Candles Burning

Author Michael McDowell, known for his chilling Blackwater series, left behind the unfinished manuscript of Candles Burning upon his death in 1999. His close friend, Tabitha King, has taken up where he left off, weaving a Southern gothic fabric of murder, guilt, innocence, corruption, and survival, in the voices of the living and the dead. Seven-year-old Calley Dakin is daddy's little girl, but her well-born mother persists in her contempt for the Dakin name. When her daddy is tortured and murdered by two women with no discernible motivation, Calley and her mother find themselves caught up in inexplicable events that exile them to Pensacola Beach. There, another woman awaits their presence, a woman who knows what Calley is and who seeks to control her--for Calley is no ordinary little girl.

From Publishers Weekly

MacDuffie reads this Southern gothic tale, which King completed upon her friend McDowell's death, with a honeyed Alabama drawl that rapidly grows tiresome. She puts so much effort into each word that the audiobook becomes more a personal performance than a reading of the book. Her voice, by turns exaggerated and grating, spills over the book's words, drenching them in a faux-folksy charm that overwhelms the authors' narrative. MacDuffie is technically accomplished, but her reading is simply too much, taking center stage when it should be content with remaining dutifully in the background. The result is attempted Faulkner or Tennessee Williams, more suitable to the stage than to the reading of a novel.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Tabitha King is the acclaimed author of Small World, Survivor, The Book of Reuben, and many other titles. The wife of novelist Stephen King, she lives in Maine.Michael McDowell (1950-1999) was an American novelist and screenwriter, the author of numerous mysteries, psychological thrillers, and horror novels, including the six volumes of the Blackwaterseries. In 1985 he wrote the screenplay for the movie Clue, which was based on the board game and included three different endings.Carrington MacDuffie is a voice actor and recording artist who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, received numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has been a frequent finalist for the Audie Award, including for her original audiobook, Many Things Invisible. Alongside her narration work, she has released a new album of original songs, Only an Angel.

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