The Ancestor
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.29
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Heather Masters
About this listen
From the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally best-selling author of the Angelology series comes a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges listeners into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.
It feels like a fairy tale when Alberta ”Bert” Monte receives a letter addressed to “Countess Alberta Montebianco” at her Hudson Valley, New York, home that claims she’s inherited a noble title, money, and a castle in Italy. While Bert is more than a little skeptical, the mystery of her aristocratic family’s past, and the chance to escape her stressful life for a luxury holiday in Italy, is too good to pass up.
At first, her inheritance seems like a dream come true: a champagne-drenched trip on a private jet to Turin, Italy; lawyers with lists of artwork and jewels bequeathed to Bert; a helicopter ride to an ancestral castle nestled in the Italian Alps below Mont Blanc; a portrait gallery of ancestors Bert never knew existed; and a cellar of expensive vintage wine for Bert to drink. But her ancestry has a dark side, and Bert soon learns that her family history is particularly complicated. As Bert begins to unravel the Montebianco secrets, she begins to realize her true inheritance lies not in a legacy of ancestral treasures, but in her very genes.
©2020 Danielle Trussoni (P)2020 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Switch House: A Short Novel
- By: Tim Meyer
- Narrated by: Kristin Price
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Angela and Terry return home after several grueling months of filming the popular television show, Let's Switch Houses!, only to find their residence in ruin. Sure, the décor and framed photographs are the same; the color of the walls hasn't changed; the furniture sits unmoved. But something is off. Their quiet New Jersey home feels tainted. Angela can sense it. Crawling inside her. Infecting her mind. Poisoning her thoughts. Then the nightmares begin. Awful, lucid visions that cause her to question her own reality.
-
-
Not your typical Ghost Story
- By Chris McCormick on 02-23-22
By: Tim Meyer
-
Angelopolis
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her new wings a betrayal that haunts him still. Now an elite angel hunter for the Society of Angelology, he pursues his mission with single-minded devotion: to capture, imprison, and eliminate her kind. But when Evangeline suddenly appears on a twilit Paris street, Verlaine finds her nature to be unlike any of the other creatures he so mercilessly pursues, casting him into a spiral of doubt and confusion that only grows when she is abducted before his eyes....
-
-
Deeper mysteries
- By Pam on 04-13-13
-
The Fortress
- A Love Story
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Danielle Trussoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From their first kiss, 27-year-old writer Danielle Trussoni is spellbound by a novelist from Bulgaria. The two share a love of jazz and books and travel, passions that intensify their whirlwind romance. Eight years later, hopeful to renew their marriage, Danielle and her husband move to the south of France, to a picturesque medieval village in the Languedoc. It is here, in a haunted stone fortress built by the Knights Templar, that she comes to understand the dark, subterranean forces that have been following her all along.
-
-
The healing therapy you needed but were afraid to face
- By Krista Steele on 10-11-22
-
Boys in the Valley
- By: Philip Fracassi
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
St. Vincent's Orphanage for Boys. Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania. Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work, learn, and worship. Peter Barlow, orphaned as a child by a gruesome murder, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future...a family. Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, occult symbols carved into his flesh. His death releases an ancient evil that spreads like sickness, infecting St. Vincent's and the children within.
-
-
Absolutely deserves five stars
- By wisconsinclark on 08-04-24
By: Philip Fracassi
-
The Book of Accidents
- A Novel
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, George Newbern
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister walked in the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again...to Oliver.
-
-
not worth my time.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-26-21
By: Chuck Wendig
-
The September House
- By: Carissa Orlando
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. Margaret is not most people. Margaret is staying.
-
-
Insufferable.
