Is there an audiobook of The Castle in the Glen: A Novel?

Yes. The Castle in the Glen: A Novel has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Shakira Shute.

How long is the The Castle in the Glen: A Novel audiobook?

The The Castle in the Glen: A Novel audiobook runs 11 hr 28 min.

The Castle in the Glen: A Novel by Rhys Bowen book cover for the Book of the Day historical fiction book review

Our score

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Castle in the Glen: A Novel free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDAugust 2026

Genres

Fiction Historical Fiction Mystery

Themes

Authorship and whose story gets to be toldMemory and inheritance as a dying woman's legacyWomen erased from their own historiesFamily secrecy across generations

The Castle in the Glen: A Novel

Name: The Castle in the Glen: A Novel
Price: 5.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Rhys Bowen

Rhys Bowen

The Castle in the Glen, Rhys Bowen's new historical mystery, sends an Australian ghostwriter to Scotland to finish a dying novelist's last book, only to learn the murder in the manuscript really happened. It's atmospheric, character-driven fiction for readers who want their mystery served with a slow-building romance and a genuine sense of place.

The Review

Our take

Rhys Bowen gives her heroine an odd kind of ventriloquism to perform, and The Castle in the Glen is at its best when it lingers on what that costs her. Emma Callander is a working writer in 1965 London, competent enough at her own books but broke enough to take the job of finishing someone else's: Iris Blackburn, a celebrated mystery novelist whose memory is failing, wants Emma to complete her final manuscript before it's too late. What starts as a professional puzzle, matching another woman's cadence and habits of mind, turns into something stranger once Emma travels north to research the book's setting and finds that Iris's supposedly invented murder happened, more or less exactly as written, on the Isle of Skye in 1904.

Bowen doesn't rush the past into the present. The 1904 drowning and the disappearance of the young woman locals called the Wild Girl unspool in patient layers, filtered through gossip, old letters, and the closed ranks of an aristocratic family that has had sixty years to get its story straight. The castle itself does real work here: cold rooms, portraits nobody wants to talk about, a household staff that remembers more than the family does. I found myself more interested in the Wild Girl's absence than in any single clue about her, the way a name repeated by people who never knew her starts to stand in for a whole erased life.

The romance with Tony Gordon, Iris's lawyer and the person most invested in protecting the old woman from her own family's secrets, develops the way good book club romances should: slowly, through shared work rather than declared feeling, so that by the time it's stated outright it already feels true. But the real ache of the novel is Iris herself, watching someone else finish her sentences while she can still recognize, dimly, that they're hers. Emma's growing tenderness toward a woman she was hired to imitate gives the mystery its stakes; you read to find out who the Wild Girl was, but you also read to see whether Emma can hand Iris's story back to her intact before there's no Iris left to receive it.

Why you should read

Readers who love a slow-burn Scottish castle mystery
Fans of dual-timeline historical fiction
Anyone who likes romance built on shared work, not declarations
Readers drawn to stories about women's erased histories

What to expect

A patient opening that rewards sticking with it
Dual timelines: 1965 London and Scotland, and 1904 Skye
A slow-building romance alongside the investigation
An atmospheric castle setting with real emotional weight

The opening chapters ask real patience. A small crowd of names and family relations arrives before the story finds its footing, and the mystery takes a while to announce itself. Stick with it. Once Emma reaches Scotland the book settles into its true subject: who gets to keep a life on the record after everyone who remembers it firsthand is gone.

Reviewed by Avery · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Castle in the Glen: A Novel free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Castle in the Glen: A Novel?: Yes. The Castle in the Glen: A Novel has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Shakira Shute.
Listen to The Castle in the Glen: A Novel free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Castle in the Glen: A Novel audiobook?: The The Castle in the Glen: A Novel audiobook runs 11 hr 28 min.
How much does The Castle in the Glen: A Novel cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $5.99, Paperback $12.99, Hardcover $21.99. Prices as of October 16, 2026 at 3:48 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is The Castle in the Glen: A Novel about?: Rhys Bowen gives her heroine an odd kind of ventriloquism to perform, and The Castle in the Glen is at its best when it lingers on what that costs her. Emma Callander is a working writer in 1965 London, competent enough at her own books but broke enough to take the job of finishing someone else's…
Is The Castle in the Glen: A Novel worth reading?: We scored The Castle in the Glen: A Novel 4.6 out of 5. The Castle in the Glen, Rhys Bowen's new historical mystery, sends an Australian ghostwriter to Scotland to finish a dying novelist's last book, only to learn the murder in the manuscript really happened. It's atmospheric, character-driven fiction for readers who want their…