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    Arrowood: A Novel
    Arrowood: A Novel
    Arrowood: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Arrowood: A Novel

    Written by Laura McHugh

    Narrated by Sarah Scott

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    “Superb and subtle psychological suspense.”—Lee Child

    A haunting novel from the author of The Weight of Blood about a young woman’s return to her childhood home—and her encounter with the memories and family secrets it holds

    ITW THRILLER AWARD FINALIST

    Arrowood is the most ornate and grand of the historical houses that line the Mississippi River in southern Iowa. But the house has a mystery it has never revealed: It’s where Arden Arrowood’s younger twin sisters vanished on her watch twenty years ago—never to be seen again. After the twins’ disappearance, Arden’s parents divorced and the Arrowoods left the big house that had been in their family for generations. And Arden’s own life has fallen apart: She can’t finish her master’s thesis, and a misguided love affair has ended badly. She has held on to the hope that her sisters are still alive, and it seems she can’t move forward until she finds them. When her father dies and she inherits Arrowood, Arden returns to her childhood home determined to discover what really happened to her sisters that traumatic summer.

    Arden’s return to the town of Keokuk—and the now infamous house that bears her name—is greeted with curiosity. But she is welcomed back by her old neighbor and first love, Ben Ferris, whose family, she slowly learns, knows more about the Arrowoods’ secrets and their small, closed community than she ever realized. With the help of a young amateur investigator, Arden tracks down the man who was the prime suspect in the kidnapping. But the house and the surrounding town hold their secrets close—and the truth, when Arden finds it, is more devastating than she ever could have imagined.

    Arrowood is a powerful and resonant novel that examines the ways in which our lives are shaped by memory. As with her award-winning debut novel, The Weight of Blood, Laura McHugh has written a thrilling novel in which nothing is as it seems, and in which our longing for the past can take hold of the present in insidious and haunting ways.

    Praise for Arrowood

    “This robust, old-fashioned gothic mystery has everything you’re looking for: a creepy old house, a tenant with a secret history, and even a few ghosts. Laura McHugh’s novel sits at the intersection of memory and history, astutely asking whether we carry the past or it carries us.”—Jodi Picoult

    “An eloquently eerie tale.”—Booklist

    “Poignant . . . lyrical.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “A chilling, twisting tale of family, memory, and home . . . This engaging and thrilling tale about a young woman’s homecoming, the vagaries of memory, and the impact of tragedy on both a town and a family is a terrific choice for Laura Lippman and Sue Grafton readers.”—Library Journal (starred review)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
    Release dateAug 9, 2016
    ISBN9780451482976

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    Reviews for Arrowood

    4/5

    124 ratings18 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I liked this book - it was so perfectly atmospheric for the late days of summer as the wind turns cooler and my reading desires turn Halloweeny. Laura McHugh has immense talent for details about the feeling of Midwestern towns and the life of "regular people". I felt like I knew Keokuk, even though I've never been there. She built the whole town in my mind and just for fun, I took a look at Keokuk's Google Street View halfway through the book and it looked exactly as she painted it.

      I love a good spooky story and this is a very entertaining one. As a person who watches a lot of ghost and horror films, I could easily see this being made into a fun and creepy movie, probably PG-13.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway in return for my honest review.

      This is really a 2.5 stars, but since I liked the writing I will bump it to 3 instead of down. Laura McHugh's writing is descriptive and a pleasure to read. But I figured out what happened a third of the way into the book. Not exactly with all the details, but close enough. I even shouted to my husband that I was going to be so mad if what I was guessing was true....and it was.

      I really enjoyed the secrets and little things Arden learned about the past, but it just wasn't as suspenseful as I was hoping. Arden definitely has issues that made her real. That can be a tough balance for a writer - showing the character has things to deal with without making them an unbelievable basket case. Ms. McHugh struck that balance well. I didn't like or dislike Arden, but I was interested in learning more about her.