- By Jeremy Brandon on 09-23-23
By: Carissa Orlando
-
The Switch House: A Short Novel
- By: Tim Meyer
- Narrated by: Kristin Price
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Angela and Terry return home after several grueling months of filming the popular television show, Let's Switch Houses!, only to find their residence in ruin. Sure, the décor and framed photographs are the same; the color of the walls hasn't changed; the furniture sits unmoved. But something is off. Their quiet New Jersey home feels tainted. Angela can sense it. Crawling inside her. Infecting her mind. Poisoning her thoughts. Then the nightmares begin. Awful, lucid visions that cause her to question her own reality.
-
-
Not your typical Ghost Story
- By Chris McCormick on 02-23-22
By: Tim Meyer
-
Angelopolis
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her new wings a betrayal that haunts him still. Now an elite angel hunter for the Society of Angelology, he pursues his mission with single-minded devotion: to capture, imprison, and eliminate her kind. But when Evangeline suddenly appears on a twilit Paris street, Verlaine finds her nature to be unlike any of the other creatures he so mercilessly pursues, casting him into a spiral of doubt and confusion that only grows when she is abducted before his eyes....
-
-
Deeper mysteries
- By Pam on 04-13-13
-
The Fortress
- A Love Story
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Danielle Trussoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From their first kiss, 27-year-old writer Danielle Trussoni is spellbound by a novelist from Bulgaria. The two share a love of jazz and books and travel, passions that intensify their whirlwind romance. Eight years later, hopeful to renew their marriage, Danielle and her husband move to the south of France, to a picturesque medieval village in the Languedoc. It is here, in a haunted stone fortress built by the Knights Templar, that she comes to understand the dark, subterranean forces that have been following her all along.
-
-
The healing therapy you needed but were afraid to face
- By Krista Steele on 10-11-22
-
Boys in the Valley
- By: Philip Fracassi
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
St. Vincent's Orphanage for Boys. Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania. Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work, learn, and worship. Peter Barlow, orphaned as a child by a gruesome murder, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future...a family. Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, occult symbols carved into his flesh. His death releases an ancient evil that spreads like sickness, infecting St. Vincent's and the children within.
-
-
Absolutely deserves five stars
- By wisconsinclark on 08-04-24
By: Philip Fracassi
-
The Book of Accidents
- A Novel
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, George Newbern
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister walked in the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again...to Oliver.
-
-
not worth my time.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-26-21
By: Chuck Wendig
-
The September House
- By: Carissa Orlando
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. Margaret is not most people. Margaret is staying.
-
-
Insufferable.
- By Jeremy Brandon on 09-23-23
By: Carissa Orlando
-
Just Like Home
- By: Sarah Gailey
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family.
-
-
Haunted People in a Haunted Place
- By Gus on 11-15-22
By: Sarah Gailey
-
Out of Nowhere
- By: Sandra Brown
- Narrated by: Kyf Brewer, Sandra Brown
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a Texas county fair, children’s book author Elle Portman is enjoying a rare night out with her favorite cowboy: her two-year-old son, Charlie. But just as they’re about to head home, the unthinkable happens: a shooter opens fire into the crowd, causing widespread panic to erupt all around them. Also caught in the melee is corporate consultant Calder Hudson. When he wakes up in the hospital, he's told he's lucky. Others didn't fare we well, which instills in Calder a furious determination to get justice.
-
-
Hope you like a lot of sex
- By Candace P. Skurnik on 08-10-23
By: Sandra Brown
-
The Hacienda
- By: Isabel Cañas
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal, Lee Osorio
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined. Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her. Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.
-
-
Latine Gothic Horror
- By Mary Rodriguez on 03-07-23
By: Isabel Cañas
-
Thunderhead
- By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nora Kelly, a young archaeologist in Santa Fe, receives a letter written 16 years ago, yet mysteriously mailed only recently. In it her father, long believed dead, hints at a fantastic discovery that will make him famous and rich - the lost city of an ancient civilization that suddenly vanished a thousand years ago. Now Nora is leading an expedition into a harsh, remote corner of Utah's canyon country, but what she unearths will be the newest of horrors.
