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Start giftingThe Lantern Man
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreShortly after her brother, Stormy, is convicted of the brutal murder of a classmate, seventeen-year-old Lizzy Greiner is found dead in an abandoned mountain shack, the result of an apparent suicide by fire. Next to Lizzy’s charred body, investigators find several of her journals, safely stored inside a fireproof box. It soon becomes evident that these journals contain a narrative that Lizzy wanted the police to read, the truth that she wanted them to know.
Detective Russ Buchanan is tasked with determining the veracity of her narrative, including Lizzy’s belief and obsession that the mysterious and murderous Lantern Man is haunting the mountains near her family’s house. He interviews family members, teachers, and classmates; he studies her psychologist’s extensive case notes. And he learns that Lizzy wasn’t the only one who believed in the Lantern Man. After generations of ghost stories, is it possible that the Lantern Man actually does exist, a real-life boogeyman? Did he have something to do with the murder? Or is he simply a figment of Lizzie’s deluded imagination, an attempt to rationalize her brother’s brutality? The further into the investigation he delves, the more Buchanan questions everything he thought he knew about Lizzy’s death and the murder for which her brother was convicted.
Jon Bassoff was born in 1974 in New York City and currently lives with his family in Colorado. His mountain gothic novel, Corrosion, has been translated in French and German and was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France’s biggest crime fiction award. He is a connoisseur of tequila, hot sauces, psychobilly music, and flea-bag motels. Beneath Cruel Waters is his ninth novel.
Lauren Ezzo is a Chicago based narrator/actor. At this writing she has narrated over 150 titles for authors including Richard Kirshenbaum, Claire Legrand, Georgia Clark, Adam Rapp, Christopher Rice, & Kirk Lynn. She has won multiple awards for her narration, including several “Best of the Year” lists, and several Earphones Awards. In 2016, her performance of “The Light Fantastic", by Sarah Combs, co-narrated with Todd Haberkorn, was named one of AudioFile’s best books of the year. She was accorded the same honor in 2017 from School Library Journal for her narration of “To Stay Alive: Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party”. In 2018, she was Audie Award-nominated as part of a full cast of narrators for Best Original Work, “Nevertheless We Persisted”, performing two pieces - one of which she authored. She is a proud member of the Audio Publishers Association, and a lifelong bookworm.
Read by Traber Burns, Rachel Fulginiti, Keith Szarabajka, Mark Ashby, Tanya Eby, Kate Rudd, Joe Barrett, Thom Rivera, Hillary Huber, Erin Spencer, Elizabeth Wiley, Caroline Shaffer, Emily Sutton-Smith, Johnny Heller, Emily Woo Zeller, and R. C. Bray
Alex Boyles is an actor and an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator.
Reviews
“Ever been eyebrows deep in a horrifying investigation? You’re about to be…Part memoir, part case file, and completely absorbing, The Lantern Man is a compelling pastiche on the verge of madness.”
“An engaging and immersive mashup of mystery and horror…Bassoff weaves a tight and creepy tale through a series of mediums: a girl’s diary, police transcripts, a detective’s notes, newspaper articles, letters, photos, and sketches. The result is an exceptionally creative, compelling, and dark whodunit that will leave its readers, like the Lantern Man himself, hungry for more.”
“The Lantern Man is a brilliant—and terrifying—puzzle-box narrative that dares you to keep reading. It’s the kind of book that you better cancel any plans you might have before you start.”
“The Lantern Man is disorienting in the best sense of the word. Jon Bassoff masterfully blurs the lines between genres…by creating a hellish hall of competing mirrors, each holding its own twisted version of the truth. The Lantern Man is a true shape-shifter of a novel. It’s one that will remain with readers long after the last page.”
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