The Girl in the Letter Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Emily Gunnis (Author), Jane McDowell (Narrator), Review (Publisher)

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Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Kathryn Hughes, this gripping novel of long-buried secrets will stay with you for ever.

A heartbreaking letter. A girl locked away. A mystery to be solved.

1956. When Ivy Jenkins falls pregnant she is sent in disgrace to St Margaret's, a dark, brooding house for unmarried mothers. Her baby is adopted against her will. Ivy will never leave.

Present day.Samantha Harper is a journalist desperate for a break. When she stumbles on a letter from the past, the contents shock and move her. The letter is from a young mother, begging to be rescued from St Margaret's. Before it is too late.

Sam is pulled into the tragic story and discovers a spate of unexplained deaths surrounding the woman and her child. With St Margaret's set for demolition, Sam has only hours to piece together a 60-year-old mystery before the truth, which lies disturbingly close to home, is lost for ever....

Read her letter. Remember her story....

Listening Length

10 hours and 4 minutes
Author

Emily Gunnis
Narrator

Jane McDowell
Audible release date

1 August 2018
Language

English
Publisher

Review
ASIN

B07CT4W9C4
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	10 hours and 4 minutes
Author	Emily Gunnis
Narrator	Jane McDowell
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	01 August 2018
Publisher	Review
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07CT4W9C4
Best Sellers Rank	5,246 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 173 in Women's Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 321 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 406 in Mysteries (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

5 star		47%
4 star		29%
3 star		15%
2 star		6%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Save your money

Reviewed in Australia on 26 March 2022

Verified Purchase

Unless you have very low expectations, save your money. I bought each of this authors 3 books, based on the recommendation of her fellow authors....what a joke. I can only assume they have nothing better to do and grab any opportunity to get their names mentioned. The same names come up over and over- just have a look through womens fiction and you can easily see what I mean. I am mad I got sucked in! Wasted $50. The author is lightweight, no deep/interesting background to her characters and similar themes and occurrences in all 3 books. I couldn't finish any of them, so poorly written were they compared to other books I have just finished. How anyone could describe it as" the most gripping page-turner of the year" as it says above I cannot understand. I could easily recommend some great authors, but this is not one. No stars from me if I was able to leave that rating, and I can only think this author got a publishing deal based on family connections!

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Kindle Customer

Forgotten Mums

Reviewed in Australia on 10 July 2021

Verified Purchase

Reading this book I was awash with every emotion I could possibly experience.
My heart broke for the girls. I couldn't understand how a mother could allow her own child to be treated so badly by the stepfather. The nuns, for who I felt such hatred .My body sometimes shook with fear when Ivy was going to be punished or discovered doing something wrong. I shed many many years for those forgotten girls. I won't forget you.
I absolutely loved this book, so beautifully written and researched .
The sadness,horror and futility of those poor suffering young girls kept me awake for nights wondering Why just WHY.
The gift of an adopted child is immeasurable. We should be forever grateful for that gift that came from immeasurable love.

Helpful

A very compelling read .

Reviewed in Australia on 15 July 2019

Verified Purchase

This a heartwrenching story of a mother's and babies home in England , the atrocities which occurred within it, and the consequences.
Spanning from the 1950's to present day, the story unravels. Although it was very disturbing to read, I could not put it down.
So very well written and researched; I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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Dreamworlds

Couldn't put this down.

Reviewed in Australia on 2 September 2018

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Although this book is non-fiction once you read it and the epilogue you will understand that these things really happened. I just found I had to keep reading to find out how the story continued to unfold. The author has presented a truth that so many of us were unaware existed. My love and heartfelt best wishes go to all the Mothers who can personally relate to this story.

One person found this helpful

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Rachel L

Good read,

Reviewed in Australia on 25 April 2020

Verified Purchase

Good read, I read it fast and enjoyed the story. Some plot holes, some questions that lingered after. Not super memorable. It isn't a story that's going to stick with you for a very long time after you put it down. I didn't rush off to tell any friends that they just HAD to read it. BUT, if someone asked me if I've read and think they should, I would probably say "yeah it's a good book."

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Hendo 2

Incredible

Reviewed in Australia on 3 September 2018

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I stumbled across this book on Amazon Kindle and what a journey it took me on. The story was gut wrenching and based on very thorough research even though it was fiction. The author is an incredible writer and had me totally under her spell. It is a very current topic and we pray it never happens again.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Great book

Reviewed in Australia on 19 August 2018

Verified Purchase

I loved this book. It was sad reading about the poor young unmarried mothers who were treated so badly in those horrible places. It must have been very traumatic for the girls who went through this. It was very moving to read.

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Bridie

Disappointing

Reviewed in Australia on 27 May 2020

Verified Purchase

While I was interested in the historical setting of the book, the plot was implausible and far fetched. Central to the plot was the discovery of five letters supposedly written by a young pregnant woman begging her lover to rescue her, the language and details of the letters were very incongruous.

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Top reviews from other countries

The Cat's Mother

A disappointing read and an absolute insult to 60 year old ladies everywhere!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2018

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I was really enjoying this book, getting to know the characters, and then I hit Chapter 3 where we meet Sam’s Nana! Nana lives in a flat with swirly brown carpets and the gas fire going full pelt, dosing in her rocking chair. She wears a lilac dress with a hand knitted white cardigan she made herself, and wears two pairs of glasses, one on the end of her nose and the other pair tucked into her white hair. She is heavily wrinkled and plagued with a painful hip. Now you might be thinking poor old Nana, she’s probably in her 80s, but I was flabbergasted to read Nana is actually celebrating her 60th birthday!!! The author clearly has no idea that today’s 60 year olds lead very active lives, live in modern homes, wear skinny jeans and the majority are still working, not being eligible to retire for a few years yet!

