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Little Comfort
Little Comfort
Little Comfort
Audiobook10 hours

Little Comfort

Written by Edwin Hill

Narrated by Karen White

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

()

About this audiobook

Harvard librarian Hester Thursby knows that even in the digital age, people still need help finding things. Using her research skills, Hester runs a side business tracking down the lost. Her new case is finding the handsome and charismatic Sam Blaine.

Sam has no desire to be found. As a teenager, he fled his small New Hampshire town with his friend, Gabe, after a haunting incident. For a dozen years, Sam and Gabe have traveled the country, reinventing themselves as they move from one mark to another. Sam has learned how trusting wealthy people can be-especially the lonely ones-as he expertly manipulates his way into their lives and homes. In Wendy Richards, the beautiful, fabulously rich daughter of one of Boston's most influential families, he's found the perfect way to infiltrate the milieu in which he knows he belongs-a world of Brooks Brothers suits, Nantucket summers, and effortless glamour.

As Hester's investigation closes in on their brutal truth, the bond between Sam and Gabe is tested and Hester unknowingly jeopardizes her own safety. While Gabe has pinned all his desperate hopes of a normal life on Hester, Sam wants her out of the way for good. And Gabe has always done what Sam asks . . .
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 28, 2018
ISBN9781684414031
Author

Edwin Hill

Edwin Hill is the author of the critically-acclaimed Hester Thursby mystery series, the first of which, Little Comfort, was an Agatha Award finalist, a selection of the Mysterious Press First Mystery Club and a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selection. Formerly the vice president and editorial director for Bedford/St. Martin's (Macmillan), he now teaches at Emerson College and has written for the LA Review of Books, The Life Sentence, Publisher's Weekly, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts with his partner Michael and their lab, Edith Ann. Visit him online at www.Edwin-Hill.com.

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Reviews for Little Comfort

Rating: 3.227272715909091 out of 5 stars
3/5

44 ratings9 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting debut novel from an author who actually works in book publishing. The title seems to hint that there may be a series based on the main character, Hester Thursby, a very tiny (but full of life and intellect) college librarian and part-time detective helping clients find missing persons. As may be somewhat typical of a first book, this novel has just about everything you can imagine in it -- and at times it drags a bit. But the storytelling is quite good and Thursby has quite a few supporting characters, including the main missing person/protagonist. Definitely worth reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    4.5 stars.

    Little Comfort by Edwin Hill is a twisty-turny, suspense-laden missing persons case that soon becomes a murder investigation. This first installment in the Hester Thursby Mystery series is an outstanding debut that I HIGHLY recommend to readers who enjoy mysteries featuring amateur sleuths.

    Harvard librarian Hester Thursby is currently taking time off from her regular job to care for Kate, the three year old daughter of her best friend Daphne.  She lives with her boyfriend, Morgan, a veterinarian who is also Daphne's twin brother. In addition to her regular career, Hester also takes on the occasional missing persons case. Her latest client, Lily Blaine, requests her help finding her long missing brother, Sam, who along with his best friend, Gabe DiPursio, vanished twelve years ago. Armed with nothing more than a series of postcards Lily has received over the years, Hester quickly finds Sam, who is currently romancing socialite Wendy Richards.  She also locates Gabe, who lives a rather solitary life with his lifelong friend.  Just as she begins to uncover the truth about Sam and Gabe, Sam's past crashes headlong into his present which puts Hester and her family in grave danger.

    Hester is a smart and feisty woman who is quite resourceful due to her dysfunctional childhood. Despite all of her successes, her past still affects her since she remains afraid of commitment. Hester has no intention of becoming a parent and she does not want to admit how much she loves Kate. She makes some very questionable decisions throughout her investigation into Sam, Gabe and their past. Hester's compassion and empathy are admirable traits that leave her in a very precarious situation when she offers friendship to the wrong person.

    Sam is ruthless in his quest to move up the social ladder and he leaves a swath of misery in his wake. He easily sheds his old identity when he starts over in a new city and he adapts easily to his new surroundings. Sam is quite charming and charismatic which makes it incredibly easy for him to insinuate himself in his target's life. He is also very manipulative with sociopathic tendencies that make Sam a very dangerous man to cross.

