THE FRENCH GIRL

Narrator Katherine McEwan's measured cadence perfectly matches the pace of this muted thriller. While Kate Channing was on break from college with her friends at a French cottage, a 19-year old village girl went missing. Ten years later, the discovery of her body threatens to upend Kate's life and her fledgling headhunting business. As she reconnects with her friends, she begins to unravel the past and her youthful naïveté. McEwan's Northern English burr sets Kate apart from her tony Oxford mates, highlighting her feelings of being a perpetual outsider. In a story unusually devoid of flashbacks, McEwan's astonished tone mixes with palpable fear as Kate tries to grasp at bits of memories while being haunted by visions of the French girl, dead and alive. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2018]