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    The Last Midwife
    The Last Midwife
    The Last Midwife
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Last Midwife

    Written by Sandra Dallas

    Narrated by Pilar Witherspoon

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    With Sandra Dallas's incomparable gift for creating a sense of time and place and characters that capture your heart, The Last Midwife tells the story of family, community, and the secrets that can destroy and unite them.

    It is 1880 and Gracy Brookens is the only midwife in a small Colorado mining town where she has delivered hundreds, maybe thousands, of babies in her lifetime.

    The women of Swandyke trust and depend on Gracy, and most couldn't imagine getting through pregnancy and labor without her by their sides.

    But everything changes when a baby is found dead … and the evidence points to Gracy as the murderer.

    She didn't commit the crime, but clearing her name isn't so easy when her innocence is not quite as simple, either. She knows things, and that's dangerous. Invited into her neighbors' homes during their most intimate and vulnerable times, she can't help what she sees and hears. A woman
    sometimes says things in the birthing bed, when life and death seem suspended within the same moment.

    Gracy has always tucked those revelations away, even the confessions that have cast shadows on her heart.

    With her friends taking sides and a trial looming, Gracy must decide whether it's worth risking everything to prove her innocence. And she knows that her years of discretion may simply demand too high a price now … especially since she's been keeping more than a few dark secrets of her own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 29, 2015
    ISBN9781501902079
    The Last Midwife
    Author

    Sandra Dallas

    Sandra Dallas, dubbed “a quintessential American voice” in Vogue Magazine, is the author of over a dozen novels, including Prayers for Sale and Tallgrass, many translated into a dozen languages and optioned for films. Six-time winner of the Willa Award and four-time winner of the Spur Award, Dallas was a Business Week reporter for 35 years covering the Rocky Mountain region, and began writing fiction in 1990. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in Denver and Georgetown, Colorado.

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    Reviews for The Last Midwife

    4/5

    79 ratings12 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Great book full of twists, turns, and quite a few secrets. I couldn’t stop listening to it. Can you guess who the baby’s father is? While I will admit that I did guess the father correctly, a little before the end of the book, it still kept my interest. I was shocked to find out who the murderer was!
    • 5/5
      Read lots of Sandra Dallas books full of surprises. Recommend.
    • 2/5
      Figured the ending out as soon as she refused to testify. Didn’t like this story much. Disappointing after reading some of her other books. It lacked something. Left out many details, like who placed the log? When did Jeff visit Josie?
    • 3/5
      An okay story. More fiction than historical. The anachronistic progressive concepts and mostly subtle anti-male sentiment detracted from an otherwise interesting tale. The ending was painfully predictable - as in, knowing the end before finishing the first chapter.
    • 4/5
      In 1880 Colorado, in a mining town, Gracy is the lone midwife. And by caring for the women of the town, she holds lots and lots of secrets. She doesn't deliver the mine owner's newborn, but is called out to check the baby two days later. When the baby dies, she is accused of murder. What does she know? And was the baby murdered? A lot of background into how she became a midwife and her own marriage to Daniel and who is really the mother of her son Jeff. And in the very end, we meet the teen girl who is apprenticing with her, so the women still have a confidant and trusted adviser for their health, pregnancies and babies.
    • 5/5
      This is an excellent read. There are many twists and turns in the telling of the life and times of Gracey. Sandra Dallas is an excellent author. I just devoured this book.
    • 4/5
      This was pretty good, with a twisty ending! I read everything by Sandra Dallas.
    • 4/5
      In a time when guilt was determined mostly upon who was most liked or feared, Gracey is accused of killing a new baby in her role as midwife. What is most engaging about this story is the way Ms. Dallas weaves various stories in with the main conflict - suggesting the many secrets Gracey has seen in her role as midwife and the compassion she has developed as she has cared for all those women and babies. Ms. Dallas also succinctly captures the rough grace of early life in Colorado mining towns - the opening scene is beautiful.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book very much. There were many twists and turns. Mystery in a murder trial. This story about a midwife was enlightening to the triumph of delivering a baby and hardship of the loss of mother or baby, or both.
    • 4/5
      I can always rely on Sandra Dallas to provide a good story and The Last Midwife was no exception. Set in a small mining town in Colorado in 1885 Gracie Brookens is the person the women turn to when giving birth. She is a skilled midwife and has helped thousand of babies arrive safely. But when a baby is found dead, and she is accused, things change. Now facing a murder trail, Gracie learns who she can trust and who she can’t. Gracie is as honest as the day is long and so the reader knows right away that she would never hurt a newborn, but as the trial starts it does appear that it’s going to be very difficult to prove her innocence.The book was eventful. There were birthings, secrets being revealed, and an ongoing murder trial as well as learning Gracie’s back-story and how she became a midwife. I found the book both lively and interesting. Gracie herself was a wonderful character. I listened to an audio version of the book, read by Pilar Witherspoon and the voice felt so right both for Gracie and the rest of the characters.While I would not put this book at the top of my Sandra Dallas list, it was a solid read and I enjoyed listening to Gracie’s’ story.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful characters and such an interesting subject. Childbirth, an accusation of murder, a trial and secrets exposed. The hardships and joys of women shared and supported by each other. Loyalty and love, desperation and pity. A novel about family, love for a child and husband, and loyalty to the woman whose births were helped by Gracy.Such difficult times, when so many children didn't live past their third birthdays. We are so fortunate now. Options that were not available in the late 1800's, we take for granted now. These women did not have easy lives, and shared companionship with their children and other woman often made life bearable. Interesting too, reading about how courts and trials were handled back then. All in all a very gold book and Gracy, the midwife, whose back story we learn throughout the book is a very memorable character.
    • 5/5
      THE LAST MIDWIFE by Sandra DallasWOW! What an ending. Sandra Dallas, who is a genius with characters, has written a fascinating tale of a good woman accused of killing an innocent babe. Secrets abound in the vicinity of Gracy, the last midwife. Gracy, her husband Daniel who wanders each year looking for a gold strike and son Jeff who has left his home under strange unexplained circumstances are the main characters in this tightly plotted mystery. The mining town of Tenmile, a desolate outpost in the mountains, and its inhabitants are the supporting cast. Gracy, accused of murder, staunchly refuses to tell the secrets she is privy to during the labor and delivery of babies when women are at their most vulnerable. Yet there are untold secrets surrounding Gracy and Daniel and Jeff that are only hinted as the tale unfolds. The hardships and joys of a hardscrabble life in the late 1880’s are clearly stated with no apology and no sense of the desperation that poverty can elicit. These are people who face life with clear eyes and a sense of faith in themselves, their community and their God. Dallas is a sympathetic writer who understands the people, the place and time and is well able to bring them to life.5 of 5 stars