Speed Reviews: Stay Tuned by Jeffery Deaver and Still House by Christian White & Summer DeRoche

I’ve had a lot to do lately, so to help me get through my tasks, I’ve been listening to shorts from the Audible Plus catalogue and I haven’t been disappointed. I have two mystery/thrillers to be sharing with you today. The first, Stay Tuned by Jeffery Deaver, will have you wondering what’s roaming the woods while the second, Still House by Christian White and Sibylla Budd, will have you trapped in house where a couple went missing.

Title: Stay Tuned

Author: Jeffery Deaver

Narrator: Zoe Chao

Length: 52 minutes

Source: Audible Plus

Rating: 3

Amanda and Charlie are spending their first weekend away in months. They’ve rented a luxurious vacation house on Lost Valley Lake. Swimming, bicycling and romance are the order of the day, and all is good. That is, until someone—or something—appears on the shore across the lake, just as the sky turns gray and the water chill and choppy.

When the apparition, or whatever it might be, grows closer and closer, it soon becomes clear there are certain types of evil that you can’t protect yourself from with locked doors and windows.

And perhaps you can’t protect yourself from them at all.

 Amanda and Charlie’s rented a vacation home on Lost Valley Lake—a place that holds all of Amanda’s secrets. Things begin to go awry when a storm rolls in only to become further complicated when they realize something is lurking outside.

Was this a memorable read? Nope, I had to find my notes to recall what it was about, but it was an okay listen. It’s short but it offered a nice bit of backstory, a little suspense, a little atmosphere, and a dash of paranormal. There’s not too much going on but just enough to keep things going and to keep me entertained. The mystery aspect was a bit predictable but still a decent listen.

If you want a quick, light thriller to listen to while driving, taking a walk, or sitting around the fire pit this is perfect. 

Title: Still House

Authors: Christian White, Summer DeRoche

Narrators: Luke Arnold, Sibylla Budd

Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins

Rating: 3.5 Cups

Situated in a beautiful setting abutting the Balarang waterways and located on an acre of natural bushland, this three-bedroom country home is full of promise, character and potential. Featuring private access to the many splendours of Balarang Creek, this idyllic property is perfect for anyone seeking fresh air and serenity.

Nostalgic for childhood summers a world away from his manic Melbourne life, Dave Johnson purchases a secluded house in a postcard-perfect coastal town. A savvy investment, he convinces his wife. One year on, and his seaside dream has turned into one big headache, with his tenants not paying rent, and now simply vanishing into thin air, leaving all their belongings behind. Summoned back to the house to inspect the abandoned property, Dave and his wife Lisa become trapped in the isolated spot after their car breaks down. Spooked and alone, they become lured into investigating what really happened to their mysterious tenants.

Dave and Lisa Johnson purchased a house in Balarang Creek to use as a rental but, a year later, things have fallen apart and now their tenants have skipped the rent—leaving their possessionsbehind and the house in a state of chaos. When the Johnson’s car breaks down during their visit to check out the property, they soon realize something’s in the house. Trapped and alone, they try to figure out what happened to their tenants and what’s going on.

For a little under four hours, this book truly delivered on the suspense. I can still remember feeling on edge to see what happened to the previous tenants and what was happening to the Johnsons. I was hooked from the start.

I will warn you, there’s some odd content that was tossed in, maybe for filler, but I did truly enjoy the majority of this short. There’s a nice combo of mystery, thriller, suspense, paranormal but the ending, sadly, fell flat. There was so many ways the authors could have gone that the ending chosen just didn’t live up to the books potential. Still, it was a decent listen. 

What short stories or novellas have you been reading?