Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Jackaby
    Jackaby
    Jackaby
    Audiobook7 hours

    Jackaby

    Written by William Ritter

    Narrated by Nicola Barber

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1890, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary-including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby's assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is on the loose. The police are convinced it's an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is certain the foul deeds are the work of the kind of creature whose very existence the local police seem adamant to deny. While Abigail finds herself drawn to Jackaby's keen intelligence and his sensitivity to phenomena others barely perceive, her feelings are confused by the presence of Charlie, a handsome young policeman willing to help Jackaby and Abigail on the case. But is Charlie's offer a sincere desire to be of service, or is some darker motive at work.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateSep 16, 2014
    ISBN9781622314836
    Jackaby

    More audiobooks from William Ritter

    Related to Jackaby

    Titles in the series (4)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    YA Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Selkie

      Feb 3, 2022

      Selkie
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Great Miami Ripoff

      Apr 14, 2020

      The Great Miami Ripoff
      2 min read

    • Article

      Splash

      Feb 9, 2018

      Splash
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tomorrows

      Mar 15, 2022

      The night, as most nights, was like a dream. At ten, once I’d fed the dog the last scraps off the stove. Once I’d cursed the cat for scratching up my mama’s antique furniture, then welcomed him back into my arms. Once I’d slicked my hair into a ponyt

      26 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Go on, LET YOUR HAIR DOWN!

      Aug 26, 2021

      Go on, LET YOUR HAIR DOWN!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      All I Want For Christmas

      Dec 16, 2020

      IT was more than an icicle. More like an icy boulder, oversized and murkily white, faceted like a cartoon jewel and, shortly, dripping. It had lurked beneath a low stone bridge at the bottom of the wood, where sycamore thickets bald for winter gave w

      18 min read

    • Article

      The Money Box

      Jun 10, 2022

      This is not a morality tale. It’s simply a story. It began innocently enough, over a lunch of beef pho in the Financial District, when my friend Paolo first mentioned the Money Box. Paolo was a pupa of industry then, waiting to emerge as a titan. He

      19 min read

    • Article

      A Brief Ghostly Encounter…

      Nov 30, 2020

      A Brief Ghostly Encounter…
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Periodic Stranger

      Mar 2, 2017

      My roots are in a hilltop village west of Matera, where rabbit and boar run riot in the fields. Figs, apricots, and pears hang in heavy clusters, at eye-level and within easy reach. There, the local girls are famous for their calves, made firm and st

      21 min read

    • Article

      The Periodic Stranger: When exile becomes home.

      Dec 12, 2013

      My roots are in a hilltop village west of Matera, where rabbit and boar run riot in the fields. Figs, apricots, and pears hang in heavy clusters, at eye-level and within easy reach. There, the local girls are famous for their calves, made firm and st

      21 min read

    • Article

      Paul Heiney

      Mar 26, 2021

      Paul Heiney
      3 min read

    • Article

      Paul Heiney

      Mar 26, 2021

      Paul Heiney
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    • Article

      Scotch and Water

      Dec 28, 2021

      Scotch and Water
      2 min read

    • Article

      Honeymoon

      Mar 15, 2019

      Honeymoon
      15 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad

      Dec 9, 2019

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bonjour Monsieur

      Mar 16, 2020

      Bonjour Monsieur
      2 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      It’s Chucking-out Time

      Jun 11, 2020

      AS soon as the starter pistol banged, I threw the fishing kit into the car and went to see ‘someone who isn’t a direct member of your household’. Partly it was to chuck a fly, partly to savour the sheer joy of escaping the family. Much as one loves o

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton

      Jan 19, 2021

      An excerpt from a debut novel Booklist calls "sharp and haunting." The post ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton appeared first on The Millions.

