Gripping read

An intriguing story wonderfully weaved through a cast of excellent characters. Beautifully read by Aoife McMahon, this dark and sometimes spooky tale keeps us guessing right until the end. Highly recommended.

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3 people found this helpful

Good story but suspend your reality

I liked the story and I've listened to all of Sam Blake's books. It's a good story, compelling but some of the writing is a bit repetitive. there are many instances of hands flying to mouths, eyes opening wide, the use of rabbit ears (inverted commas) and poor Jasper the dog never actually seems to get his promised walks! The idea that 2 Irish women wouldn't know that the few inhabitants of a small Irish village wouldn't know about them being tourists in January is unbelievable. everyone knows small villages are full of gossip!!

all in all a good story though and I always like the nod back to previous books by the same author!

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1 person found this helpful

Enid Blyton V Scooby Doo

This yawn/yarn consisted of two women discussing (amongst themselves) something that may or may not have happened yesterday/last year or even at all


There was no pace, it just droned on and on ... l wasted yet another credit

You've been warned

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1 person found this helpful

I loved this book

I have listened to the 3 Kat Connelly books and have enjoyed them then I saw this stand alone book by Sam, and I really enjoyed it with its twists and turns, is the hotel really haunted? The two women get together to try and solve things of the present and things of the past. I like the way Sam just very briefly brings Kat Connelly in to the story even though the book isn't about her. The narration by Aoife is as always first class she is one of the best in the business bringing various accents and dialects in fact I found Sam Blake by looking at books read by Aoife.

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good narrator

good plot but did not make the most of it. Disappointing in the end. a shame

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Disappointing

All the elements are right for a great story but this just didn’t hook my curiosity or engage my interest somehow. I didn’t care about the main characters enough, I wasn’t intrigued by the mystery enough & I’d bought it as I love haunted house type stories but it just wasn’t spooky at all. I listened to the end because I’d bought it but it was a bit of a slog to the end.

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Sickly, dull and repetitive.

I read/listen to a huge amount of books and rarely leave a full review but felt compelled to with this one.

I wish I’d given in on this after the first 2 chapters. If I hadn’t been on a 2 day long journey and spent the first day hoping the book would get better I would have. In the end it was my irritation with it that was keeping me awake, not the pleasure of listening.

The narrator reads the female characters with a sweet, sickly, chirpy voice (the one when they sound as if they’re on the brink of laughing with joy all the time) pretty much regardless of what’s happening in the plot which is bizarre. She reads all of the male characters in deep gruff “I’m pretending to be a man” voices. I half expected her to say “Fee Fi Fo Fum”. It’s like listening to an amateur actor doing panto in the church hall. Seriously poor.

The story is dull and repetitive. There was no tension or suspense. I didn’t at any point feel as if it might be supernatural. One reviewer said it read like a scooby doo plot and I agree. It was so repetitive too. I had no desire to know what happened and didn’t care about any of the characters.
Seriously the whole production and story were just cringeworthy.

It felt to me like the Woman’s Own version of a suspense story circa 1972. If that’s what you enjoy then you might love this, but it just doesn’t match up to the title description. .

I definitely won’t be reading any more books by Sam Blake or listening to anything else narrated by Aoife McMahon.

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2 people found this helpful

I persevered but honestly a waste of a credit.

I carried on with the story as I thought it might improve but it was so repetitive and uninteresting towards the end that I kept zoning out and don't really care how it ended. How many times must we hear she twisted her ring, sipped her coffee or tickled jasper's ears?! At times I found myself thinking it reads like a Scooby Do storyline...I think I'll have to give this author a miss in future.

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1 person found this helpful

Contrived plot and writing

Lost it’s way half way through and had to pass the job to a dog. Very disappointing.

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Disappointing!

Having happily listened to many of the authors books recently with the same author, I am confused as to what happened here.

The plot is dire and I actually have no idea what happened. I zoned out and gave up rewinding. Too many characters & coincidences and it just wasn’t believable.

The London accent made me wince at times but otherwise I do like her style.

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