Dark One: Forgotten by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal
Content: Mild language

 

Every year in the United States there are fifteen thousand murders, give or take a few hundred. Of those, nearly forty percent go unsolved.

In this six-part audio series, Christina Walsh is determined to change that. After struggling with the loss of her father, she sets out on a journey to bring the justice that has eluded her to the families of other victims. And she starts with a particularly strange case. The murder of world-renowned violinist Leona McPherson who mysteriously disappeared years ago after a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. As Christina digs deeper, the story gets stranger. Leona was a prodigy, someone too good to be forgotten, but that’s exactly what has happened. She’s been forgotten. Entirely. By everyone who knew her. From the gushing music critic in her hometown to the detectives investigating her murder, even her own mother.

So Christina embarks on a cross-country mission, with her roommate Sophie, to figure out what happened to Leona. In the process, she uncovers a trail of similar victims who have suffered the same fate. But if no one can remember the victims, how can the killer possibly be caught? Christina’s only leads come from a crazed homeless man’s ramblings, a mysterious glass eye, and an otherworldly totem. Is Christina crazy or has she stumbled upon something so implausible it must be true?

 

This was an interesting audio book that's set up to feel like you're listening to a podcast. I really got into this and was enjoying it until I got to the part where the main character's roommate gets involved. I've got to be honest, she almost ruined this book for me. She was so immature and annoying. I think she was supposed to bring some comic relief to the story but I didn't find her funny. She felt like a character that should have been in a YA novel. Thankfully, I was able to ignore her enough to enjoy the rest of the book, but this could have been a 4 star read instead of a 3.5 star read if she hadn't been in the story, or if she had been written as a more mature character.

The mystery itself was good and I liked the supernatural aspect of the story. Apparently this is a prequel to a graphic novel, but I've never read it and I don't plan on reading it. This worked well enough on it's own.