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Start giftingThe Scent of Rain and Lightning
A Novel
Narrator
Tavia Gilbert
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
10 hours 10 minutes
Language
English
One beautiful summer afternoon, Jody Linder, a young English teacher, is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents’ house—or what she calls her parents’ house, even though they have been gone almost all of Jody’s life. The three bring shocking news: the man convicted of murdering Jody’s father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas.
It has been twenty-six years since that stormy night when Jody’s father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby that night. Now Billy has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence.
Jody knows that sooner or later she’ll come face-to-face with the man who she believes destroyed her family. But what she doesn’t expect are the heated exchanges with Collin. Having grown up practically side by side in this very small town, Jody and Collin have a long history of carefully avoiding each other’s eyes. Now Jody discovers that underneath their antagonism is a shared sense of loss that no one else could possibly understand. As she revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family’s tragic past.
Engrossing, lyrical, and suspenseful, The Scent of Rain and Lightning captures the essence of small-town America—its heartfelt intimacy and its darkest secrets—where through struggle and hardship people still dare to hope for a better future. For Jody Linder, maybe even love.
Nancy Pickard is a four-time Edgar Award nominee, most recently for The Virgin of Small Plains. Hailed by mainstream critics, the novel was also honored by the State Library of Kansas to be the “Kansas Reads” book for 2009. She is the winner of the Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Agatha Award, Barry Award, and Shamus Award. She has been a national board member of the Mystery Writers of America and president of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Merriam, Kansas.
Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.
Reviews
“A terrific book: charming, well-written and insightful. I enjoyed every minute of it.”
“Highlighting the ripple effect of people’s actions, The Scent of Rain and Lightning is an in-depth tale of unraveling lies and deceit in perfect Pickard fashion.”
“With exquisite sensitivity, Edgar-finalist Pickard probes a smoldering cold case.”
“Pickard’s superb storytelling transports the reader into the characters’ world, making all too real their dilemmas, their choices, and their willingness to believe the unlikely. Highly recommended.”
“A decades-old mystery is solved and a woman’s haunting questions put to rest in Pickard’s latest thriller…Pickard shows her storytelling skills, weaving elements of deception, revenge, and romance into a novel with full-bodied characters who deal with tragedy as best they can; Annabelle Linder’s encounter with Crosby’s wife is particularly moving. From an award-winning author, this is engrossing fiction with an eminently satisfying denouement.”
“Tavia Gilbert demonstrates remarkable range in her narration of Pickard’s spine-tingling thriller…Gilbert’s performance as convicted murderer—and town pariah—Billy Crosby crackles with pentup rage…[this production] demonstrates Gilbert’s remarkable ability to heighten the suspense through vocal nuances and pacing. Gilbert also delivers an especially winning turn in her portrayal of Jody as a little girl too young to understand the sordid events around her. An edge-of-your seat listen.”
“It might have been tempting to make all the characters sound alike (since all of the action takes place in rural Rose, Kansas), but Gilbert voices the richly drawn characters in distinct fashion…Rose, Kansas, simmers with secrets, and as the plot unfolds, listeners gradually learn the truth and the fatal consequences in this memorable story.”
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