-
-
Brain Candy
- By Leesa Morrow on 08-31-10
By: Douglas Preston, and others
-
The Wives
- By: Tarryn Fisher
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself. But one day, while you’re doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket—an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it’s another of the wives.
-
-
Unlikeable main character, author cheats
- By Timothy Masters on 02-12-20
By: Tarryn Fisher
-
Silver Nitrate
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Gisela Chipe
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy.
-
-
Good story but the narrator…
- By MAW on 07-21-23
-
The Woman in the Mirror
- A Novel
- By: Rebecca James
- Narrated by: Charlotte Newton-John, Katharine Mangold
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than two centuries, Winterbourne Hall has stood atop a bluff overseeing the English countryside of Cornwall and the sea beyond. In 1947, Londoner Alice Miller accepts a post as governess at Winterbourne, looking after Captain Jonathan de Grey’s twin children. Falling under the de Greys’ spell, Alice believes the family will heal her own past sorrows. But then, the twins’ adoration becomes deceitful and taunting. Their father, ever distant, turns spiteful and cruel. The manor itself seems to lash out. Alice finds her surroundings subtly altered, her air slightly chilled.
-
-
Superb Gothic
- By MamaBear on 02-02-21
By: Rebecca James
-
The Neil Gaiman Reader
- Fiction
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman, George Guidall, Lenny Henry, and others
- Length: 27 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning Gaiman’s career to date, The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction is a captivating collection from one of the world’s most beloved writers, chosen by those who know his work best: his devoted fans. A brilliant representation of Gaiman's groundbreaking, entrancing, endlessly imaginative fiction, this captivating volume includes excerpts from each of his five novels for adults—Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane—and nearly fifty of his short stories.
-
-
52 Bits of Awesome
- By Southard on 08-11-21
By: Neil Gaiman
-
The Castle of Otranto
- By: Horace Walpole
- Narrated by: Tony Jay
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the day of his wedding, Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is killed under mysterious circumstances. His calculating father, Manfred, fears that his dynasty will now come to an end and determines to marry his son's bride himself, despite the fact he is already married. But a series of terrifying supernatural omens soon threaten this unlawful union, as the curse placed on Manfred's ancestor, who usurped the lawful Prince of Otranto, begins to unfold.
-
-
As for literary history
- By Brian on 07-07-06
By: Horace Walpole
-
Our Little Lies
- By: Sue Watson
- Narrated by: Katie Villa
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marianne has a life others dream of. A beautiful townhouse on the best street in the neighbourhood. Three bright children who are her pride and joy. Sometimes her past still hurts: losing her mother early, growing up in foster care. But her husband, Simon, is always there. A successful surgeon, he’s the envy of every woman they’ve ever met. Flowers, gifts, trips to France: nothing is too good for his family. Then Simon says another woman’s name. The way he lingers on it, Caroline, gives Marianne a shudder of suspicion, but she knows it’s nothing - she can’t entertain this flash of paranoia.
-
-
WOW. FINALLY. BRAVO. 👏🏽👌🏽
- By Jenn on 10-13-18
By: Sue Watson
-
When She Returned
- By: Lucinda Berry
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo, Lauren Ezzo, Amy McFadden
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kate Bennett vanished from a parking lot eleven years ago, leaving behind her husband and young daughter. When she shows up at a Montana gas station, clutching an infant and screaming for help, investigators believe she may have been abducted by a cult. Kate’s return flips her family’s world upside down—her husband is remarried, and her daughter barely remembers her. Kate herself doesn’t look or act like she did before.
-
-
Beware.... terrible ending.
- By Anonymous User on 11-28-19
By: Lucinda Berry
-
The Vampire Wish: The Complete Series (Dark World)
- By: Michelle Madow
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Annika never thought of herself as weak - until vampires murdered her parents and kidnapped her to their hidden kingdom of the Vale. As a brand-new blood slave, Annika must survive her dangerous new circumstances - or face death from the wolves prowling the Vale's enchanted walls. But sparks fly when she meets the vampire prince Jacen, and while she hates the thought of falling for the enemy, her connection with the mysterious prince could be the key to her freedom.