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Selkie Moon

      Dec 3, 2020

      The Selkie Moon
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Jackaby

    4/5

    561 ratings67 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Good book with fun premise and characters, but the narration of Jackaby drove me nuts. It was overdone and distracting.
    • 4/5
      I did not like the voice of Jackaby. It was very stilted and boring where it should have sounded more charismatic. It may have even been better as slightly flighty. Instead it was a poor imitation of Cumberbatches’s Sherlock. Everyone else’s voices were on point.
    • 4/5
      Although I guess the "bad guy" as soon as we met them I enjoyed this very much. The characters are likable and I found the story itself entertaining.
    • 3/5
      Before I read Jackaby, I saw it described it as "Doctor Who meets Sherlock." That was enough to convince me to read it. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, and I totally pictured David Tennant as Jackaby the entire time I read the book. It felt very much like Doctor Who fan fiction but with different names. I don't mean any of that in a bad way, either.

      I always find myself being influenced by others' opinions of a book, and I really did enjoy Jackaby, so I'm writing a review before I read any others. I enjoyed the characters, the plot was intriguing, and I loved the inclusion of supernatural elements. I always enjoy books that make me want to go do research afterwards, and there are lots of mythical creatures to learn about now!

      I do want to point out that about halfway through the story, I already knew who the culprit was. I'm generally not good at solving mysteries, and so on, but this one was easy to figure out. It was a young adult novel, though, so I guess that makes sense.
    • 5/5
      Fun, entertaining, and easy read. Now I'm interested in reading the rest of the series.
    • 3/5
      Before I read Jackaby, I saw it described it as "Doctor Who meets Sherlock." That was enough to convince me to read it. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, and I totally pictured David Tennant as Jackaby the entire time I read the book. It felt very much like Doctor Who fan fiction but with different names. I don't mean any of that in a bad way, either.

      I always find myself being influenced by others' opinions of a book, and I really did enjoy Jackaby, so I'm writing a review before I read any others. I enjoyed the characters, the plot was intriguing, and I loved the inclusion of supernatural elements. I always enjoy books that make me want to go do research afterwards, and there are lots of mythical creatures to learn about now!

