Tuesday, January 10, 2023

All the Dangerous Things - Stacy Willingham

I really enjoyed Stacy Willingham's debut novel, A Flicker in the Dark, last year and was excited to see she had written a second book. All the Dangerous Things is another excellent suspense novel.

Isabelle's young son Mason was taken from his bedroom in the night a year ago. After all that time, the case has gone cold for the police. But not for Isabelle - she's made it her job at the cost of her marriage and her health. She doesn't sleep, just catnaps and blackouts. When a podcaster asks to interview her, she says yes. Who knows - maybe someone will hear it and have information. 

But he makes her nervous. He's asking questions about herself, her own past, her actions, her marriage and more. Isabelle begins to doubt herself on many fronts. 

Willingham slowly reveals Isabelle's past through a then and now timeline. There's lots of unexpected twists and turns in the past points of view that creep their way into the present. What is real? What truly happened? Willingham does a great job of building the tension of the book with each new uneasy interaction, revelation and unsettling memory. I love unreliable narrators and Isabelle is definitely one of those. It's fun reading to try and find the truth amongst the misdirection. If you love twists and turns like I do, you'll find some good ones here! I was easily caught up in All The Dangerous Things. And the ending? Completely did not see that coming. I appreciate being surprised!

Now, I chose to listen to All the Dangerous Things. The narrator is Karissa Vacker, an award winning reader I've enjoyed previously. She has a lovely, somewhat gravelly undertone to her voice that is really pleasant to. She speaks clearly and enunciates well. I am so impressed at the voices she uses for male characters. She flips back and forth between characters and you'd swear there was more than one reader presenting the book. She has captured Willingham's plotting and does an excellent job of capturing the emotions and action. Hear for yourself -listen to an audio excerpt of All the Dangerous Things.

2 comments:

Kay said...

I finished reading this one last Sunday. I really liked it and look forward to more by Stacy Willingham. I read it in print (BOTM early release) and then gave it to a friend. Good to hear that the audio was well done. I hope she gets a lot of kudos for this one too!

Luanne said...

Kay, I very much like her books as well. I'm seeing lots and lots of favorable reviews. Nice to get it in your BOTM!