It All Falls Down audiobook

Wanting to know where you come from doesn’t make you weak…but it can make you vulnerable. It can make you crave answers about people you should belong to and places that call to your heart, answers that you’re never going to get, from questions that you don’t have the courage to ask. …disaster swoops down and grabs hold when a creature is at its weakest. Hi, My name is Nora, and I am a…um…well…uh… Investigator extraordinaire Nora Watts is struggling to come to terms with the fact that she has actually killed someone, ok, maybe more than one someone. And even if it was in self-defense, in the line of duty, it still leaves a psychic mark. Sadly, there is no such entity as Killers Anonymous where she can take her woes, so Nora transforms the details of her experience to fit more comfortably into another meeting. I mean, she has had some serious substance issues, so it is not all that much of a stretch whether it is a booze, drugs, or some other Anonymous meeting, right?Nora has two families. Her biology-based crew consisting of a daughter in another city, a sister with whom she is not exactly on the best of terms, a missing mother and a late father. Her constructed family consists of a diverse crew of misfits, including a cross-dressing computer expert, a recovering alcoholic of an investigatory sort-of-friend, an erstwhile employer who is enduring a life-ending illness and a stray pooch with an eye for furry studs. Her kidnapped daughter safely retrieved in Book 1 of this series, Nora is ready to take on another family challenge. After a mysterious military veteran associate of her father (Marines – Lebanon – when the US presence was under significant terrorist attack) tells her that he wanted to finally fulfill a promise he had made to her father to check in on her, (Jeez, took his bloody time, din’t he?) her curiosity is piqued and she begins looking into what had happened to long-lost dad. Why did he kill himself way back when? Cue quest. Pops had been taken from his Native family in a national disgrace of a program known as the Sixties Scoop, and was given to a white family in Detroit to be raised. Some Canadian Dream, eh? So, Nora heads off to Motown to do some poking around.I edited the sequel to #TheLostOnes/#eyeslikemine largely at an Irish whiskey bar, after hours. Every day, when the bar was closed to the public, I worked in the presence of temptation, immersing myself in a character who just so happens to be a recovering alcoholic. ‘You saved me’ by Gary Clark Jr. played on a loop on my headphones. This is what I’ve learned from the experience: Office space is expensive. Whiskey bottles are pretty. Gary Clark Jr soothes my soul. – From Kamal’s Instagram PagesBernard Lam, a billionaire client from The Lost Ones, is mourning the passing of the love of his life (someone other than his new wife) due to an overdose. Bereft at this, he wants Jon Brazuca, an ex-cop, ex-security agent, and current PI, who is still recovering from what Nora did to him in the last book, to find out how his darling, Clementine, got lost and gone forever. Lam is eager to learn who might have had a hand in the event, so he can apply his considerable fortune to a vengeful end. Brazuca’s investigation into the source of Clementine’s drugs, and Nora’s mission to find the truth of her father’s sad demise provide the two parallel story lines in It All Falls Down. Any chance that the two investigations might just, you know, somehow, intersect? Duh-uh. The action skips along at a lively place, with both Braz and Nora kept busy coping with very bad people intent on derailing them from their investigatory aims, with a nice side helping of physical harm. Nora, in particular, must run a seemingly endless gauntlet of people eager to put a permanent end to her inquiries.Ok, this shot is from a fire in Washington State, but you get the idea – image from Williamette WeekVolume 2 Nora remains a compelling character, a flawed, well, very flawed actor with more downside than a flock of geese. There is one particular tick that Kamal assigns Nora that pushes her from the flawed into the creepy. But maybe that’s just me. It did not interfere with enjoying the book, or caring about Nora and Braz finding out what they need to find out. There was one change to Nora, though, that I found a tad disappointing. Her super power, the ability to unerringly spot lies, has been significantly dampened, after a particularly unpleasant watery trauma at the end of the prior book. How reliable is her personal device with a sputtering charge? And is it ok to take away one of a character’s major advantages? That talent was definitely a nice-to-have, and I missed her having it here.Kamal offers up a bit more of the local color that so beautifully informed her prior book. Of course, the colors here tend to be in the darker end of the spectrum, both in BC and in Detroit. In addition to noting the Sixties Scoop program, she offers a less than tourist-brochure-ready look at the Motor City. The BC setting includes a nice piece of atmospheric menace with the constant peripheral presence of forest fires north of Vancouver. Fire serves here as rain did in the first book. Kamal also fills her early scenes with details of how an invasion of drugs is affecting Vancouver. Sometimes, though, the imagery can get a bit unsubtle, as when two birds of prey worry a stray duck. As The Blues played through The Lost Ones, so music informs this novel as well, with, in addition to music refs, opportunities for Nora to play some guitar and give her pipes a workout as well. It’s strange that a place like this could spawn one of the greatest soul legends alive today, but it makes a certain kind of sense. Music comes from shoving open the blinds and letting the sunshine or the darkness in. At least the blues does. Soul music is called that for a reason. If there was ever a place that stripped away the extraneous, it is Detroit…Detroit isn’t pretty, but the people left to pick up the pieces felt real to me. Which is more than I can say for beautiful but distant Vancouver, where there are no cyclists blasting love songs to cheer up the downtrodden. Maybe I’m falling for this city, even though someone here is trying to kill me. Devil’s Night image from TripSavvy.comThe introduction of a new series, a new set of characters offers the delight of getting to know these people and places for the first time. The second time lacks that advantage, making it a bit tougher for an author to keep us interested. Does Kamal manage it? Yep. Nora, despite, and maybe even because of her quirks, is a fun lead. I wish she had retained her uber BS detector, but she is formidable even in its absence. She remains a kick-ass heroine, and Braz offers a nice, tough, match for her. The events they investigate are interesting, so you will learn a thing or two while on the ride. (Angel’s Night in Detroit is one that stands out) Kamal’s secondary characters remain an engaging lot. Wish she had managed to get more of Nora’s dog, Whisper, into the act this time. I was also disappointed that the AA-type meeting thing was not revisited after the opening. It would have made a nice coda. The stage has been set for Nora to continue with the family quest in the next volume, (We can hope for final answers there.) with the addition, no doubt, of some parallel evil-doing for her and Braz to look into. The Lost Ones started us on our journey with Nora Watts. It All Falls Down might have been better titled It All Builds Up, because it deepens our interest in Nora and her quest. For now, Kamal has provided a very engaging, entertaining bridge from book one to book three. I can’t wait to see what happens when she gets to the other side. It All Falls Down is one smokin’ hot summer read.Review posted – March 9, 2018Publication – July 3, 2018=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal, Instagram, and FB pagesItems by Sheena Kamal-----A wonderful piece on the origin of Nora Watts and Kamal’s decision to write her as a novel rather than a screenplay – for Powell’s - Rain and the Blues-----Kamal’s article in the Irish Times on some northern history - A Cautionary Tale about the Canadian dreamBits and pieces-----A wiki on the notorious Canadian Sixties Scoop program -----June 3, 2019 - The Daily Beast - Canada Calls Violence Against Indigenous Women ‘Genocide’ - by Julia Arciga-----Some info on Devils/Angel’s Night in DetroitMusical refs of note-----Amy Winehouse performing Rehab-----Gary Clarke performing If Trouble was Money -----Lyrics to Oh My Darling, Clementine My reviews of other books by the author-----Eyes Like Mine - Nora Watts #1 - 2017-----No Going Back - Nora Watts #3 - 2020

