Summary
A young woman is found dead with a mysterious brand seared into her skin – a horseshoe pierced by an arrow – and Detective Josie Quinn must race through the shadowed streets of Denton before another life is claimed. Lisa Regan’s Close Her Eyes is the seventeenth entry in her bestselling Detective Josie Quinn series, and it arrives with all the propulsive force and emotional complexity that loyal fans have come to demand. This is small-town crime fiction operating at its most relentless, where every secret unearthed only deepens the darkness beneath.
Audiobook Info
- Author: Lisa Regan
- Narrator: Kate Handford
- Duration: 12 hours and 15 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Release Date: January 4, 2022
- Series: Detective Josie Quinn
- Book: 17
Review
Seventeen books into a series, lesser authors begin to coast – Lisa Regan does the opposite. Close Her Eyes opens with the discovery of nineteen-year-old Sharon Eddy, a beloved granddaughter found lifeless near Kettlewell Creek, and from that first devastating scene, Regan engineers a plot that refuses to release its grip. What distinguishes this installment from the broader thriller landscape is the symbolic weight Regan assigns to her central clue: a sinister brand – a horseshoe pierced by an arrow – found on multiple victims. It is an image that functions simultaneously as a forensic puzzle and a philosophical statement about the scars trauma leaves behind, visible and otherwise. Regan understands that the best mystery fiction does not simply ask “who did it?” but “what kind of world allows this to happen?”
Kate Handford’s narration is the engine that drives this audiobook from unsettling to genuinely haunting. Handford possesses a rare skill among audiobook narrators: the ability to differentiate characters not merely through pitch or accent, but through emotional texture. Josie Quinn in Handford’s hands is not simply a determined detective – she is a woman carrying accumulated grief, and that weight is audible in every line reading. When the investigation tightens and the danger edges toward Josie’s inner circle, Handford escalates the tension with a precision that feels almost musical, modulating pace and tone to mirror the story’s psychological stakes. Listeners who have followed the series will find her portrayal deeply satisfying; newcomers will be compelled to go back and start from book one.
Regan’s structural command is impressive throughout. She plants connections between victims with the patience of a novelist who trusts her readers, allowing the web of secrets beneath Denton’s surface to emerge organically rather than through convenient exposition. The thematic core – how past traumas brand individuals just as surely as any physical mark – gives the thriller an introspective dimension that elevates it well beyond procedural entertainment. Josie’s own history with violence and loss is never exploited cheaply here; instead, it becomes a lens through which the investigation gains emotional resonance. The writing asks what it costs a person to keep hunting darkness when darkness has already found them.
As a listening experience, Close Her Eyes is particularly well-suited to long commutes or late-night sessions when the atmosphere outside mirrors the tension within the narrative. The pacing moves in purposeful waves – moments of procedural detail giving way to sudden revelations that demand an immediate rewind just to confirm what you heard. The mid-section, where Josie begins tracing connections between the branded victims and a buried chapter of Denton’s history, is the audiobook’s most gripping stretch, a sequence where plot and character development fuse into something genuinely compelling. Regan knows exactly when to tighten the screws.
This audiobook will resonate most powerfully with listeners who favor psychological depth alongside their suspense – those who want a thriller that lingers after the final chapter closes. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Tami Hoag, or Melinda Leigh will find Close Her Eyes immediately appealing. That said, the emotional intelligence of Regan’s writing and Handford’s performance makes this accessible and rewarding even for listeners discovering Josie Quinn for the very first time. It is, at its core, a story about resilience in the face of the inexplicable – and that is a theme that needs no prior reading list to hit home.
Download & Listen
If the branded mystery of Kettlewell Creek has you gripped, Close Her Eyes by Lisa Regan is ready and waiting for you at KTAudiobooks.com – where you can download and start listening in minutes. Kate Handford’s immersive narration makes this one of the most compelling entries in the Detective Josie Quinn series, and it deserves to be heard in full. Head to KTAudiobooks.com today and let Denton’s darkest secrets pull you in.
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