Darlene's Book Nook: Audiobook Review: Twenty-Five Years Ago Today by Stacy Juba

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Audiobook Review: Twenty-Five Years Ago Today by Stacy Juba

AUTHOR: Stacy Juba

NARRATOR: Erin Moon
PUBLISHER: Stacy Juba
PUBLICATION DATE: February 1, 2013

FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook, 7 hrs and 47 mins
GENRE: Mystery

Should we dig for the truth when Pandora's Box is a coffin of buried secrets? For 25 years, Diana Ferguson's killer has gotten away with murder. When rookie obit writer and newsroom editorial assistant Kris Langley investigates the cold case of the artistic young cocktail waitress who was obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology, not only does she fall in love with Diana's sexy nephew, but she must also fight to stay off the obituary page herself.

Thousands of readers have been riveted by Twenty-Five Years Ago Today.

MY REVIEW:

I received this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any compensation for my review, and the views expressed herein are my own.

This was a great mystery that kept me guessing right up to the end!

Kris Langley is a young editorial assistant, who works for the Freemont Daily News in Massachusetts. In addition to typing up obituaries and birth announcements, she scopes out interesting historical tidbits from the paper’s microfilms for the “Twenty-Five Years Ago Today” feature. She comes across an unsolved murder of a young woman named Diana Ferguson, whose body was found bludgeoned to death in the Freemont State Woods. Tortured by guilt in connection with her own cousin’s murder when she was just 12 years old, Kris is driven to solve this cold case and she contacts the family as well as the police in an effort to piece together the circumstances that led up to the crime.

Kris is a great character, and I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic towards her. She is wracked with guilt over the death of her cousin, and she has never been the same since. When she contacts Diana Ferguson’s family, she is very compassionate and wants nothing more than to bring closure to the family and give them the peace that they so richly deserve. The many years of not knowing the who or why of the crime has tormented Diana’s mother, Irene, and Kris yearns to give her the finality that she needs. At first, Diana’s nephew, Eric, is angry at Kris for stirring things up and causing his grandmother to become hopeful again. He worries that she will be crushed when Kris’ digging will lead to what he believes will be more frustration and unanswered questions. As time goes on, Eric sees that Kris really does want to help and isn’t just doing this for the sake of making the headlines. There is a lot of chemistry between Kris and Eric, but their relationship progresses too quickly and complicates matters.

Juba is a new-to-me author, and she delivered a story that held my interest and made me analyze the evidence to try to figure out who did it. The ending blind-sided me, and I love it when an author can catch me off-guard like that!

Narrator Erin Moon is also new to me, and she did a pretty good job. There were a few awkward moments when she appears to nearly stumble over the words but catches herself and the result is a small pause in the narration. However, her pacing was good overall, and the slight inflections in her voice made each character distinctive.

MY RATING: