The Good Listener
An electrifying thriller about a mother who must trust an anonymous caller if she is to find the truth about her daughter
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The Good Listener
Narrated by:
Nicola Burgess
Buy Now for £15.82
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Narrated by:
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Nicola Burgess
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By:
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Holly Watt
'INGENIOUS... PROPULSIVE' Sarah Vaughan
'TRULY ORIGINAL' Ellery Lloyd
'ELECTRIFYING' Fiona Cummins
An anonymous call. A mother desperate for justice.
The Good Listeners are there for anyone who needs to talk.
When the phone rings, a Good Listener has no idea who could be at the other end. The woman cheating on her husband, the man who has lost yet another job, the teenager struggling at school...
And Clara is prepared for every kind of caller. Except this one.
Because the woman on the other end of the line has just told her ‘my husband killed a little girl.’
And two years ago, Clara’s own daughter was murdered and her killer never caught.
The police have no leads. This is Clara's only chance of justice. But when the caller is anonymous, what chance does she have of finding them?
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Readers give The Good Listener FIVE STARS:
'Read in one sitting ... I was glued to my seat'
'Smart, exciting, emotional, dark and everything you want to read in a book'
'I stayed up until nearly 2am to finish this book as it was impossible to put down'
'Edge-of-your-seat suspense from start to finish' ©2023 Holly Watt (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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Critic reviews
Brilliant from start to finish
An emotional, electrifying thriller that will have you hooked
Heart-stopping ... a deeply felt, superb novel about female vulnerability, motherhood and the way man hands on inhumanity to man
An ingenious hook, expertly developed and carried through in a typically propulsive, intelligent read. Watt manages to take the most disturbing of subjects and avoid making it feel exploitative or mawkish. Her love of Dartmoor - wild and secretive - shines through, even as we understand its danger, but it was the sense of past traumas impacting on the present that struck me in this cat-and-mouse read (Sarah Vaughan, author of Anatomy of a Scandal and Reputation)
In Holly Watt's electrifying new novel, The Good Listener, she manages the near-impossible feat of balancing a heartbreaking and original premise with edge-of-the-seat suspense. Bold in style and beautifully written, grieving mother Clara Brennan is a protagonist to root for, and this rare gem of a thriller deserves to rocket to the top of your reading list (Fiona Cummins, author of The Neighbour and Into the Dark)
That rarest of things: a brilliant book, perfectly executed. The Good Listener drew me in with pace, intrigue and emotional weight and just would not let me go. A terrific read from an author who never disappoints (Gytha Lodge, bestselling author of the Jonah Sheens Detective Agency and Dead to Me)
A cut above. A poignant, intelligent and genuinely gripping thriller woven from a mother's worst nightmare and her search for the truth. Holly Watt is a brilliant writer (Anna Mazzola, winner of the 2025 CWA Gold Dagger for The Book of Secrets)
The Good Listener is a taut, elegant thriller that grips from the first page and won’t let you look away. Holly Watt balances heart-pounding suspense with nuanced characterisation, giving the main character, Clara, depth beyond her tragedy. Tense, assured, and heartbreakingly human (Paula Daly)
A fabulous premise and a thrilling, complex mystery. I was hooked from the first page (S. E. Lynes, bestselling author of The Housewarming and Every Mother's Nightmare)
I adore Holly Watt’s storytelling. The Good Listener is an intelligent, involving novel with the pace of the most propulsive thriller, and a story that sweeps you into its emotional heart (Charlotte Philby, author of The End of Summer)
It's so rare to read a truly original thriller plot, but this is one. Watt's plotting is so clever that this is a book that you immediately want to reread to collect all the clever clues and misdirections. The interactions between the two women are more than a game of cat and mouse - they're almost a dance. This is the perfect book club book -- there is so much to think about that you're left dying to talk to someone about it! (Ellery Lloyd)
Hooked!
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Real page turner
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