It was great to get back into Nora Watts’s world. This second novel was interesting and well written but the overall mystery wasn’t as compelling. It did however set up the next book really well. Appreciated seeing more of Brazuca and seeing how Nora has evolved since the events of Book 1. Excited for the next book in the series.

It All Falls down is the sequel to the fabulous The Lost Ones. In this book is Nora Watts approached by a man that claims to have known her late father. Nora doesn't know much about her father, and the man's inquest about her and her sister makes her search for facts about her father. This eventually takes her from Vancouver to Detroit where Sam Watts grew up. The more she learns about her father and ultimately her mother makes her realize that the circumstances around her father suicide are more complicated than she thought.At first, the story in this book seems to be just about Nora's father. Then, Nora starts to discover more about the mother she hardly remembers. And, ultimately Nora will realize that her own ghosts are still out to get her. If you have read the first book do you know about Nora's hunt to find her daughter Bonnie (that she gave up for adoption) that disappeared. She may have brought Bonnie home, but there are still people out there that will Nora ill.I love how this book gave Nora and the reader more knowledge about Nora's parents. As the first book was about Nora and Bonnie does this feel great to get to know more about Nora and her family. Of course, Bonnie is still there in the story. Love the pics they send to each other, in a way to tentatively have a contact. Then, there is Jon Brazuca doing his own research into the death of a friend's mistress. That part was OK even though I much preferred when he decided to help Nora instead. The ending of the book makes me long for the next book in the series!I want to thank William Morrow for providing me with a free copy through Edelweiss for an honest review!