-
-
Great listen to get lost in the supernatural
- By Roxann Garcia on 09-04-18
By: Michelle Madow
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Angelology
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 21 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Now, at 23, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans.
-
-
Very Pleasant Divine Suprise
- By Angela on 05-08-10
-
The Puzzle Master
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.
-
-
Nope
- By scubadiversong on 06-25-23
-
The Puzzle Box
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the Year of the Wood Dragon, and the ingenious Mike Brink has been invited to Tokyo, Japan, to open the legendary Dragon Box. The box was constructed during one of Japan’s most tumultuous periods, when the samurai class was disbanded and the shogun lost power. In this moment of crisis, Emperor Meiji locked a priceless Imperial secret in the Dragon Box. Only two people knew how to open the box—Meiji and the box’s sadistic constructor—and both died without telling a soul what was inside or how to open it.
-
-
a great new read
- By Kathryn E. Libby on 10-17-24
-
The Fortress
- A Love Story
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Danielle Trussoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From their first kiss, 27-year-old writer Danielle Trussoni is spellbound by a novelist from Bulgaria. The two share a love of jazz and books and travel, passions that intensify their whirlwind romance. Eight years later, hopeful to renew their marriage, Danielle and her husband move to the south of France, to a picturesque medieval village in the Languedoc. It is here, in a haunted stone fortress built by the Knights Templar, that she comes to understand the dark, subterranean forces that have been following her all along.
-
-
The healing therapy you needed but were afraid to face
- By Krista Steele on 10-11-22
-
Angelopolis
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her new wings a betrayal that haunts him still. Now an elite angel hunter for the Society of Angelology, he pursues his mission with single-minded devotion: to capture, imprison, and eliminate her kind. But when Evangeline suddenly appears on a twilit Paris street, Verlaine finds her nature to be unlike any of the other creatures he so mercilessly pursues, casting him into a spiral of doubt and confusion that only grows when she is abducted before his eyes....
-
-
Deeper mysteries
- By Pam on 04-13-13
-
The Drift
- A Novel
- By: C. J. Tudor
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage, Nathalie Buscombe, Rachel Handshaw
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. After she was evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors. They’ll need to work together to escape—with their sanity and secrets intact. Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She’s in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board.
-
-
Good Book
- By David A on 02-15-23
By: C. J. Tudor
-
Angelology
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 21 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Now, at 23, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans.
-
-
Very Pleasant Divine Suprise
- By Angela on 05-08-10
-
The Puzzle Master
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.
-
-
Nope
- By scubadiversong on 06-25-23
-
The Puzzle Box
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the Year of the Wood Dragon, and the ingenious Mike Brink has been invited to Tokyo, Japan, to open the legendary Dragon Box. The box was constructed during one of Japan’s most tumultuous periods, when the samurai class was disbanded and the shogun lost power. In this moment of crisis, Emperor Meiji locked a priceless Imperial secret in the Dragon Box. Only two people knew how to open the box—Meiji and the box’s sadistic constructor—and both died without telling a soul what was inside or how to open it.
-
-
a great new read
- By Kathryn E. Libby on 10-17-24
-
The Fortress
- A Love Story
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Danielle Trussoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From their first kiss, 27-year-old writer Danielle Trussoni is spellbound by a novelist from Bulgaria. The two share a love of jazz and books and travel, passions that intensify their whirlwind romance. Eight years later, hopeful to renew their marriage, Danielle and her husband move to the south of France, to a picturesque medieval village in the Languedoc. It is here, in a haunted stone fortress built by the Knights Templar, that she comes to understand the dark, subterranean forces that have been following her all along.
