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    Skin Deep
    Skin Deep
    Skin Deep
    Audiobook6 hours

    Skin Deep

    Written by Christopher Golden

    Narrated by Julie Dretzin

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Jenna Blake's second semester in college is off to a good start. She has a new boyfriend and a job she loves in the county medical examiner's office. Then an African-American couple on campus is brutally attacked. Racial tension suddenly floods her normally liberal campus. The African-American students don't think the police are doing all they can to find the killer. When a white student is killed, the campus erupts in a storm of protests, rallies and peace marches. As the violence escalates, Jenna finds herself defending her own interracial romance and frantically looking for clues to the killer's identity. Many librarians for young adults call Christopher Golden the bridge between Caroline B. Cooney and Steven King. With Jenna, he has created a character that is smart and determined. Her steely nerve is perfectly captured by narrator Julie Dretzin.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJul 23, 2010
    ISBN9781440714726
    Skin Deep
    Author

    Christopher Golden

    Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Of Saints and Shadows, The Myth Hunters, Snowblind, Ararat, and Strangewood. With Mike Mignola, he cocreated the comic book series Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. He lives in Bradford, Massachusetts. 

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    Reviews for Skin Deep

    3.5/5

    482 ratings28 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was a great Christie character study.MAJOR problems with the use of g*psy from beginning to end, and not just the word but insulting characteristics of the people from beginning to end.
    • 4/5
      Well, that was a mind f*ck. Sort of. I don't know about anyone else, but the entire time I was reading this I was, in addition to waiting for something to happen, racing down possible scenarios in my head, so at one point or another I'd suspected everyone. I most consistently suspected Mike, that I was reading a confession after the fact; at one point I started to suspect Ellie because nobody could be that perfect could they? And Mike's reaction to meeting Greta didn't feel authentic, although I was subsequently sold on his hostility towards her. It wasn't until Ellie died and he kept Greta around that I went back to thinking he was just another cliche, falling for the secretary. But boy howdy I did NOT see the very end at all. That was very dark indeed and the break with reality at the end was also a complete shock. I don't know what I'd call this, but murder mystery would not make the top three. Psychological thriller, yes. Horror even. Suspense at the very least. But even if you don't know who the killer is until the end, there isn't any emphasis on the mystery. A lot of questions went unanswered for me, most of them probably inconsequential: What was up with the impromptu visit by Ellie's uncle at the end - was there a point to that? And was Lloyd really at the pub with his ex-wife? Why? And if the staff were who Mike says they were why didn't they stop the whole thing sooner? Why let it go on for so long? Objectively speaking, this is a very good book; it requires a commitment from the reader, to stick with it during that excruciatingly slow build up, but it repays it in spades with that ending. It's tight, and well written and I sort of suspect Christie had a lot of fun writing it; I picture her at her desk doing a version of the muwahahaha as she constructed that ending. But subjectively... I didn't like it. I don't like unreliable narrators, I dislike being kept from the facts and I hate psychological manipulation and the very worst part: I couldn't put the book down. I had to know how it ended. Does that make me more or less crazy than the book?
    • 3/5
      I guessed it. The dead body doesn't show up until page 196 (out of 274 pages). Writing in the first person means you can blame any awkwardness on the narrator and not the author. Perhaps knowing that the narrator cared more about a house than the love of his life might have been a clue.
    • 3/5
      Well done, but too creepy for me.
    • 4/5
      This is a very creepy book.
    • 4/5
      Endless Night (1967) by Agatha Christie. I don’t quite know what to think about this novel. It is a good story and well written, with rather different main characters than Miss Agatha’s usual menu. But t is not a detective story by a long shot and when I think of Christie, I think detection.This is a tale of a neer-do-well but attractive young man who wants money, a grand house and a beautiful wife. He manages to get all three without too much effort. But once he has them, he wants other things as well, things he should not be going after, things he doesn’t need, but things that are iresistably calling to him.What’s a poor boy to do?This is a dark, smartly written novel. The characters are fleshed out to a greater degree than most of those in Dame Agatha’s writing, but the main character just creeped me out. In the past I’ve met a person and felt the bad vibe they gave off. You might have had the same experience. You aren’t certain what is wrong with them, just that something is and your instinct is to stay away.I got that feeling from this book and I most say Ms. Christie managed to convey that sense almost too well.You might be able to get through this in one, long, sitting. I made the mistake of putting it down for a weekend and I had difficulty getting myself to pick it up again. This was entirely based on the main character, Michael Rogers. Even though I knew after only a few pages he would be a heel, I was surprised to the degree of my reaction.I suppose all this makes it inevitable that I would have to say I did like this outing of the master.
    • 5/5
      Superb, one of the best Christie's I've read, far exceeding any of her more famous detective stories. For a long time it's not at all clear what the 'crime' or the title blurbs "most devastating suspense ever" is going to be. The hero is one Michael Rogers, a bit of a layabout. He's from a poor upbringing with a mother who worked hard to provide the best he could. Michael's never been quite so committed or keen on the hard work bit, and lived pretty much hand to mouth, doing odd jobs for a few months before moving on to something new. He's always had an eye for a bargain and looking smart, and an easy way with the girls. The story starts with Mike having just abandoned his last job, and sauntering through a village somewhere in the SE. He see's a house up for auction and wanders along to have a look. The sale falls through failing to reach the reserve due apparently to buyers nervous of a lingering gypsy curse. Mike day dreams what he's do with such a property, and happens to recall that he knows a famous architect who could do the job right proper. He strolls off to have a look at the grounds and there he chances into a young and pretty american girl who has escaped her chaperones for brief while. Ellie and Mike make an instant connection and arrange to meet again. And again. Only after Mike's proposed to her does Ellie reveal that she's a rich american heiress, shortly to be come into her inheritance. She's already bought the house where they met, and Mike arranges for his friend to build them a dream home. Only the occasional warning from the local gypsy sours the mood. Even the rest of Elie's family, condensending to the local bumpkin she's married can't spoil a good thing. Ellie is particularly delighted when her long-time maid Greta comes to stay, although Mike is less keen.The style is very light and totally different to Christies' other works. Mike has a simple voice he knows what he likes and carefree to admit what he doesn't know or understand. It's a refreshing and easy reading style full of gentle good humour. The setting is never clear, but sometime probably in the 60s boom when the nation was feeling good, but old traditions continued especially in the more remote villages. I don't quite know when the practice of having staff in the house faded away, but both Ellie and Mike take it for granted that there should be some. You're a more astute reader than me if you spot the antagonist before the reveal. But in many ways it doesn't matter as the lilting style is so enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      I would have liked it better if I hadn't accidentally read the solution in the Wikipedia article or some other such article. But, it was still an interesting read and fun finding the clues.
    • 5/5
      I had seen a TV movie of this so I knew where it would be going.I image it would be better not knowing and having the twist being a total surprise.The book is better than the movie.
    • 5/5
      "I’d no real idea that that wasn’t all there was to it. I suppose it happens to everyone sooner or later and it happens suddenly. You don’t think as you imagine you’re going to think: ‘This might be the girl for me… This is the girl who is going to be mine.’ At least, I didn’t feel it that way. I didn’t know that when it happened it would happen quite suddenly. That I would say: ‘That’s the girl I belong to. I’m hers. I belong to her, utterly, for always.’ No. I never dreamed it would be like that. Didn’t one of the old comedians say once– wasn’t it one of his stock jokes? ‘I’ve been in love once and if I felt it coming on again I tell you I’d emigrate.’ It was the same with me. If I had known, if I had only known what it could all come to mean I’d have emigrated too! If I’d been wise, that is."

      Endless Night is one of Dame Agatha's lesser known novels. However, it is easily one of her best.

      The narrator describes this story as a love story but it is clear from the outset - and obviously knowing that it is an AC story - that not all is well and that there are powers conspiring against the main characters. It is for the reader to follow the narrator into the story of Gipsy's Acre, his story.

      I'm not going to give anything away here but just want to say that this book had me hooked and led me down the garden path right until the very end. And for someone who is quick to describe Dame Agatha's mysteries as formulaic, this is not easy to admit. Well, ok, it is. I enjoyed every minute of being mislead by this story.

      "In my end is my beginning…That’s a quotation I’ve often heard people say. It sounds all right– but what does it really mean? Is there ever any particular spot where one can put one’s finger and say: ‘It all began that day, at such a time and such a place, with such an incident?’ "
    • 3/5
      An easy, fun read - had Christie been watching Hitchcock?Heightened, early-1960s dialogue and all the tropes of the chiller-thriller help to make for a page-turning and ultimately gut-wrenching experience - though quite incredible, of course!
    • 4/5
      Reading through the opening chapters of this mystery, I had to double check the author's name on the cover. I love Christie, and this book seemed so different from every other work I had read from her before. Not in a bad way, simply different. The story is about a boy meeting a girl, falling in love, and building their dream home ... supposedly. Michael is a charming dilettante, unwilling to stick at any job for long but loving his roving life. He stumbles upon Gypsy's Acre, and is intrigued. Later, he meets legendary architect Rudolf Santonix, and begins to fantasize about the perfect house he could build to replace the dilapidated building on Gypsy's Acre. Within a few months, he happens to be back in the same village, and he meets Ellie, a young American heiress. From the moment they see each other, they are madly in love.The reason I was surprised I was reading an Agatha Christie novel is because these events - the meeting between Michael and Ellie, their romance and eventual marriage despite protests from both families, and the building of their dream home on Gypsy's acre - occupy at least half the novel. I was used to Christie's more usual format of introducing the characters and setting up a murder right away. Not that the change was a bad one; I found the story engaging from the beginning, and was eager to keep reading, even without any mystery in sight. The story is told in a first person point of view, from Michael's perspective, and his voice was compelling. The book just didn't seem like a mystery. However, from the start ominous notes present themselves, beginning with the notorious background of Gypsy Acre, the name of both the home and the land around it, and the frantic warnings of a gypsy woman. As the romance between Michael and Ellie deepens, and they marry and move into their home, the darker elements start to bubble up more frequently. Certainly events are headed to a bad end. Someone throws a rock through their window the first night they stay in the house, and a shard of glass cuts Ellie's cheek. Ellie sprains her ankle. The gypsy woman returns, with more dire warnings, and Ellie is frightened. Even so, I wondered if the novel would end as a tragedy, rather than a mystery. And then, one of them is killed.Even after the death, the normal mystery formula is not followed. Although some of the characters are suspicious, and interesting possibilities for foul play are presented, most people accept the official verdict that the death was accidental. No detectives people these pages; instead, the reader is the detective, trying to sort through the various lies and deceptions to find the awful truth buried in this tale of love. At the end, the truth is revealed, in a surprising way, and the reader is made to reevaluate everything she had read before. In this aspect, the novel remains faithful to Christie's other work, in that the ending has several surprises, and makes the reader realize that the clues were there from the beginning, they just needed organizing with the right interpretation. The story is a fast read, and cleverly evokes a creepy atmosphere the permeates even the brightest moments in the narrative. While some Christie novels are a bit too unhappy at the end for me, I have yet to read one that wasn't taut and compelling. This book is no exception, and even with the grim ending, I found it a highly entertaining read.
    • 4/5
      Well-written but quite different from Christie's typical mysteries.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the Christie titles that I really don't think I have read before. I've certainly seen at least one TV or film version, even the one that recently introduced Miss Marple as an extra character. I thought poor Miss Marple was put in extraordinary danger and had her physical powers fully tested in that one. As a general rule I don't like these plot modifications.ENDLESS NIGHT was however written as a stand-alone and in it Agatha Christie returns to the writing exercises of the unreliable narrator, and exploring the mind of the psychotic killer.The author does not really play fair with the reader, because we don't ever get the full picture all at once. Little bits are left unexplained. Ellie's American relatives are portrayed to us by the narrator, Ellie's husband Michael Rogers, as predatory and untrustworthy, and there are characters like Michael's mother, who could have explained so much, who remain elusive and shadowy, because Michael does not want us to meet them.Divided into four books, the novel takes quite a long time to build up to Ellie's death, and then the events that follow. There is an almost Gothic quality to the story: American heiress, quick marriage in defiance of her advisor's wishes, cursed land, gypsy woman who tries to scare the heiress.An enjoyable read, part of my quest to complete the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.
    • 4/5
      This was the first time that I have read Christie, and despite the old fashioned time of the story, it had me gripped right till the end. I read it quicker than i thought I would, and, and what a suprise ending! I will be reading more from her in future. Hugely enjoyable 
    • 5/5
      Agatha Christie's Endless Night is far more than a great read, a psychological thriller and a riveting mystery: it's one of the most insightfulbooks about a sociopathic predator and his beguiling mask of sanity I have read.
    • 5/5
      Michael Rogers dreams of having a rich, beautiful wife that he can live "happily ever after" with in a wonderful house in the country. Marriage to the fabulously wealthy and gorgeous American heiress, Ellie Guteman, brings Michael as close to his wildest dreams as he can possibly want to get. Michael and Ellie happily purchase Gipsy's Acre and start to build their dream house together. Michael studiously ignores the country gossips who whisper that Gipsy's Acre is a cursed tract of land. That's until a mysterious murderer strikes much too close to Michael's ultimate dream life for his liking.I really enjoyed this story. It was the first time that I had read this book and I give it an A+! It was quite interesting to receive this particular book in the mail - I received it directly from Ireland and opened the package to discover the back cover was written in Chinese. The book was written in English but the synopsis on the back cover was written in Chinese! :) I asked my daughter to "translate" for me and she burst out laughing when she saw it.
    • 5/5
      This was another read for the Agatha Christie summer reading challenge and my favorite so far, It starts out like a Gothic romance novel and turns into a crime book. I did not see the twist at the end, it was surprising to me. When you think back on the events in the book the clues along the way light up in your brain. I don't want to give too much away and spoil the surprise waiting for the reader at the end. This is short book, around 200 pages. It is worth reading it in one siting to get the full effect.
    • 4/5
      A lot more sinister than most of Christie's works. It starts off almost dull and very uneventful, but the sense of uneasiness just grows throughout the book, and the twist at the end is brilliant.
    • 4/5
      I'm ashamed to admit that this is my first Agatha Christie. That said, since Nancy Drew, I was not a mystery reader until about five years ago. I chose this as my first since it was listed as one of her best and the only among that list owned by our library. I didn't see the ending coming and what seemed a relatively tame tale, turned into an incredibly sinister one. The complexity came only at the end and compared to many of the contemporary mysteries I have read, this paled in suspense, writing style, characterization and detail.
    • 4/5
      My absolute favourite by Agatha Christie. I didn't see the twist coming, maybe that makes me a bit thick, but I always like to be caught out by a book. Wonderfully dark and sinister.
    • 4/5
      This book came as somewhat of a surprise to me. Originally published in 1967, I think it is a wonderful example of how versatile an author she was. This was not what I had usually come to expect from Agatha Christie, it read rather as if it had come from the pen of Ruth Rendell, much more of a psychological thriller. Michael is a charming, working class fellow who moves from job to job as his interests change. He tells us the story of how he meets, falls in love, and marries a young American heiress. They decide to make their home in the English countryside and proceed to built their dream home. Unfortunately the piece of property they build on appears to have a built in gypsy curse. The action builds slowly, the murder doesn’t happen until the last third of the book As Michael’s story unfolds, his suspicions and paranoia are first turned on one character, then another, until the truth is undeniable. I must admit I had figured out what the final truth was going to be, but I still enjoyed the ride. Endless Night is not one of Agatha Christie‘s traditional mysteries, but certainly shows us why she was called the “Queen of Crime”.
    • 5/5
      Historien fortælles af Michael Rogers og begynder med at han betages af huset Sigøjnervangen. Her ser han Ellie - (kælenavn for Fenella Goodman eller Guteman) - for første gang. Huset har et dårligt rygte og en gammel spåkone advarer både ham og Ellie mod at have noget med det at gøre. Michael er gået fra job til job, rastløs og åben for pludselige indskydelser. Han har ingen penge, men bestemt ideer til at bruge dem, hvis han havde nogle. God smag, men ingen penge.Ellie er en stakkels rig pige, men hendes tjenende ånd Greta Andersen hjælper hende til at slippe fri en gang imellem.Ellie og Michael bliver gift - hun bliver myndig og hovedrig, og får arkitekten Santorix til at bygge dem et hus på Sigøjnervangen. Greta flytter også ind og alt er godt. Tilsyneladende. Men Ellie dør på en ridetur i skoven, veninden Claudia Hardcastles også, Sigøjnersken Esther Lee falder i et stenbrud og arkitekten Santorix dør af sin sygdom. Alt er død.Til sidst afsløres det at beretningen skrives af Michael mens han venter på sin straf for sammen med Greta at have planlagt det hele. Han er endt med at gå fra forstanden og har kvalt Greta. Alt er blevet til aske mellem fingrene på ham og han må gå for evigt i endeløs nat.Smukt fortalt koldblodig gyser i gotisk stil - lidt i stil med Rebecca
    • 4/5
      An unusual book for Christie as it has almost a Gothic feel that reminded me of du Maurier's "Rebecca". Written in first-person narrative, it follows the meeting and marriage of poor English Mike and weathly American Ellie. The problem is that Ellie has inherited so much money that she can't get free of her greedy relatives and the family lawyers. Well, that's part of the problem...
    • 5/5
      The narrator, Michael Rogers, tells us the story of his marriage to Ellie, an American heiress and how they came to build a hose at the cursed Gypsy's Acre. This is very different from Christie's other books, no Miss Marple, Poirot, just a sinister and tragic tale told in simple, poetic prose. Simultaneously lovely and disturbing at the same time.
    • 4/5
      One of my favourite Agathe Christies. Unlike her other books, where murder is treated as a matter of fact ,routine , event occuring in the lives of ordinary people, in this novel she touches upon the moral dimension, that we have choices..
    • 5/5
      My favourite Christie novel, tense, interesting, no Poirot or Marple in sight and a cracking plot twist at the end. Great stuff from the mistress of crime novels.
    • 3/5
      Great fun, wonderful trek in pursuit of a murderer. As ever, I did not guess correctly. But with Christie, it doesn't matter since the fun is in the journey.