    Gabe is incredibly loyal to Sam and he will do anything for the one person who has always been there for him. He does not seem to care that he lives in Sam's shadow but he does yearn for a normal life with a  family.  Gabe is quite captivated by Hester and he builds an elaborate fantasy about a future with her. But as Sam's current situation changes and he wants to tie up loose ends, will Gabe continue to blindly follow his orders?

    While not a traditional mystery, Little Comfort is a tautly-plotted, tension-filled novel that is fast-paced and compelling.  Hester is an immensely appealing yet flawed lead protagonist who is impossible not to like. Gabe and Sam are well-drawn, eerily sinister characters who are absolutely ruthless when their appalling schemes are inevitably unmasked. Edwin Hill brings this spine-tingling novel to an action-packed, chilling conclusion. A marvelous first installment in the Hester Thursby Mystery series that is sure to be a hit with readers of the genre.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It seems other people found something in this book that I missed. It's not horrid; it's just not very memorable. I love books about libraries and librarians, whether they are cozy mysteries, more hard-boiled mysteries, or non-fiction, non-mystery. This had little about libraries or books in it. Okay, I can deal with that – most of the books I read aren't about libraries.But for me, this was just a “potato chip” book, the kind you read and two weeks later, you've forgotten you ever read it. The story was a bit jumbled. I listened to the audio edition of this book, and the narrator was, to my ears anyway, overly dramatic. I like potato chips, but I don't want them to be the mainstay of my diet.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Linda's Book Obsession Reviews "Little Comfort" by Edwin Hill, Kensington Publishing, July 30, 2019Edwin Hill, Author of "Little Comfort" has written a captivating, intriguing, intense, riveting, edgy, thrilling, and suspenseful novel. The Genres for this novel are Mystery and Suspense, Thriller and Fiction. The timeline for this story is in the presents and goes to the past when it pertains to the characters and events. The author describes his dramatic cast of characters as complex, and complicated. Some are quirky, dangerous, and dysfunctional. There are twists and turns, betrayals, threats, danger, and murder. Some characters appear different from what they are. Of course, Animal lovers will be happy to know there are dogs and kittens in this story.Hester Thursby is on leave from her librarian position, while she and her significant other are taking care of her three-year-old niece, for possibly an unknown amount of time. Hester does make use of her research skills part-time to look for missing people. A new client wants Hester to find her missing brother, who disappeared more than twelve years earlier. Sam Blaine and his friend Gabe left home after a strange incident. The only information that Hester is given are postcards and the fact that Sam keeps changing his name."Sam" is charismatic and charming and obsessed with wealthy lonely people. Gabe feels indebted to Sam and does basically what Sam tells him. Of course, it doesn't take long for Hester to locate him. Unfortunately, the more Hester investigates, the more danger she is in.One of my favorite characters is Hester Thursby. She is portrayed as fragile and tiny, but make no mistake, that is quite misleading. Hester says what is on her mind, and "shoots from the hip" so to speak. She tells it like it is. Despite what might look like weakness, Hester is independent, yet loyal, and makes her own decisions.I would highly recommend this suspenseful and edgy novel for readers that love mystery, suspense, and adventure. I can't wait to read the next Hester Thursby book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Diminutive in stature, Harvard librarian Hester Thursby's appearance can be deceiving. She's a huge fan of horror films - watches them to fall asleep, in fact - and unafraid of putting herself in dangerous situations. As a side job, she finds lost things and people. But her life is now complicated by her boyfriend's niece, of whom they've become the primary caregivers. Well, really, Hester has become the primary caregiver which makes her a little stir crazy. She indulges her desire for independence by taking the case of a woman who wants to find her estranged brother, presumably because she wants to sell property that belongs to both of them. Hester finds Sam (depicted as a Mr. Ripley/Gatsby type) and his gullible companion, Gabe, fairly easily but she quickly suspects that there's more to the story and decides to dig deeper. All of that is fine, except that she takes a small child with her into potentially dangerous situations with barely a second thought, essentially using her as a disguise. Since this is a proposed series, the author builds in some mystery about Hester's background which has clearly affected her emotionally and allows her to sympathize, a bit too much?, with someone who is probably a murderer. There are plenty of unlikeable characters and it's hard to see how this will be built into a sustainable series unless Hester shows more common sense in future installments.