-
-
The healing therapy you needed but were afraid to face
- By Krista Steele on 10-11-22
-
Angelopolis
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her new wings a betrayal that haunts him still. Now an elite angel hunter for the Society of Angelology, he pursues his mission with single-minded devotion: to capture, imprison, and eliminate her kind. But when Evangeline suddenly appears on a twilit Paris street, Verlaine finds her nature to be unlike any of the other creatures he so mercilessly pursues, casting him into a spiral of doubt and confusion that only grows when she is abducted before his eyes....
-
-
Deeper mysteries
- By Pam on 04-13-13
-
The Drift
- A Novel
- By: C. J. Tudor
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage, Nathalie Buscombe, Rachel Handshaw
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. After she was evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors. They’ll need to work together to escape—with their sanity and secrets intact. Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She’s in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board.
-
-
Good Book
- By David A on 02-15-23
By: C. J. Tudor
-
You Can Stay
- By: Elle Connel
- Narrated by: Melanie MacHugh, Peter Hannah
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Someone is hunting Connor. Alone, freezing, in the wilderness of Bodmin Moor, on an elite Special Forces training exercise, he'd be a fool to scorn the kindness of a local stranger. Wouldn't he? At first, Eilidh seems to be an impeccable host. She offers Connor food and a warm bed—he finds it nearly impossible to leave her charming farmhouse. But the choice isn't his to make. There have been others before. None, though, as perfect as him.
-
-
A Great Little Psychological Thriller
- By Zero Calvin on 09-16-22
By: Elle Connel
-
Safe
- A Novel
- By: S. K. Barnett
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jenny Kristal was six years old when she was snatched off the sidewalk from her quiet suburban neighborhood. Twelve years later, she's miraculously returned home after escaping her kidnappers - but as her parents and older brother welcome her back, the questions begin to mount. Where has she been all these years? Why is she back now? And is home really the safest place for her...or for any of them?
-
-
It's SAFE To Say that SAFE Is A Wasted Credit!
- By MA Reviewer on 06-27-20
By: S. K. Barnett
-
The Bottoms
- By: Joe R. Lansdale
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1933 in East Texas and the Depression lingers in the air like a slow-moving storm. When a young Harry Collins and his little sister stumble across the body of a black woman who has been savagely mutilated and left to die in the bottoms of the Sabine River, their small town is instantly charged with tension. When a second body turns up, this time of a white woman, there is little Harry can do from stopping his Klan neighbors from lynching an innocent black man.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Jennifer Brouillard on 03-23-23
By: Joe R. Lansdale
-
Prom Mom
- A Novel
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amber Glass has spent her entire adult life putting as much distance as possible between her and her hometown of Baltimore, where she fears she will forever be known as “Prom Mom”—the girl who allegedly killed her baby on the night of the prom after her date, Joe Simpson, abandoned her to pursue the girl he really liked. But when circumstances bring Amber back to the city, she realizes she can have a second chance—as long as she stays away from Joe, now a successful commercial real estate developer, married to a plastic surgeon, Meredith, to whom he is devoted.
-
-
Like Liberal Rants? You‘lol love this novel…
- By K on 07-31-23
By: Laura Lippman
-
In the Valley of the Sun: A Novel
- By: Andy Davidson
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deftly written and utterly addictive, this Western literary horror debut will find a home with fans of authors like Joe Hill, Cormac McCarthy, and Anne Rice. One night in 1980, a man becomes a monster. Haunted by his past, Travis Stillwell spends his nights searching out women in West Texas honky-tonks. What he does with them doesn't make him proud, just quiets the demons for a little while. But after Travis crosses paths one night with a mysterious pale-skinned girl, he wakes weak and bloodied.
-
-
WOW!
