BOOK REVIEW - Bluebeard - Jim Clemente & Peter McDonnell - Audiobook - 3*

BOOK REVIEW

 Bluebeard - Jim Clemente & Peter McDonnell

When I headed off to the Download Festival last weekend, I knew I would be camping in a giant field next to an airport with 75,000 other people so falling asleep would be difficult. I wanted an audiobook to listen to in short bursts to help me get some shut-eye. This one caught my eye, true crime, included in my Audible membership, and only 3.5 hours long. Perfect!

BLURB

A new thriller based on the true story of LA's first known serial killer. 

In 1919, Kathryn Wombacher finds a lonely-hearts ad placed by one Walter Andrew:

"Would be pleased to correspond with a refined young lady or widow. Object, matrimony."

Kathryn and Walter fall in love and marry within weeks. 

What Kathryn doesn't know...is that her new husband is really James "Bluebeard" Watson, a notorious West Coast serial killer who catfished and married 22 women, murdering 10. 

Based on newly unearthed evidence, Bluebeard is the definitive story of a sociopath who wielded love as a deadly weapon. 

And it's the story of a woman who discovered the unthinkable about her husband...and dared to fight back. 

MY REVIEW

I feel like this is cheating a little, as once I started listening I found out that this audiobook is more a dramatisation of a story, rather than a book being read aloud by voice actors. There's background noise and full dialogue, like listening to a really intense episode of Coronation Street. It's not my usual preference and I wouldn't have picked it if I had known. That being said, the premise was intriguing (and I will admit that I didn't have enough signal in the muddy, rainy fields of Download Festival, so was limited in my choice!) so I stuck with it. 

Similarly to a play, the main character (Kat) reads her diary entries in a monologue style, which is then played out or continued through dialogue. To tell the story of the husband (James Watson), the dialogue is in the form of a police interview following his arrest. It took me a little while to get used to this style and the background noise was quite distracting. Music, chatter, footsteps, doors opening, and traffic for example. After the first few chapters, this wasn't too much of an issue and I started to enjoy this dramatised style. 

The story follows Kat as she meets, falls in love with, and marries "Walter" (not his real name!). Things seem to be going great but Kat soon starts to become suspicious and afraid of Walter's behaviour. She hires a private detective and they unravel Walter's vicious, cunning, and evil double life together. 

The fact that this is based on a true story makes it all the more compelling. I quickly fell down the Google rabbit hole trying to find more information about these crimes. I read quite a lot of true crime and listen to podcasts, this was a really engaging and unique way of telling me the story in a way that avoids the dryness and morbidity of a straightforward "these are the facts in all their gruesome detail" style. 

I love thrillers and I love true crime so this was actually right up my street and I did enjoy it. Would I choose to listen to a dramatisation of a story rather than a book being read aloud by narrators/voice actors? Probably not. Would I turn it off if I downloaded one without realising? Also no :)

If you like listening to plays or dramatisations and enjoy thrillers, you'll enjoy this. It's clearly very well done, it just wasn't my cup of tea!

What do you think? 

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