      I wish there had been a little more creepiness with all the past Ardens dying young. I will pick up more books by Laura McHugh, but this one was only so-so.
    • 4/5
      What a great mystery Laura McHugh has written. Two year old twin sisters disappear under the watch of their 8 year old sister. For years Arden has tried to solve the mystery of their disappearance. I devoured this story and recommend it to mystery lovers.
    • 4/5
      Generally I'm not someone who enjoys books where a house is a character in the novel but this was an exception. There was a little bit of mystery, a little bit of romance and some unexpected twists and turns.
    • 4/5
      A good mystery, kept me reading to find out what happened.
    • 4/5
      When she was eight, Arden Arrowood's two year old twin sisters were kidnapped by a stranger while under her care, never to be seen again. Heartbroken her family leaves town in order to try to start life over somewhere new. Fifteen years later Arden returns back to Keokuk, Iowa and the ancestral family home in a bid to make peace with her past. Aiding her in her quest is childhood sweetheart Ben and amateur missing person investigator Josh Kyle. As she tries to regain her footing into her old life, clues from the past begin to surface, especially as she begins to reconnect with Ben's family and handyman Heaney who was an acquaintance of her parents. As the mystery deepens so does the danger.

      I thoroughly enjoyed McHugh's previous novel, The Weight of Blood. Since it is October I was in the mood for Gothic mystery and this fit perfectly. The story had a lot of twists and turns and although the ending was ultimately one that I have read before I was still not expecting it. I like how McHugh's stories are sometimes gritty like a Gillian Flynn book. It is more realistic when everything doesn't work out perfectly. Not everyone is what they seem and Arden's love life is messy. I also really liked the descriptions of the historic houses like Arrowood and the Sister's house. The little detail were what brought the story to life for me. The Gothic story line of this novel and it's present day autumn setting make this the perfect book for this time of year.
    • 5/5
      A total page-turner! Arden Arrowood returns to her family home in Iowa, hoping to find answers to the disappearance of her twin sisters fifteen years earlier. Arden blames her eight year-old self for failing to watch them, but as she joins forces with a young man who is also looking for the answers, she learns that memory is not always everything it it made out to be.

      Finished in one sitting because I couldn't bear to put it down without knowing how it ended! Recommended!
    • 3/5
      I had been looking forward to read this recommended book, but I was slightly disappointed. I just didn't find that it flowed and I had figured out most of the mystery about a third of the way through. Maybe it was the characters that just didn't work for me. They weren't realistically portrayed, and I disliked the main character because she couldn't seem to follow through on anything she started. The book kind of moved along in the same disjointed way as the plot seemed to skip from one scene to another. The last part of the book was better than the first part, so that is why I gave it 3 1/2 instead of 3. The story is about young Arden Arrowood returning home to her anscestral family home after her father passes away suddenly. Arden and her mother and father had left the small town after Arden's two twin sisters disappeared when they were just under two year's old. Arden has never been able to move past the disappearance which happened when she was 8 years old. That's probably why she hasn't been able to move on with her life and explains all her unfinished plans and mistakes she has made in the interveing years. She tries to find out what happens to her sisters and uncovers a bunch of family and neighbourhood secrets that put her life in danger. The truth, when it is finally revealed, rocks her world.
    • 1/5
      What a disappointment! I was so happy when I won ARROWOOD from firstlookbookclub.com/dearreader.com. Laura McHugh's last book was so well received and had so many favorable reviews, I assumed ARROWOOD would also be good.

      My two biggest complaints about this book: people keep saying and doing implausible things, and too much of the book describes boring events that seem to have nothing to do with anything (such as a too-long description of cleaning an old home). Is that three complaints?

      I should have given up on this book when I got to page 50.
    • 5/5
      I received a free advance e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ‘Arrowood’ is a dark and unsettling psychological thriller. This is a book about a very dysfunctional family in which 2 year-old twins disappear while their older sister is watching them. She comes back to the old house years later and is still ridden with guilt over that fateful day. As she digs deeper she begins to wonder if her memories of what happened are flawed and distorted. This is a very well-written book with an amazing plot and well-developed characters. It is full of twists and turns with a constant and foreboding sense of dread. The author kept me guessing right up until the dark and troubling ending revealing a horrific family secret and an unconscionable cover-up. The ending still haunts me. I look forward to reading more from Laura McHugh in the future.
    • 5/5
      A great read that sucks you in. Besides the 2 male leads being hot (cause that ALWAYS happens in real life - not!), it is very realistic. Good red herrings kept me guessing til the end. Satisfying.
    • 4/5
      Memories can be tricky things, especially those that form when you're a child. Arden Arrowood is sure of what she saw that day in 1994, when her younger twin sisters went missing outside their house in Keokuk, Iowa, never to be seen again. After many years away, Arden has returned to the family home after inheriting it from her grandparents, and it's not long before things happen that make her question her sisters' disappearance.