Nora Watts was one of my favourite characters to emerge from last year’s new fiction so diving into her world again was a pure pleasure.Having saved her daughter and returned her to the loving arms of Bonnie’s adoptive family, Nora is busy trying to deal with the imminent death of a friend. However a strange encounter sends her on a journey of discovery about her own parents…It All Falls Down is pacy, clever and intriguingly difficult to predict, an involving and often ironically humerous read which is easy to do in one sitting.There’s another mystery in the mix, a plethora of fascinating characters and some brilliant plotting that makes it a huge page turner.Emotionally charged on the theme of familial relationships, with a spiky, highly engaging and deeply flawed main protagonist in Nora Watts along with some layered intuitive writing, It All Falls Down was a brilliant read.Roll on the next.Recommended.

Hm. My next book better be good because I’ll definitely have a book hangover...I loved Eyes Like Mine, loved this one too. Nora is a fierce young woman who trouble always seems to find her... Can’t wait for book 3! I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I have found is that titles that have no synopsis posted on NetGalley seem to have a low pick-up rate, as if people cannot manage to search for it elsewhere on the web. Maybe people are just lazy, who knows. This is one of those with no blurb, but after reading it elsewhere on the net it sounded intriguing, it certainly didn't put me off! Okay, rant over!With advance praise from Jeffery Deaver and Lee Child, and it being recommended for fans of Stieg Larsson, Sharon Bolton and Peter Swanson, this had me at hello. I see that this is the second in the Nora Watts series from Sheena Kamal, I haven't read the first one, but I feel this could easily qualify as a standalone title."It All Falls Down" is what you call a real page-turner with a fantastic storyline and Nora Watts, the central character is a fascinating and well-developed protagonist who is both feisty and deeply flawed. In Nora, Kamal has created a believable and relatable main character. I plan to go back and read the first in the series in order to understand how her past has moulded her into the person she is today. The plot is taut and intricate, full of tension and suspense. The writing is excellent making the novel very simple to engage with and plenty of pace in the storyline means everything just flows naturally, this made it an absolute pleasure to read.Many thanks to Zaffre for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

RATING: 4 STARSIt All Falls Down continues with the fallout from the first novel, The Lost Ones. Nora heads to the East Coast of Uniter States, Detroit to look into her father's past. Nora has always felt like uncovering the secrets of her parents and facing her past is the only way she can move on. As she follows the trail she finds herself getting further into danger. As I find myself rooting for Nora, I also just want to give her a big hug. Kamal has written such a realistic character I forget she is not a real person. And, maybe that's good she is not, as hugs are not Nora's jam. And, to be honest, it's not mine either but she is just so hard on herself. While there are many things, I don't have in common with Nora, I find her very relatable. I can feel someone of her darkness and reading this novel lets me breathe some of mine out. What I really liked about this novel was that Kamal brings to light the adoption policy of Indigenous children in the 1950s. Canadian Indigenous children were adopted out to American families (I could rant about this for days, so will keep it out of this review). Nora's father was one of those children sent to Detroit. I am so glad I decided to binge read book two and three together. On to book three.

