The Journeyman

By: Dan Dillard

Narrated by: Mary Lake, Edward Baker

Chelsea Ritter is a high school student with a pet tarantula and a real problem. Her next-door neighbor murders women in his basement and she knows about it. Worse, he knows she knows, but she has proof and she has a plan...but it's not what you expect. Go on Chelsea's journey. It's darker than you think.

©2014, 2025 Daniel P Dillard (P)2025 Daniel P Dillard

Chelsea has a dark passenger, and it's driving

For fans of Dexter, Heathers, American Psycho, You, and others in this genre, this book will scratch that itch in such an authentic and gritty way that you'll savor the sensation and want more ... more... From the wholesome relationship with her father, to the ire of her classmates, to the cautious collegial relationship with her next-door serial killer, Chelsea turns on a dime and plays them all like a fiddle in order to satisfy her cravings and desires. Some of the racially fueled language and teen hormonal dialogue can feel a bit shocking, yet it has its place in this story and cements the characters individuality and social positions. The well-written personalities are brought to life by duet narrators Mary Lake and Edward Baker with voices and distinguishing affects that are a pleasure to listen to. Dark brooding murder sprinkled with light teenage deflection make for a fantastic pairing. [Disclosure: I received this title for free and listened at 1.9x.]

A wild ride of a story

This one was a wild ride with a fantastic ending which I didn't see coming. If you like Dexter, you will like this book.

The main character, Chelsea, is a high school girl and we follow her as she goes through school days and interacts with her dad. She is a likable character through these interactions. however, things change when Chelsea gets a little nosy and records her nextdoor neighbor murder a woman. The rest of the book goes through Chelseas's actions and the consequences of the actions.

At the end, I ended up feeling bad for some of the characters I originally hated and feeling disappointed for some of the characters I initially liked.

While this book was a different genre than I typically read, it was a good change of pace and was well written and a I would listen to a sequel if one ever comes out.

For the narration, this was really well done as both of the narrators did an excellent job.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Freaking WILD

Ugh, Chelsea 🙄 She was a complete psychopath. I liked her at first so much, because she was quirky and silly and just a nosy neighbor but goodness, she was unhinged!!

Arthur's singing was everything. I'm sad about his ending. and poor Tim 😭 his dad was bad enough, he didn't deserved that.

Freaking Chelsea can go kick rocks!! This was so good though. Edward was fantastic, his voice is just 🫠😍🥵 I can listen to him all day long. Mary Lake, my first time listening to her but not the last. I loved her!! Chelsea sounded like a real 15 year old. She did an amazing job 👏🏽

I raged A LOT but I absolutely loved this.

SUCH A RIDE!

Mary Lake and Edward Baker are phenomenal. I received this audiobook yesterday afternoon and basically listened until I was done. This was my first time hearing Mary and I will be searching for more of her in the future!

Not gonna lie, this isn't exactly my normal "go to" genre. But having heard Edward's voice before, I just had to listen to this. And I'm so glad I did. I was staring at the wall half the time because SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH CHELSEA RITTER!

So imagine you're a teenager and you find out your next door neighbor is a killer... you panick? Call the cops? Tell your parents? Chelsea Ritter does NONE of those things. No, she decides to blackmail poor Arthur into helping get revenge on some bullies and then to teach her his ways. Only logical thing to do, right!?

When I tell you I did not see that ending coming. Jaw dropped and everything. There's actually A LOT that I didn't see coming.

Overall, this book was a ride. The narration was phenomenal!! (shout out to arthur's singing!) I'm normally a romance/dark romance/ horror reader, but I was here for all of this. I've been reading for so long nothing ever surprises me anymore. Maybe I should be reading more thrillers!

100% rec this book!

Great story

Great story, narration was well done and engaging. Different genre than I usually read but this was a good diversion from the usual. Hope there’s a sequel in the future!