waiting for her to lose control one more time.

Everyone thinks they know what happened that night. But the truth is beyond what anyone imagines—even Gretchen herself.

©2022 Brianna Labuskes (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A compelling mix of psychological thriller, police procedural, and murder mystery…vividly co-narrated by the simply impressively story telling talents of Kate Marcin and Chris Ciulla. Providing a true 'theatre of the mind' listening experience.”—Midwest Book Review

“The book’s well-constructed plot matches its three-dimensional characters. Psychological thriller fans will be eager for more.”—Publishers Weekly

So-so

Mediocre story and performance. Decent who done it. Lots of he said, she said.

Disappointing

I loved the first book in this series and was eagerly looking forward to this one, but everything that made the first book fantastic is missing in this book. It gives a good back story for Dr. White, but not a particularly believable or rational one. The narrators were excellent, it is just the story was way below what I was expecting from this author. Giving it 3 stars is due to the fact that it is well written technically, it just doesn't have the tension or depth of book 1. The narrators made it worth listening to.
I would say the author is batting .500 on this series and if another book drops I would be interested, maybe she has something in mind that I need to see in a subsequent book. As it stands, this book is not good.

Just Enough Twists

There were just enough twists to keep this interesting.

It was interesting to get the full backstory on the character from book 1.

Overall an enjoyable listen.

A Disappointments

convoluted story-line, too rapid wrap-up, too many added and poorly sketched out added characters. was really looking forward to this book, will not read anymore, sadly.

Fantastic!

I really enjoyed this book the one prior to it. Sometimes, Gretchen’s struggle with her thoughts and in her mind, the restraining of her actions were very strange to hear. What do you mean at all in anger think thoughts that ultimately with shame us if we were to be carried out? The author does a fantastic job with this book. The twisting and turning seeking answers is absolutely done. The characters were unbelievable, and the fact you can actually see these rich & entitled people living like this, it’s a must read! The narration was terrific also.

Thoroughly riveting!

I love this character! It is so refreshing to have a female character not holding back from her inner most thoughts… sociopath or not, I love Dr. Gretchen White.

Shocking

This story was such a great follow-up to the first book and the characters that were introduced there. I don't know what I was expecting to have actually happened in Gretchen's childhood but this was a total revelation about her backstory and provided great insight into her complex character.

Gripping

This performance was fantastic. The story was great but very focusing on “psychopathic” tendencies. A little overplayed and dramatic, in my opinion. I still was able to enjoy the story though.

4 stars

What Can't Be Seen by Brianna Labuskes is a strong follow-up to A Familiar Sight. A lot of secrets get exposed and unraveled; some, even big ones, were quite obvious, while others were shocking. Even though it's rushed, I did enjoy the ending.

I liked Gretchen in book #1, but it seems that she is more outlandish than funny in this book and irritatingly/ironically repetitive (we get it, you don't like when people say "what?"). Also, Brianna inconsistently calls people by their first or last name, which causes a lot of confusion. I got used to it with Lauren and Patrick, but for the longest time, I thought that Edith and Bardot were the same person, not MIL/DIL. Due to this, I also thought that Anders was "Edith Bardot"'s son. It wasn't until Bardot said Edith's name that I got it, which was almost the end of the book.

My opinion of Kate Marcin and Chris Ciulla has stayed the same: Kate doesn't change her voice much for Gretchen and Marconi even though they share a lot of the same scenes and Chris' Boston accent is inconsistent for the same character.

Gripping story.

Great characters and spectacular story with twists and turns that keep the listener engaged throughout.