Chenneville cover art

Chenneville

A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance

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Chenneville

By: Paulette Jiles
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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About this listen

An AudioFile Earphones Award Winner. Read by Grover Gardner.

Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post–Civil War frontier seeking redemption in this fearless novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of News of the World.

Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered.

Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North in the late unpleasantness, and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John knows as A. J. Dodd is little more than a rabid animal, slaughtering without reason or remorse, needing to be put down.

Traveling through the unforgiving landscape of a shattered nation in the midst of Reconstruction, John braves winter storms and confronts desperate people in pursuit of his quarry. Untethered, single-minded in purpose, he will not be deterred. Not by the U.S. Marshal who threatens to arrest him for murder should he succeed. And not by Victoria Reavis, the telegraphist aiding him in his death-driven quest, yet hoping he’ll choose to embrace a life with her instead.

And as he trails Dodd deep into Texas, John accepts that this final reckoning between them may cost him more than all he’s already lost…

Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Murder
All stars
Most relevant
Superb story, well presented, good voice. Immersive. Characters well developed. Graphic violence description, puts one in the middle of that time after that terrible war.

Great novel

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I get through about two dozen Audible books a year (plus more on Kindle and in paperback), a mixture of mainly British and American authors and in historic, crime/thriller, classic, SF and Civil War/Western genres. It's a pretty high bar to clear to become my book of the Year but Chenneville, a late choice in 2023, was my clear winner. It's am engrossing story, well and convincingly told about a rounded and flawed but likeable character. And, extremely importantly It is also superbly read. If you read or listen to no other story of the Civil War period make this the one.

My book of the Year

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