      I do want to point out that about halfway through the story, I already knew who the culprit was. I'm generally not good at solving mysteries, and so on, but this one was easy to figure out. It was a young adult novel, though, so I guess that makes sense.
    • 4/5
      "Miss Rook, I am not an occultist," Jackaby said. "I have a gift that allows me to see truth where others see the illusion--and there are many illusions. All the world's a stage, as they say, and I seem to have the only seat in the house with a view behind the curtain." Abigail Rook has always wanted adventure. Fresh off a failed attempt to infiltrate an archaeological dig, she finds herself in a town in New England, desperately searching for a job. She stumbles onto an advertisement seeking an assistant, and finds herself suddenly working for R.F. Jackaby, a seer who solves mysteries the police can't quite seem to figure out themselves.I have heard this book described as Sherlock Holmes meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I would say that is definitely accurate. The supernatural elements are expertly woven into the mystery, which lends a creepy and fascinating atmosphere to the book itself. The ending has a great twist, and no part of the book disappoints.I look forward to reading more books in this series!
    • 5/5
      Very interesting story with Sherlock Holmes Vibe mixed with Supernatural world in xix century, US.
    • 5/5
      A fun, supernatural adventure.
    • 5/5
      I loved it. It was very interesting and I like the lead.
    • 4/5
      Started off a little slow but ended up being really enjoyable!
    • 4/5
      A delightfully dark urban fantasy read. The pacing is quick and the introduction to the characters was swift and easy to digest.
    • 5/5
      Like a mix of The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray and a non romantic Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes. This was a delicious fantasy mystery. I regret not reading this sooner!
    • 4/5
      Excellent new series -- plucky victorian(ish) investigators with a twist, as Jackaby lives in the unseen world of fae and ghosts and mysterious happenings. Our heroine, Abigail, arrives in an imaginary New England seaport town looking for adventure and finding a murder and a very odd assistant detective job instead. Magical (kind of), creepy (a little) and sherlock-holmesian enough to delight. If you like eccentric characters, this is a great choice.
    • 3/5
      Just before Abigail Rook is supposed to start her university education, she takes the money her parents set aside for tuition, hastily packs a bag, and answers an advertisement for an "exciting opportunity" that she thinks will lead to a dinosaur fossil-finding adventure. Instead, the expedition is a failure. While attempting to get back to her family in England, Abigail instead accidentally ends up on a ship bound for America, so she decides to give this "adventure" thing a second shot.She has no work lined up, no plan, and hardly any money, so when she sees an ad for an "investigative services assistant," she decides to apply. Her new employer turns out to be the same strange man she met upon first arriving in America: Mr. R.F. Jackaby. Jackaby has the ability to see things others can't - there's a whole supernatural side to the world that only he's aware of. Abigail isn't entirely sure how much to believe him, but it's a paying job that seems to offer the excitement she craves. Jackaby, for his part, needs a new assistant after his last one got turned into a duck. Jackaby's first case, after meeting Abigail, involves the murder of a man who, despite having been torn open, doesn't seem to have left behind as much blood as he should have. There are indications that at least one more person will soon die in that same building. Who or what is doing the killing, and can Jackaby and Abigail stop them?I remember thinking, while reading this, that Abigail reminded me of an older Enola Holmes. Then I double-checked some details in order to write this review and realized that Abigail was missing Enola's level of motivation. Enola, at least, had fairly good reasons for running away from her family. Abigail, on the other hand, had already gotten her parents to agree to pay for a university education for her and was even looking forward to it...up until the point when she learned her archaeologist (?) father was going off on an exciting expedition and had no plans to bring her along. Instead of trying to change his mind or prove herself some other way, she took her parents' money and tried to have her own adventure. She was lucky it just ended disappointingly and not spectacularly badly.At any rate, the actual Holmesian character in this book was clearly supposed to be Jackaby. There were multiple moments when Abigail mistook things Jackaby figured out from spotting various supernatural beings for clever deductions based on real-world clues. After finishing the book, I'm not sure how I feel about Jackaby. He was there, he was a bit odd, and while I wish he'd been a bit more forthcoming with Abigail about the things he'd figured out, I could imagine Abigail asking questions or not fully believing him until it was too late. I didn't feel like I'd gotten to know him at all. Since I only knew him through Abigail, I suppose that makes sense, but that means I'm ending this with one main character who's such an enigma that I barely have questions about him, and one main character who managed to simultaneously be both observant and not (neither one of us could have known what the murderer was, but I somehow figured out their identity well before Abigail did).It wasn't a bad book, and I might give this series another chance, but for now I'm not feeling much of an urge to continue on.(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
    • 4/5
      Ok that was a fun read. The whodunnit part wasn’t exactly a mystery but still it was a rollicking good time.
    • 4/5
      This was a quite fun mystery in my opinion. I liked the supernatural elements of it that ran alongside the detective story. And in a break from other books I have read recently, I found myself to be rather charmed by all of the characters and I genuinely cared about their well-being. I really liked that the main character was a headstrong girl who had set off on her own. I find that the character of the eccentric mentor can be a bit trite in books but I actually didn't mind the character of Jackaby (i liked him if we're being honest.) I think the supernatural part of his character helped a little with that. The mystery in this book was good. I wasn't really on the edge of my seat for any of it but I was always intrigued about what would happen next. There are two plot twists near the end of the book. One twist I predicted fairly early on but the other one I did not see coming so I guess this book is half and half on the surprise element and if you're more observant than me you may be able to pick up on the second one but that wasn't a problem for me. I don't know if I've talked about this before but I do not like the character of Sherlock Holmes and I don't like his stories. I think having a super observant character that can pick up on completely innocuous things that manage to break open the case cheapens a mystery. If the reader has no chance of solving the mystery because the most important clue is something the author didn't mention at all just so their main character could spring it on us later and look like a genius it's not much of a mystery in my book. I also always just thought of Holmes as a bit of an asshole who thinks he's better than everyone else which I don't enjoy. Because of that and because this book is marketed as a Holmesesque book I was nervous to pick it up. I was glad to find there really isn't much annoying evidence hiding to surprise the audience later and I think a reader could probably solve the mystery before the big reveal.
      Now on to the spoiler section of my review
      I really liked the character of detective Charlie Cane and I hope he will be included in subsequent stories even though he got sent away. It seems like he will be because he was set up as a bit of a love interest and it seems like the author intended to have that plot line continue. I was actually really sad when the banshee character was killed because I was intrigued by her story and I wanted to know more. I liked the ending well enough but it sort of seemed like the author didn't exactly know how to end it so put us back in a place very similar to where we started but I do like that Jackaby was sort of set up as a father figure with protective instincts. I also really enjoyed the other residents of Jackaby's house: a duck who used to be his assistant and a friendly ghost lady who used to live in the house. I really do want to read the next book in the series because I think these kinds of mystery books are just so fun and really do want to see where the characters go from here.
    • 5/5
      adult/teen/middlegrade fiction(there are some grisly murder scenes but no language or sexual situations); murder mystery/Sherlock Holmes "unexplained phenomena"/thriller/adventure.