- By Colin on 08-20-20
By: Andy Davidson
-
The Majesties
- A Novel
- By: Tiffany Tsao
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gwendolyn and Estella have always been as close as sisters can be. Growing up in a wealthy, eminent, and sometimes deceitful family, they’ve relied on each other for support and confidence. But now Gwendolyn is lying in a coma, the sole survivor of Estella’s poisoning of their whole clan. As Gwendolyn struggles to regain consciousness, she desperately retraces her memories, trying to uncover the moment that led to this shocking act.
-
-
A Must Listen
- By Yoshay on 08-27-20
By: Tiffany Tsao
-
The Grip of It
- By: Jac Jemc
- Narrated by: Amy McFadden, Michael David Axtell
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julie and James settle into a house in a small town outside the city where they met. The move - prompted by James' penchant for gambling, his inability to keep his impulses in check - is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to leave behind their usual haunts and start afresh. But this house, which sits between lake and forest, has plans for the unsuspecting couple.
-
-
Wait....what??
- By Ali M. Fitzgerald on 11-10-17
By: Jac Jemc
-
Catherine House
- A Novel
- By: Elisabeth Thomas
- Narrated by: Inés del Castillo
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal-arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment has produced some of the world’s best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years - summers included - completely removed from the outside world.
-
-
Not worth a credit - don’t bother
- By David Tousey on 05-17-20
By: Elisabeth Thomas
-
When the Reckoning Comes
- A Novel
- By: LaTanya McQueen
- Narrated by: Kara Young
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder. But now Mira is back to attend Celine's wedding at the plantation.
-
-
I don’t think I’m the audience
- By Mia on 02-10-22
By: LaTanya McQueen
-
We Need to Do Something
- By: Max Booth III
- Narrated by: Linda Jones
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Sierra Mccormick, Vinessa Shaw, and Pat Healy! A family on the verge of self-destruction finds themselves isolated in their bathroom during a tornado warning.
-
-
Unsure how I feel
- By J. Nickey on 01-30-21
By: Max Booth III
-
I Remember You
- A Ghost Story
- By: Yrsa Sigurdardottir
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an isolated village in the Icelandic Westfjords, three friends set to work renovating a rundown house. But soon, they realize they are not as alone as they thought. Something wants them to leave, and it's making its presence felt. Meanwhile, in a town across the fjord, a young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son. When the two stories collide, the terrifying truth is uncovered.
-
-
Absolutely terrifying web of misfortune
- By jksullycats on 06-10-18
-
The Bone Weaver's Orchard
- By: Sarah Read
- Narrated by: Elaine Wise
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He's run away home. That's what they say every time one of Charley Winslow's friends vanishes from The Old Cross School for Boys. It's just a tall tale. That's what they tell Charley when he sees the ragged grey figure stalking the abbey halls at night. When Charley follows his pet insects to a pool of blood behind a false wall, he could run and let those stones bury their secrets.
-
-
Not for me
- By JRK on 11-16-23
By: Sarah Read
What listeners say about The Ancestor
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeffrey H Bluske
- 04-13-20
The Ancestor by Trussoni
A great gothic tale crammed with unbelievable characters brought to life in a castle in the Italian Alps. This story of an inheritance touches on the human emotions of love and hate, loyalty and legend, hope and responsibility. I love ancestry and the truth that comes from it. Like it or not, DNA does not lie. See for yourself. This is truly a novel to get lost in, finding your own roots and comparisons. Well written and narrated superbly by Heather Masters. A must listen or read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 11-10-23
It Could Have Been Better If....(Spoiler Alert)
First of all, I am a huge, huge fan of the genre. I am becoming a big fan of Danielle Trussoni.
