Audible Review The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen

Today I'm reviewing the audio version of The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen a 1973 mystery that starts in Tuscany during the last days of WWII.  It's my first experience with this talented bestselling author but after listening to this novel I've already bought another.

Enjoy!

The Tuscan Child

By: Rhys Bowen

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Katy Sobey
Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 02-20-18
Language: English
Publisher: Audible Studios

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Click HERE to listen to a sample

From New York Times best-selling author Rhys Bowen comes a haunting novel about a woman who braves her father's hidden past to discover his secrets....

My Review:

The Tuscan Child
Rhys Bowen

Bowen’s WWII historical mystery is a fantastic step back into two timelines- 1973 where Joanna who’s trying to get close to a father who she never really knew and 1944 when Hugo is shot down over Italy. The depth of the characters is impressive and the two Tuscan mysteries will keep readers/listeners engaged and invested as like a fly on the wall they are literally and seamlessly brought to the Tuscan landscape in both timelines through the author’s vivid, colorful narrative and mesmerized by her inventive storyline. The character of Joanna is the stand out, bravely following the footsteps of her father and being a part of her own Tuscan mystery while Sophia and Hugo are a close second playing their parts perfectly and keeping the audience entertained from the first page until the last.

The narration of Jonathan Keeble and Katy Sobey are excellent, while Jonathan gets Hugo down pat and makes an incredibly believable Sophia, Katy does a band up job being Joanna and an amazing job with all the Tuscan accents. Plus they both really put some fabulous emotions into their renditions.

In 1973 when Sir Hugo Langley dies his daughter Joanna Langley is summoned back to Langley Hall her ancestral home, now a boarding school where her father worked as the Art Master and lived on the periphery of his old life in a small cottage on the grounds. The school which bought the grand estate from her father to pay her grandfather’s death taxes wants the cottage cleared of Sir Hugo’s things and Joanna thinks doing it herself will give her some much needed closer to a man whom she loved but had been estranged from in the recent past. While going through her father’s things she discovers he was an RAF pilot and his plane was shot down over Italy during WWII and if she’s right about a returned letter she found among his things fell in love with his rescuer. So she decides to go to this small Tuscan village, do a little detecting work and perhaps get closer to the man she now mourns.

In the winter of 1944 RAF airman Hugo Langley is shot down over the Tuscan hills where he parachutes hopefully to safety and not into enemy hands. Badly injured and semi-conscience he’s found by a local woman, Sophia Bartoli who nurses him back to health and risks her own safety to care for him.

About the author:
Rhys Bowen is the New York TimesBestselling Author of the Royal Spyness Series, Molly Murphy Mysteries, and Constable Evans. She has won the Agatha Best Novel Award and has been nominated for the Edgar Best Novel. Rhys’s titles have received rave reviews around the globe.

About the Narrators:

Jonathan Keeble:
Jonathan Keeble, winner of four AudioFile Earphones Awards, combines his audio work with a busy theater and television career. He has been featured in over six hundred radio plays for the BBC, appearing in everything from Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes to Doctor Who and The Archers, in which he played the evil Owen. As an Earphones Award–winning narrator, he is in high demand for his voice work. He has recorded over two hundred audiobooks.

Katey Sobey:
Trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama 2008-2011 Awarded Best Duologue and Shortlisted for the Carlton Hobbs Award 2011 Bristol Old Vic Young Company 1998-2008