The Vanishing

Narrator Sands brings the right tone and pacing to Webb’s supernatural thriller set in an old mansion on Lake Superior. Julia Bishop is looking to escape her past. Her husband, the equivalent of the “Midwestern Bernie Madoff,” robbed investors of their life savings and committed suicide upon being exposed, leaving Julia to face the very public scorn and hate alone. So when a stranger offers her the chance to take a job at an isolated country estate as the caretaker of his mother, horror writer Amaris Sinclair (aka the “female Edgar Allan Poe”)—who happens to be Julie’s favorite author— it seems too good to be true. However, from the day Julie arrives at the estate, she is faced with strange happenings and a feeling that there is something wrong about the house, something off, something evil. Sands’s performance fully embraces the rich gothic storytelling of Webb’s prose. She excels at projecting Bishop’s growing sense of unease and foreboding. The small cast of characters allows her to give each of them their own rich individuality. Most impressive is her take on elderly Amaris Sinclair. Sands gives her a sincere, caring voice, but with an underlying hint of sadness that fits well with the story. The result is not quite a horror story but just spooky enough that listeners may not want to listen with the lights off. A Hyperion paperback. (Apr.)