When I started to write this post, I originally opened with the line, “I don’t read a lot of mysteries.” But then I went back through my Read shelf in GoodReads, and realized I’ve read more than I’d originally thought. It’s a genre I don’t look to often, but I do enjoy the occasional “whodunit.”
Readers who love a good mystery will be intrigued by No Rest for the Dead, released in hardcover earlier this year and now available on audio. With an introduction by David Baldacci and edited by Andrew F. Gulli, the authors who collaborated on the project include Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Diana Gabaldon, Faye Kellerman, Alexander McCall Smith and Kathy Reichs, among many others. In total, more than 20 mystery authors came together to produce a tightly knit, well written mystery with the twists and turns you’d expect from such a talented group.
Christopher Thomas is a guy that’s not liked by many people. He is unfaithful to his wife, Rosemary, and uses his position as a curator in an art museum to steal and fence expensive and often priceless works of art. When he turns up dead in an iron maiden that was on loan to the museum, in care of Rosemary in the Arms and Armors exhibit, Rosemary is tried and convicted of the crime.
10 years after Rosemary’s execution, Detective Jon Nunn still can’t get the case out of his head. Convinced Rosemary was innocent, he’s lost his wife and his job, and possibly his sanity. When a memorial is organized, as specified in Rosemary’s will, Nunn uses it as an opportunity to assuage the guilt he feels over her possibly wrongful death, and becomes determined to find out what really happened to Christopher Thomas.
One would think 26 writers would not be able to come together on such an undertaking, but the editors did an amazing job of maintaining the continuity and flavor of the story. The authors were told what their chapter should contain, and then they were give free reign over the final content. No one author stands out more than the others, and I enjoyed how the perspective and style changed with each chapter.
Mystery fans will enjoy this unique novel. Readers may also be interested to learn that all proceeds from No Rest for the Dead are going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Notes on the audiobook: While there aren’t quite as many narrators as there are authors, there’s still a larger than usual cast for an audiobook, with 6 narrators. It was interesting to hear chapters by different authors narrated by the same voice, and continuity was maintained when one narrator read a certain character’s perspective.
Nancy may just start reading more mysteries and maybe some day she’ll figure out the guilty party. She writes about her 2 boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.