My dual timeline mystery novel, The Family Shadow, is now available an audiobook. It was published on 30th August, 2022 and is available on Audible and iTunes.

Audiobook production is an interesting adventure

The last three months have been quite the adventure for me as I’d never been involved in an audiobook production before. I was fortunate to discover the actor and narrator Ruth Redman, who lives near London in England, and was delighted when she agreed to take it on. Ruth is an experienced television and stage actor and has appeared in many roles including series such as Kavanagh SC, Call the Midwife and Eastenders. She has also narrated audiobooks before, including one about Jane Austen’s home, which was written by a BBC television producer.

Finding voices for a large cast of characters

If you’ve read the paperback or e-book of The Family Shadow, you’ll remember that there is a large cast of characters, young and old, Irish and English, modern and Victorian. What I find really impressive is a narrator’s ability to act out all the voices and personalities and this is where Ruth’s talent for accents came into its own. Finding voices to suit each character in the story was both an interesting and challenging undertaking and I’m sure you can imagine how exciting it was to hear the book brought alive for the first time. I believe that Ruth definitely captured the mystery and suspense and I hope that listeners will think so too.

If you feel you’d enjoy listening to The Family Shadow or are interested to learn more, please click the appropriate link below:

Publisher’s Summary of The Family Shadow: A historical mystery with long-buried secrets and dual timeline suspense

A Victorian era murder. A modern-day family researcher. Can she solve the century old puzzle of a racehorse trainer's death and his wife's disappearance? 

Ireland, 1891. Rosalind Thornton only wants to be a perfect mother and spouse. Happy at first to have given her husband the son he longed for, she begins to worry about his increasingly erratic spending and volatile moods. And when his body turns up in the local woods, her guilt remains in question for 130 years. 

2019. Fiona Foley needs to put her husband's betrayal behind her. Offered a chance to get away and recover, the disillusioned history teacher travels to the sweeping Wexford coast to assist an eccentric descendant of the Thornton family. Fending off a prying journalist intent on digging up dirt, Fiona finds herself in a race to uncover the truth. 

As the two women separately untangle a devastating plot, only an old journal full of riddles might be the key to solving the crime. 

Can Fiona figure out what really happened on the fateful night Rosalind disappeared forever? 

The Family Shadow is a gripping historical mystery novel. If you like long-buried secrets, dual timeline suspense, and surprising twists and turns, then you'll love Suzanne Winterly's evocative thriller. 

Ruth Redman is an audiobook narrator who lives and works just outside London. She also works as an actor in theatre, film, and television and is represented by BBA Management.