So I’m afraid I lost respect for the author and the story after that, but I continued reading. I was then further amazed in Chapter 6 when one of the characters, Kitty, visited her psychiatrist and a MASSIVE clue was dropped after she used the bathroom that wasn’t explained until much later in the book.

The story went on and on, backwards and forwards in time which was quite confusing. There were far too many convenient coincidences throughout, scenarios which just did not seem possible, and all the characters seemed to be related or connected but it was difficult to keep track how. The author’s attempt to include menacing drama scenes seemed farcical.

As the story is based on true but horrific events that took place in mother and baby homes in the 50s/60s, it could have been written so much better and realistically.

108 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Full of inaccuracies.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2018

Verified Purchase

Half way through and thinking of abandoning it. Badly researched, a Nana with bad hips and wrinkled skin at the age of sixty!!! If the main character is a journalist and has a four year old she would have to be late twenties so the ages just don’t work. She drives around for her job in a Vauxhall Nova, if it was the last one ever made it would have to be 24 years old - I don’t think so. Full of silly details that just don’t make sense and are implausible, like a woman having a kidney transplant in 1959 then dialysis every day.

52 people found this helpful

Quoz

The most gripping thing I've read since Gone Girl

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2018

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I read this book in three sittings, and would have finished it in one if I hadn't had to go to work. I was gripped from the prologue, and the style is so easy to read not because it's simplistic but because it's so clever. I don't want to say much for fear of giving the game away but the story is so well researched and the characters seem so real and alive that I felt sad at the end that I could no longer be part of their world. I loved the short chapters and the way the story moves between the key characters and dates - it's such an effective way of pulling you in while not interrupting the flow of the story at all.
I really recommend this for book clubs as I think it raises lots of interesting points to talk about...plus it's just a brilliant read! Perfect by the pool, on the beach or on your commute when you want to be transported to a fascinating world full of intriguing characters. Highly recommended.

50 people found this helpful

Miss T

Poignant and sadly based on the true experiences of so many

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 September 2018

Verified Purchase

Heart wrenching tale unfolds the dark underbelly of young, unwed mother and baby homes in the early sixties.

A time when families would shun their own daughters for becoming pregnant and grandchildren for being born outside of marriage. Out of sight out of mind.

Maude marries her husband's brother Frank following his death in order to bring up her daughter Ivy, when Ivy falls pregnant Uncle Frank is having none of it, Maude is too scared to speak up and so Ivy's sent to a mother and baby home on the recommendation of the Doctor and Priest.

Here she learns that there's no such thing as Christian charity as the nuns work the girls in their care to the very brink of labour, beating them for speaking, let alone speaking out, and allowing them no possibility of escape. Their mail is withheld and the only letters they may send are all in praise of the care they're recieving and the kindness of the nuns.

Once their children are born the girls are forced to go straight back to work to pay off their debt to the nuns, many never leave, and are brutally treated and forced to sign them over for adoption rescinding all rights to the children they love.

Ivy manages to get a handful of letters out to the father of her daughter Rose, in a desperate bid for help and freedom, but he's just starting a career as a professional footballer, doesn't really want marriage and a family and all the pressure it will bring. He let's the Priest see the letters Ivy sent laying bare her treatment at the hands of the nuns, and it's all too easy for them to convince him that Ivy is suffering from a psychotic episode because she is being given the very best care "how could the letters possibly be true?".

In the meantime Ivy has befriended a young girl Elvira, who has been returned to the home when her adoptive parents finally have a child of their own. Ivy having lost Rose and being threatened with a lifetime in an asylum tries to save Elvira when she sees the abuse she's receiving at the hands of the nuns and Doctors. Ivy manages to find out that she's an identical twin and sets Elvira free, with the information to find her sister, while causing a disturbance by taking her own life.

The repercussions from Ivy's short life affect so many people... Maude, Elvira and her twin Kitty, her daughter Rose, it seems so many... When the story begins to shake itself free after investigative journalist Sam reads Ivy's letters it appears that there is far more at play than she thought.. who is Ivy? How did her Nana acquire them? And someone appears to be seeking justice for Ivy.. but who and why?

It's enthralling, twists and turns until you aren't quite sure who's whom!

A definite page turner which brings into life the suffering that was caused for so many young women and the children who were wrenched from their arms... It's more than a generation who have suffered because of the mistreatment of, predominantly, the Catholic church... It's the generations since who missed the vital links to their heritage and family.

17 people found this helpful

FlyingDutchman-Scot

Read Some of the 2 & 3 Star Reviews

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2018

Verified Purchase

I realise that we all have different tastes but the five-star gushing reviews of this book seem to have been written by someone else specialising in fiction!!
1) The basic concept of cruel nuns, wicked children's homes and the 1950's society that frowns upon children born out of wedlock is a reasonable canvas on which to base a thriller.
2) The book starts off well as far as the storyline goes and engages in the first couple of chapters.

then it unravels

3) Timelines - the constant hopping around between timelines only serves to confuse and does not aid understanding of the story. Even a moderately good editor should have sorted out this shuffled deck of cards. "Moderately good" must have been on holiday at the time
4) Names & relatives - it is almost impossible to try and remember who is whose daughter or mother or sister of whom. it is so confusing that you spend all your time trying to remember which character you're reading about rather than whether you should care about them or not.

I persevered until 77% of the way through the book on the basis that the first 15% was okay. However I think I've saved myself a couple of hours by coming on here and reading reviews to realise it is not worth finishing.

The editor ought to be shot at dawn!! imagine if you will a four-star book for the pages have been ripped out and stuck back in a random order. Then you start to read it!!

15 people found this helpful

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The Girl in the Letter Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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