The Echoes: A Novel

Jess Montgomery

Mar 2022 · The Kinship Series Book 4 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Susan Bennett

About this audiobook

The fourth in Jess Montgomery's evocative Kinship series, The Echoes combines exquisite storytelling with extraordinary crime plotting.

"A beautifully written tour de force." —Linda Castillo on The Stills

As July 4, 1928 approaches, Sheriff Lily Ross and her family look forward to the opening of an amusement park in a nearby town, created by Chalmer Fitzpatrick—a veteran and lumber mill owner. When Lily is alerted to the possible drowning of a girl, she goes to investigate, and discovers schisms going back several generations, in an ongoing dispute over the land on which Fitzpatrick has built the park.

Lily's family life is soon rattled, too, with the revelation that before he died, her brother had a daughter, Esme, with a woman in France, and arrangements have been made for Esme to immigrate to the U.S. to live with them. But Esme never makes it to Kinship, and soon Lily discovers that she has been kidnapped. Not only that, but a young woman is indeed found murdered in the fishing pond on Fitzpatrick's property, at the same time that a baby is left on his doorstep.

As the two crimes interweave, Lily must confront the question of what makes family: can we trust those we love? And what do we share, and what do we keep secret?

Ratings and reviews

The Echos by Jess Montgomery is an incredible listen with many heartwarming and heartwretching details. The setting of the book is 1928, and remnants of the Great War are still around. The book is part of a series and a standalone listen. I was immediately pulled into the book with the fantastic narration by Susan Bennett. She really brought the characters to life with her voice, and added the right emotions to the scenes. I loved how family was interpreted in this book! It added so many feels to the story. The Kinship Tree was also a poignant image. Thank you #NetGalley and #Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this pre-release! I loved it!

The Disappearance of Esmee. July 4, 1928 , Kinston, Ohio, as a celebration is going on at an newly opened amusement park, Lily the sheriff is made aware of a possible drowning in a pond on a disputed piece of land. Meanwhile, Lily's mom is agonizing over how to tell Lily and the family about a child named Esmee that her brother fathered while in the Army in France. He was killed in battle and the child's mother died in childbirth, the grandmother had been caring for her, but she was ill and could not longer care for her. She needed Esmee to come to America and live with her father's relatives. Lily is told about Esmee when she does not arrive in Kinship, Ohio as she is supposed to do . They fear that she has been kidnapped and perhaps her chaperone is in on the kidnapping. Now Lily has two crimes to solve. Lily wonders if there is any connection and can she find Esmee before harm comes to her. She is not happy that she was not told about Esmee before and even less when she finds out her steady boyfriend knew about it but kept it from her. This is a story of a town of secrets and Lily doesn't know who to trust. Who is telling the truth and who is lying? She is not even sure she can trust family and just when she thinks she has it solved, it isn't. This was a great mystery story and I enjoyed listening to the audio book. The narrator did a wonderful job with the narration, it was very clear and the dramatic parts were done very well. I would recommend this book. Thanks to Jess Montgomery for a great mystery story, to Susan Bennett for doing an excellent narration, to Macmillan Audio for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me.

About the author

JESS MONTGOMERY writes a Writer's Digest magazine column, "Level Up Your Writing (Life)" and was formerly the “Literary Life” columnist for the Dayton Daily News. Based on early chapters of the first book in the Kinship Series, The Widows, Jess was awarded an Ohio Arts Council individual artist’s grant for literary arts and named the John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House in Columbus. She also hosts the podcast, “Tea with Jess: Chatting with Authors & Artists.” Jess lives in her native state of Ohio.