No one goes alone: A novel, Erik Larson, author; Julian Rhind-Tutt and Erik Larson, narrators.
When a group of researchers from The Society for Psychical Research, descends upon the Isle of Dorn, (a fictitious island), in 1905, and installs themselves in the cottage (actually a large home), to investigate its past, they get far more than they bargained for when they set out on this investigation. Their intent was to try to find out about a family that had disappeared from the island without a trace, and possibly, to prove the existence of ghosts. Instead, they witnessed a far greater supernatural experience than they ever dreamt of experiencing.
The group consisted of an odd mix of people. Mrs. Northrup was an author of novels under the name of Mortimer Harkness. She, however, was also famous in her own right. She was the secretary of sorts, recording the events that took place. Josiah Front was an “electrician” (electrical engineer), with the post office. He was a specialist in the new wireless telegraph technology for which Guglielmo Marconi received credit. Professor William James, was a psychologist who led the expedition, Katherine Holbrook had experienced a psychic trauma. Adam Winter was an experienced and famous illusionist. He was intent on disproving their theories and exposing them as illusions. Others were Nicholas Penridge, a member of the society, Nathanial Hume, son of a psychic, and Madeline Nash a forensic expert.
They came to the island aboard a cutter which disappeared from the harbor shortly after their arrival, essentially stranding them on the island.
When they found the well-preserved body of a young boy, their investigation took shape. He was dressed in clothes from another era, and after an examination of the body, by Madeline, akin to an autopsy, the body impossibly disappeared. Another odd occurrence was the one involving Katherine who was discovered walking outdoors, Yet, at the same time, she was seen sleeping in her bed. As these odd occurrences became more and more frequent, and far more dangerous and beyond normal occurrences in the natural world, tensions built up among them. Josiah suspected Adam of orchestrating these odd events but was soon disabused about some of them because of even stranger, paranormal events occurring. Does evil exist? What was its purpose and was it, in fact, an unknown entity that existed in another plane alongside the one we occupied, moving freely among us at will? Does it inhabit the body of those who perpetuate evil, those who do not seek to become good as most people do, but instead always endeavor to cause harm? As the story moves into the future, the existence of evil in the psychic world becomes more of a conundrum.
The book is interesting, and the idea of it only being an audio is admirable, but it leaves the reader unable to easily recheck ideas about the book, leaving some false assumptions to be made because of confusion. In addition, while it did hold my interest because of how well it was read by the narrator, and because of the use of the language of the times, and also because it married the real and the unreal quite well, it moved very slowly at first, overrun with extraneous details. I suggest that a print copy be made available as a novella.