      ARROWOOD is a haunting modern Gothic with an unsettling mystery at its core. My heart went out to Arden, emotionally stuck in the past, in limbo, just waiting for her baby sisters to come home. She had a bit of an obsession with nostalgia, which I can relate to. I was on pins and needles with Arden, waiting to find out what happened to little Violet and Tabitha.

      This was a well-written novel, dark and suspenseful, with a hint of the paranormal. Definitely a couple of creepy moments! I was somewhat frustrated by the ending, though after thinking about it, it seemed to fit the overall vibe of the book. ARROWOOD is a great follow-up to Laura McHugh's first novel, THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD, and I'm looking forward to her next book.

      Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Laura McHugh is making me fall in love with gothic mysteries all over again. Her debut novel, The Weight of Blood took readers deep into the Ozarks, and her new novel, Arrowood takes readers to a decaying and haunted Keokuk, Iowa along the Mississippi River. Mood and setting play as important a role in these stories as plot and character.

      In Arrowood, Arden Arrowood returns to the home that bears her family’s name and is also the location of a childhood tragedy when 8-year-old Arden’s 2-year-old twin sisters disappeared from their front yard. This incident defines Arden’s life as well as her family and neighbor’s. When Arden returns to Arrowood upon her father’s death, she finds herself consumed in the mystery and discovers that the house and the town hold many more secrets than she ever suspected.

      McHugh has a special knack for capturing small towns and rural areas with all their signs of past splendor and facades that hide the decay going on behind them in both their structures and their inhabitants. She infuses both her settings and her characters with a haunted feeling. Arden is fixated on the day her twin sisters went missing and the altered course upon which it set everyone’s lives. Arden is a history student doing a thesis on nostalgia, and nostalgia is a theme that permeates the book; Arden’s memories of her childhood home during happier times and Keokuk’s nostalgia for its prouder days when it was prosperous and filled with wealth and dreams.

      Arden is a fascinating character who has never given up hope of learning what happened to her sisters. She clings to their memory as well as the memory of happier times in her childhood, including her friend, Ben. Clinging to these memories though has locked her in a sort of stasis which prevents her from moving forward. Coming home has begun to unlock secrets that no one is sure they want revealed. With the help of a mystery site blogger, Arden continues probing into her sister’s disappearance. What she finds makes her begin to doubt her own recollection of events and leads to a powerful and moving conclusion.

      Arrowood is a wonderful novel that will haunt you long after you reach the final page. Laura McHugh has become must read. Highly recommended.

      I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book.
    • 4/5
      3.5 Old houses, mysteries, family secrets and the unreliability of memory. When Arden was eight she was charged with watching her twin sisters, not yet two, as she went around to the side of their house, Arrowood, the twins disappeared, never to be found. Arden has spent her life living with the guilt of this tragedy. After her Father's death she is left the house and so she returns, and so the story begins.

      Children are very aware of things happening, but not the meaning behind what they witness. Coming back floods Arden with memories, but which are reliable?This is a very atmospheric story and it flows particularly well. Very readable. Interesting plot, some good supporting characters. Strange happenings, and what might be a ghostly presence trying to give Arden answers. I enjoyed this, a fairly quick read but I did like her first book better, was grittier. The ending I was a little unsatisfied with. We do get answers but they were not really dealt with to my satisfaction. I guess the reader just has to trust the author's judgment and decide for themselves if justice was done.

      Arc from publisher.
    • 5/5
      Laura McHugh has done it again. After her excellent debut THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD comes another dark family drama with wonderful characters and plot twists that are both shocking and inevitable. The writing and storytelling are outstanding. Grab this one now.

      DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly, Dub Walker, and Samantha Cody thriller series
    • 5/5
      ARROWOOD by Laura McHugh
      Arrowood is a gothic thriller that starts slowly with mounting eeriness as the main character, Arden Arrowood, is slowly revealed along with the tragedies in her life. Her twin sisters disappeared while she, only 8 years old, was supposed to be watching them. Arden has scars, both physical and mental, from this and other traumas in her past life.
      Arrowood, the house, has been in her family for generations, but has stood empty since shortly after the twins disappeared. Arden returns to Arrowood twenty years later when her grandfather bequeaths her the long empty house. The tension mounts as her back story is revealed and various characters from her past, along with an amateur detective who is fascinated by the unsolved mystery of the twin’s disappearance, are introduced.
      McHugh is a gifted writer who maintains a firm grip on a story that could easily become maudlin. Instead the eeriness and growing unease builds to a crescendo. The characters are slowly developed into rich, fully portrayed persons embodied in a horrifying story.
      5 of 5 stars
    • 3/5
      Women crime writers have become so ubiquitous that they now seem to have their own genre. These novels are more psychological and less gory than their male-generated counterparts. Their hallmark seems to be the plot twist. Terrence Rafferty's excellent piece in The Atlantic (“Women Are Writing the Best Crime Novels”) makes some relevant points. “Thanks perhaps to the current cultural emphasis on youth—on girls in particular—many of these writers have turned their attention to the mysteries of growing up… Frequently their books are as much about old crimes, imperfectly understood, that date from childhood or adolescence as they are about new ones.”

      The plot in McHugh’s gothic novel focuses on the unreliability of traumatic childhood memories. Arden Arrowood relates her return to Keokuk, Iowa to take possession of the family manse. She inherits it following the death of her grandfather. This house was the site of the most chilling event of her childhood. Her twin sisters were abducted while she was watching them and were never seen again. Her guilt about this seems to have affected her life. She cannot finish her Master’s thesis and seems to have had a disastrous affair with one of her mentors. Also she may even have been suicidal. By living in her childhood home, she hopes to solve the mystery of her sisters’ disappearance. She also seeks to confront other demons related to her dysfunctional family. McHugh's novel admirably evokes this dying Mississippi River community and a creepy old house.

      The cast of supporting characters carries childhood memories for Arden. Ben Ferris is her childhood flame. Heaney, the caretaker, seems needy. He never recovered from a teenage romance with Arden’s mother. Mrs. Ferris is Arden’s next-door neighbor and Ben's mother. She warrants suspicion because of an affair with Arden's father. This was coincident with the twins’ disappearance. Harold Singer was wrongly accused of the abduction based on testimonies from Arden and Ben. He has never overcome the accusation or forgiven Arden. Her mother divorced her father and has a new life with a religious fundamentalist pastor.

      Josh Kyle is a convenient creation. He not only provides some romance for Arden, but also some much needed expertise. As an amateur sleuth operating a cold-case website called “Midwest Mysteries,” he serves as a sounding board to keep Arden focused on the solving the mystery.

      The writing builds a dark and suspenseful mood. But some of its elements seem contrived. These include mysterious water seepage, ghost-like occurrences, two forebears—conveniently named Arden—who die young, Heaney’s strange reaction to Arden’s findings and her father’s unusual relationship with Heaney. The plot does not lack for twists and clues are plentiful. Although satisfying, the outcome is not unpredictable for anyone paying attention. In this case, Rafferty’s conclusion may be apt. “The time is coming, and it might not be far off, when dodgy first-person accounts of dire events won’t trick anyone but the most gullible readers… If the verbal pyrotechnics that these women writers have been so effectively using get predictable, if their narrators become reliably unreliable, the power to mystify dissipates like the smoke from a fired gun.”
    • 4/5
      I was hooked after reading the first few pages. I loved the book and the writing style. Arden was eight when her twin sisters vanished, all she remembered was a gold car and was convinced it had something to do with the kidnappings. Now Arden has returned to her family home that she recently inherited and is also where her sisters were abducted. I couldn't put the book down, I wanted to find out about the scars on Arden's arms and what happened to her sisters. The book definitely didn't disappoint. I didn't expect the outcome of what happened to the twins but I figured out where Arden would find them. I can't wait to read more books by Laura McHugh.