In the Shadow of the Past

Set against the moody backdrop of 1940s New York City, J.E. Leak's debut novel weaves together noir atmosphere, wartime intrigue, and a slow-burn romance that feels genuinely dangerous. When reporter Jenny Ryan sets out to expose the powerful man behind her father's murder, she stumbles into a world of secrets far deeper than she anticipated, including a collision with Kathryn Hammond, a nightclub singer whose glamorous surface conceals a classified double life. The two women are pulled together by desire and pushed apart by duty, with the stakes escalating on every front.

Abby Craden brings considerable range to this layered story, navigating the sharp-witted Jenny and the guarded, world-weary Kathryn with distinct and convincing voices. Her delivery captures the tension of the noir genre without tipping into parody, letting the emotional undercurrent surface naturally. At just over eleven hours, the pacing rewards patient listeners, and the atmospheric period detail translates especially well in audio, making this an absorbing introduction to the Shadow series.