      Highly enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      This was being touted as Sherlock Holmes meets Doctor Who, and I'm inclined to agree with the assessment. A thoroughly enjoyable book.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable paranormal and somewhat historical mystery. Set in 19th century New England (fictional harbor town), featuring an eccentric sleuth somewhere between Dr. Who and Sherlock Holmes, and an adventurous young English woman. A solid pick for Tweens who like these genres. Beautiful cover art, too. I think it was the cover art that first drew me in.
    • 3/5
      I quite enjoyed this mystery set in the 1890’s with supernatural characters. Abigail has taken her tuition money and run away from home to have adventures and finds herself far from home in New England, America. She manages to find employment with an eccentric investigator and has adventures after all. It would be fine for middle school or high school students.
    • 3/5
      The writing was very pretty, and I liked Abigail Rook very much. I was less fond of Jackaby; he's kind of insufferable. Good historical mystery choice for 5th or 6th grade and up, I think.
    • 3/5
      Before I read Jackaby, I saw it described it as "Doctor Who meets Sherlock." That was enough to convince me to read it. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, and I totally pictured David Tennant as Jackaby the entire time I read the book. It felt very much like Doctor Who fan fiction but with different names. I don't mean any of that in a bad way, either.

      I always find myself being influenced by others' opinions of a book, and I really did enjoy Jackaby, so I'm writing a review before I read any others. I enjoyed the characters, the plot was intriguing, and I loved the inclusion of supernatural elements. I always enjoy books that make me want to go do research afterwards, and there are lots of mythical creatures to learn about now!

      I do want to point out that about halfway through the story, I already knew who the culprit was. I'm generally not good at solving mysteries, and so on, but this one was easy to figure out. It was a young adult novel, though, so I guess that makes sense.
    • 5/5
      Jackaby by William Ritter is a book filled with great characters, an alternative world in the late 1890's, it has wit, a Sherlock Holmes of the supernatural, and great mythical creatures! This starts out right away by grabbing you, holding you down, and giving you surprises and more surprises! I enjoyed reading this book that has Jackaby who has a gift of seeing what others cant.
    • 4/5
      Abigail Rook has a knack for noticing ordinary details and when she meets supernatural investigator R.F. Jackaby, it turns out that he needs an assistant that can see the regular world better than him. The first book in the series is a supernatural murder mystery where we get to know the main players and are treated to an interesting new fictional world, based in 19th century New England. Jackaby is a fun twist on Sherlock Holmes and I plan to continue the series to see if it is as good as this first installment makes me think it could be.
    • 5/5
      Fun, entertaining, and easy read. Now I'm interested in reading the rest of the series.
    • 5/5
      Discovering Sherlock Holmes was a watershed moment in my reading life, and I have remained enamored of the great detective for years. Many authors have attempted to improve upon Sir Arthur's stories, some with success, some without. I always find myself drawn to these treatments of Holmes and Watson, even when it's not those specific characters in play, but characters drawn in the Holmesian style. So it was with relish that I cracked Jackaby by William Ritter, which features a detective-scientist in the manner of Holmes who operates in New Fiddleham, a growing town located somewhere on the east coast of the United States (could be a young Boston, or New York).

