Just Like Home

Gailey’s (The Echo Wife) latest introduces listeners to the Crowder House, home to a family whose patriarch is an infamous serial killer. Vera Crowder never expected she’d have to return to the house she grew up in, not after her mother, Daphne, made sure her feelings about her daughter were known. But Daphne is dying, and there’s an artist who seeks inspiration, and perhaps more, from the house that had once sheltered Vera and had been the scene of unspeakable horrors. As Vera searches through her past and tries to rediscover who her father, Francis, was—beyond his body count—she must also decide who she is and who she wants to be. Listeners will be absorbed as they learn the details of Vera’s relationship with her family, its various sins, and ultimately, what connects them all. Xe Sands’s narration appropriately characterizes Vera as perpetually exhausted by her life and her legacy. When scenes call for more powerful emotions, such as despair or fury—particularly as Vera discovers that some connections are worth fighting for—Sands shows she’s able to deliver.