The Long Weekend

Jayne, Ruth, and Emily all have reason to feel uneasy about the ladies’ night ahead during a getaway in Northumberland. They arrive to find a note claiming that, by the time they read it, one of their husbands will be dead. The women’s already-frayed nerves are fractured as they struggle to make contact with their loved ones, each minute in isolation forcing them to question long-held loyalties. Listeners will find nothing leisurely about narrator Olivia Poulet’s lilting London accent as she surges forward at a frenetic pace, echoing and amplifying the characters’ fraught emotions. Without chapter breaks to bring order to the narrative, listeners bounce from perspective to perspective in a way that is complex and sometimes chaotic. The combination of speed and intricacy results in a listening experience that demands one’s full attention. Listeners will be consumed by their need for answers, only to be thwarted with every twisting trap Macmillan (To Tell You the Truth) lays.