I am old school, and I believe this could have been a terrific horror story. I would have liked to see the family secret be that they are werewolves, or vampires, or immortal, instead of Yeti. It's easier to believe in Werewolves than it is to believe in Yeti's in Europe. Vita could have been the 102 year old countess who did not look a day over 27. But. It's not my story. Not my characters. I still enjoyed it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lauren Goodsmith
- 05-24-20
Inferior modern gothic, more parody than homage
I was really looking forward to this, as a bit of fun neo-gothic escapism. The New York Times book review, which invoked Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey ( which, in turn and at its time, head invoked The Castle of Otranto) made me expect much, much more. instead, I found The Ancestor written in such broad stoke, lacking in nuance, as to read as parody rather than smart modern "take" on the genre, or as homage. The orotahonist/heroine unfortunately comes across as something of a simpleton (rather than as an intelligent, though rather naive and impressionable young woman, as in those earlier classic works). And it made no sense at all that, within the first few of chapters, her ex-husband ostensibly storms off without explanation, and she readily believes it's because he was angered by her insistence on knowing information about her family that he doesn't want to disclose-- and blames herself!-- when he is the one that's being evasive! it does not help at all that the audio book is being narrated by someone who sounds like they're about 18 years old. The alternatingly plaintive and strident tone wore on me and further diminished the material. Could not get through it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Natasha Darling
- 06-06-20
Provocative but potential unrealized
The story of (spoiler) the role of the icemen in the narrator’s life provocatively unfolds to lead us to think about what it means to be human. The main character, however, repeatedly behaves in an unbelievably passive manner when told she is the new heir and boss. She is attacked by an employee’s dog, and held prisoner in the castle, failing to assert her rights as heir. She strangely makes no case for her staff to organize a helicopter for her husband’s visit when the future of the family depends on her having a child. We are told her husband has skills that are needed in organizing the various businesses, yet she doesn’t try to assert her right to bring him in. Despite these plot issues, the author provides a sense of place that will make you feel you have experienced Italy’s northern Alpine region and you have experienced what it might be like to meet a tribe of distant hominid ancestors. You know what they look like. You will have considered all the issues of contact and will never feel the same about the Alps or flat feet.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kacey
- 08-21-24
interesting concept
I've not read a book like this before about well what this book is about. I don't want to spoil it. I feel Luke there could have been better explanations with some things.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- likes puzzles
- 04-23-20
Another masterpiece by Ms. Trussoni
The story was fascinating and created wonderful imagery in my mind. All heightened by the fantastic acting by the Ms. Masters.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ruthi
- 04-14-20
Very unique
I really enjoyed this story. The writing, while being a bit too easy of a read, is compelling enough to keep on during the building of the plot & ive not ever read anything with a plot quite like this before which was a pleasant surprise (113 books read this year; it’s hard to surprise me). Overall, I am pleased with this purchase and definitely recommend this novel especially for fans of Victorian Gothic horror novels.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tracy
- 05-05-20
Love this author
Her books make you think “could this be true?” Maybe.....
This one was very Interesting. I love the descriptions of the mountains
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Samantha F
- 09-26-20
It is just another mythology gone wrong
This book have such a strong potential to be more but the delivery of the story line just broken at the beginning,the middle and finally at the end. It have a very intriguing ideology but they never go further than that. I was hoping for more WOW but it fell flat. The narrator was ok but not great. I can not figure out if she was mad,sad or anything. I kept going and see where it would take me. It took me to no where. The more I listened,the more I wish for it to end. It was draining me to have to keep going. But as the story seems to get a little better. They introduced all these characters that some I seriously thought might be strong point. It went no where again. Skip it if you want more mystery and not predictability.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Judy Davis-Perry
- 10-20-23
I enjoyed very much!
While it is true that one can imagine scenarios arising from the storyline, the reader should not pretend that they are the writer. Let the writer tell her story even as the characters dictate the story to her (yes, that is a real thing that happens as you write), and Danielle Trussoni did such a marvelous job in telling their story. Her descriptions were vivid and realistic. Her relating of the emotions of Bert, Vita, and Elenor were so real that you could feel them. I used to go the the nursing home where my wife was a nurse, and sit for hours listening to the life stories of the elderly; for me Trussoni was as delightful and fascinating as those of the elderly in the nursing home. And, YES, that is a high compliment.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!