      Two things interested me here: the replacement of the dour John Watson character with Miss Abigail Rook, dinosaur hunter, recently of England, and the inclusion of a supernatural element. We enter the story with Miss Rook's arrival in New Fiddleham from a sea voyage that took her anywhere but home. We come to understand that Abigail, daughter of a famed archaeologist, had grown tired of always being left at home when her father went on digs and so took the money designated to pay her tuition at a young ladies school and scarpered off to dig for dinosaurs in Eastern Europe. When that adventure ended, she got on a boat and ended up in New Fiddleham, still looking for adventure and not a little afraid to go home. She encounters Jackaby in a tavern, where he does the typical Sherlockian assessment and recitation of where she has been, only in this version, he bases his assessment on the fairies and pixies hiding among Abigail clothes, clinging to her in passage to the new world.

      Abigail encounters Jackaby again when she answers an advertisement for an assistant, and finds herself among the oddities in his home, including a frog that dispenses a noxious gas out of its eyes, a neat ghost, and a duck who turns out to be a former assistant to the detective. Abigail and Jackaby are immediately plunged into a grisly murder scene in an apartment house also inhabited by a banshee. There is the usual tension and disrespect between the "amateur" detective and the "real" detective who scoffs at Jackaby's methods (he can "feel" supernatural auras and trails left in the air when these beings pass by). Jackaby immediately discerns that an ancient evil is at work, and predicts more deaths, which, naturally occur until the evil is finally defeated.

      I quite liked the characters here. Abigail is a spunky, smart young woman who is not intimidated by the oftentimes overbearing Jackaby. The great man himself is somewhat endearing and very entertaining. The supporting characters, especially the young policeman Charlie Cain and Jackaby's live-in ghost Jenny, are interesting and deserve more attention in any future entries in this series. The supernatural elements were not the usual withes, vampires, or werewolves, but unusual creatures drawn from British and world folklore. The identity and origin of the "ancient evil" is a clever and unusual bit of British/Scottish lore that I cannot recall being used anywhere else. The writing is crisp, and the plot moves along very nicely. I sincerely hope we will see more of Jackaby and Abigail Rook in the future. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I purchased this book from Amazon to read with my bestie @mycornerforbooksand. All opinions are my own. ????? Jackaby by William Ritter. This book was different, at first I thought oh great another Sherlock Holmes.......it so was not. Jackaby is a character all his own. His snippy over the top comments border rudeness but will leave you laughing at his bluntness. Abigail fits into his world nicely while stumbling through her own acts of rebellion. Together the make up a team that will uncover the underworld right here despite the comments and glares from others in town. New Fiddleham is a place you feel you can escape to without ever leaving home, it was so wonderfully described you could step out of your back door and simply be there. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie and my blog at readsbystacie.com
    • 2/5
      I wish I liked this book. It has all the elements that would make me think I SHOULD like it.

      The audiobook just never captured my attention though. It was short and quick so I may one day reread it to see if I like it more. I can't explain my distaste. I just was never grabbed by it. I put it down easily and without much thought for such a short audiobook.

      I'm not totally against maybe trying the second book eventually but for now I'm sitting here sad I didn't love it more.
    • 5/5
      This book was a pure delight to read. Once I started it I didn't want to put it down. I enjoyed Jackaby and Ms. Rook. I also enjoyed the supporting characters. The supernatural elements and the detective aspects made for a enjoyable and fun read. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.