The Halo Effect

A Novel

By: Anne D. LeClaire

Narrated by: Will Damron, Karen Peakes

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

In this tour de force, a father, shaken by tragedy, tries to avenge his daughter's murder - and restore his family's shattered life.

It was supposed to be a typical October evening for renowned portrait artist Will Light. Over dinner of lamb tagine, his wife, Sophie, would share news about chorus rehearsals for the upcoming holiday concert, and their teenage daughter, Lucy, would chatter about French club and field hockey. Only Lucy never came home. Her body was found, days later, in the woods.

The Eastern Seaboard town of Port Fortune used to be Will's comfort. Now, there's no safe harbor for him. Not even when Father Gervase asks Will to paint portraits of saints for the new cathedral. Using the townspeople as models, Will sees in each face only a mask of the darkness of evil. And he just might be painting his daughter's killer.

As Will navigates his rage and heartbreak, Sophie tries to move on; Father Gervase becomes an unexpected ally; and Rain, Lucy's best friend, shrouds herself in a near-silent fugue. Their paths collide in a series of inextricably linked, dark, dangerous moments that could lead to their undoing...or to their redemption.

©2017 Anne D. LeClaire (P)2017 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

A good read

A good story I liked it The two narrators narrating the same character at different points in the book was to say the least interesting

Beautiful, heartbreaking

The setting is a small town just outside Boston, and the narrators use such a true, non-Hollywood accent that the story gets in your bones. Will Damron's first person narrative is anguish itself. It is also love and sorrow and loss and resignation and hope, both cruel and desperately optimistic. Karen Peakes' masterful third person narration moves the story along with dialogue and different characters' thoughts and observations. Unlike the unskilled voice artists I encounter too often in Audible books, Damron and Peakes do not strain to represent different characters; Peakes doesn't try to use a lower register for male characters, like some 3rd grader acting the dad role. The story is a nightmare that I would rather not face (hence the four 🌟), but LeClaire's writing is so skillful and the performances so masterful that I stayed with it, and recommend it with all my heart.

Plot has good depth

The ending could of been more defined and detailed. I'm still unsure of what happened at the end.

Slow going

The description of this one was a little misleading. Instead of a thriller, it was more of a slow moving story that took to long to get to the point.

held out for 6 chapters

waiting for something interesting to happen. should be called "chronicles of a guy wallowing" boring.

The Halo Effect

I finished this in two days. It's ending was not anticipated!
It leaves you wondering what I would do and with more
understanding of others in that position.

I can't begin to imagine...

I found this book heartbreaking. That's not to say I don't think it is a good book, what I am saying is that the protagonist is a father (Will Light) whose daughter has been murdered. Through most of the book you hear his narrative of his personal struggle with life after his daughter. You see a man who went from a relatively happy home life with a good marriage to a lonely bitter man who purchases an illegal hand gun, has started drinking, has anger issues and whose wife decides to move out and get her own apartment because she can't deal with him any longer.
The ending is a surprise because the story leads to an obvious person but of course that is not the case. You don't find out who killed the Light's daughter until about 20 minutes before the end. That took the predictability right out! Although this book is classified a mystery and you don't know who committed the murder until the end, I didn't find it suspenseful, instead I found it more emotional.
I found the narration to be a little on the slower side and had to listen at 1.25 speed. The narrators did a super job getting the Massachusetts accent.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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I loved the story but not reader

I really liked the story but the male reader sounded Southern not from Massachusetts. This was irritating throughout the book. I would suggest reading this one in print.

Unexpected

A touching book about the journeys through grief and finding faith in everyday miracles. Slow moving but in a good way because the pauses allow time for thought and introspection.

Proceed with caution

The story reminded me why I stopped reading Joyce Carol Oates. Ultimately, I did finish, and I was glad of it. Not for the feint of heart. Not for those who have buried a child.