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A very apt title. I too got very little comfort from reading this book. I can't even say that it didn't live up to the hype because it did. The fault is my own, and I should have guessed that it probably wasn't a book for me. I found the characters all equally unlikeable. I found the suspense forced and predictable. It was graphic in its violence and in the character relationships. The premise is a good one. Little Hester Thursby (4'9 3/4") is a librarian who has found that her librarian research skills can be put to use in the payed profession of a finder. She is adept at finding lost things, and in this book she is looking for a lost brother who has been missing for 12 years. She knows he's still alive and she follows the course of the past 12 years of his life by researching the postcards that he sends his sister. The book becomes a race of survival for Hester as she uncovers a chilling trail of envy, deceit, murder and depravity and finally uncovers a stone-cold killer with no ability to feel remorse. If you like graphic violence and flawed characters when they are wrapped around a mystery, you may enjoy this book. I'm sorry though, it's not for me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Nothing read after a Tana French book will ever measure up, but I found this one to be very unpleasant. The criminals and those who has exploited them in as teenagers were just too perverse for me. The lead, a woman who is distinctively short in stature, was somewhat interesting, but not enough to carry a lame plot. Plus: a PI who hunts for missing people would surely have been out of business by Google. Implausible and unpleasant.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hester Thursby is a character that I want to know more about. Not only is she a member of my favorite profession, she's a quarter of an inch away from little person status (and sick to death of the assumptions people make about her because of her diminutive size. She lives with Morgan, whose twin sister dumped her three-year-old daughter Kate on them and then disappeared. Since Morgan's twin is also Hester's best friend, Hester's been dealing with the situation willingly, even taking a leave of absence from the library-- but Morgan isn't pulling his weight when it comes to childcare, and Hester desperately needs a break.Besides his main character, I also liked Hill's pacing of the story and the mystery itself, which I found downright creepy in places. There is a surprisingly bloodless dismemberment (which may please some readers), and the three-year-old Kate has to be the best-behaved child on the planet. Hester also displayed a disheartening lack of awareness, taking risks with not only her own life but with little Kate's as well. I'm hoping that Hester's next investigation will be less daunting-- especially if she continues to bring Kate along with her. It would be nice to see her in the library, too.My favorite part of Little Comfort concerned the "bad guys." Sam and Gabe were such obvious choices that it made me smile when Hester agreed with me on the identity of the real villain of the piece. Edwin Hill's debut novel is well worth reading in order to discover just whom that person is. Give it a try.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Little Comfort by Edwin HillWow! Swept me in and kept me engaged from beginning to end! This is a story of loneliness, wanting to belong, wanting more and needing to be wanted. It is also the story of what ifs…what if those needs just mentioned had been met early in life and had not created such a huge vacuum that allowed choices to be made that would lead in a completely different direction. Hester Thursby is a librarian. She is in a loving relationship and has been for a number of years. She and her partner are caring for the daughter of his sister and they are a family that Thursby really never envisioned herself being a part of. She is an interesting self-made person that I found intriguing. She sometimes doesn’t use the best judgment but she is who she is and makes no bones about it. Hester is asked by Lila to find her brother – a brother she has not seen for twelve years – a brother that left with a friend – a brother who was only fourteen or so when he left. Hester is a finder of people and as a librarian and sleuth she has had great success so with some postcards from brother Sam sent from various places he has lived Hester begins to search and soon finds Sam and his friend Gabe not too far away. As the story unfolds hints about the characters are leaked that indicate what one might surmise on first meetings is not necessarily true at all. The person that seems to be good could very well be just the opposite. The bad guy may not be quite as bad as he seems…or then again…he could be. I came away thinking about the difference one choice can make. That choice can be made by self or it can be made by someone else. That choice can lead to a life that is filled with light or darkness. This book will stay with me a long while and I have to say I am intrigued by Hester, Morgan and Kate and look forward to more books by this author whether in a series starring Hester or something else completely different. This is an author I will be looking forward to reading again soon. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC – This is my honest review. 5 Stars