Nora Watts, the character Sheena Kamal created in her novel Eyes Like Mine (also Published under The Lost Ones), was one of my favourite protagonists of 2017 and I was really looking forward to meeting up with her again.It is a very different Nora we see in Shamal’s latest novel It All Falls Down. After killing someone in order to rescue her daughter, Nora struggles not only with her conscience but has also lost the gift that had set her apart as an investigator – her ability to detect lies. She is now living with her friend and former boss Sebastian Crow, who is dying from cancer and trying to compile his memoirs with Nora’s help. She seems even more rootless and lost without her job as investigator, her dark past still haunting her. Already a very solitary and reserved character, she is becoming even more anti-social, if this is at all possible. So when the past catches up with her in the form of an old military buddy of her father’s, she grabs the opportunity to travel to Detroit, her father’s childhood home, to try and find out more about her parents’ past. As the daughter of an indigenous Canadian man who had been taken from his birth family and raised by adoptive parents, and a Palestinian refugee mother, who vanished without a trace when Nora was a child, she has many questions about her lineage that she thought would never be answered. She is especially haunted by the suicide of her father, which saw her sister and her being put into foster care and raised as a ward of the state.The dark underbelly of Detroit offers a sinister backdrop to Nora’s search for truth, and a stark contrast to her Vancouver home. For a reader from a small remote country town, this setting was a huge eye-opener to me. With an industrial crisis hanging over the city, bringing high unemployment, drugs, violence, hopelessness and crime, Detroit seemed like a scary and joyless place to me. As soon as Nora starts digging into her father’s past, threatening to unearth some skeletons, she is attracting the attention of some very dangerous people, which sees her having to go on the run and fight for her life.I was happy to see that Nora, despite her lost superpower, was still the brash, abrasive, badass character I had been so enamoured with in Kama’s first book. She also hasn’t lost her self-deprecating humour I had enjoyed so much. Whilst Nora does her best to keep everyone at arms’ length, including her readers, she is an irresistible protagonist. However, I felt that there was a link missing between Kamal’s first novel and this one, as the story makes a huge jump forward in time to a point where I felt that I had perhaps missed another book. Nora’s and Brazuca’s stories don’t tie together well in this one, and it all felt slightly disjointed to me. I also felt it more difficult to connect to the element of organised crime and gangland activity, which was so alien to me and did not have the same emotional pull as Nora’s first quest, of rescuing a child she had given up for adoption at birth. However, as Nora discovers some pieces of her parents’ past that put everything she has ever thought into doubt, I felt myself getting more intrigued. Whilst I felt it a bit harder to connect to all the different characters in It All Falls Down than in Eyes Like Mine, and desperately missed Nora’s faithful companion Whisper, I still enjoyed this plucky character and look forward to finding out more about her in the next book in the series. As a fair warning to readers, I feel that this book would not work well as a stand-alone novel and highly recommend reading the first book in the series before delving into this storyline. Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review. *blog* *facebook* *instagram*

Largely set in Detroit, one of the most fascinating cities I've ever been to, It All Falls Down picks up some of the threads from The Lost Ones, and continues the journey of Nora Watts, the character I just can't seem to get out of my head!(Also, I think it can be read as a standalone.)

In It All Falls Down Nora Watts is the hub and the rest of the cast are spokes in a spinning wheel of compelling intrigue and misery. Non-stop drama and trauma delivers delicious emotional vertigo on almost every page. No one gets a happy ending in this gripping saga.

The Past Is Still Coming (TW: rape/ suicide)This sequel was one I was anticipating and it didn’t disappoint! Nora has had a tough life, and the events of the first book only added more traumatic events, but she never quits nor stops moving forward, which is what leads her to leave one of the only people in her life–on his death bed–to find answers about her father. We travel from Vancouver to Detroit as Watts puts distance with her past to uncover who her father was, but her past in Vancouver isn’t going to stop coming for her no matter how far away she is–including PI Brazuca. Watts is the kind of woman that life has beaten–repeatedly–and left her hard, mistrusting, and determined, and I love watching her navigate through the world on difficult journeys. The book has a lot of different parts–the previous “case,” her caring for a dying man, her current mission to learn about her family, working on a new relationship, and Brazuca’s current work and case–but they all flow well with each other and come together in the end leaving me once again having read a really good book and wanting more Nora Watts. (You technically do not have to read The Lost Ones because this book does catch you up BUT it gives away a lot of the solves from the first book. Plus, the first book was a great thriller so you should read it.)--from Book Riot's Unusual Suspects newsletter: http://link.bookriot.com/view/56a8200...

4* Gritty thriller set in DETROIT and VANCOUVERIt All Falls Down is an excellent and well-worked thriller. Nora Watts is not your conventional hero. She works with drug dependent down and outs in Vancouver – and has dabbled herself. She has moved in with a male friend who is dying of cancer. One day she is approached in the street by a man claiming to have known her late father – a man who killed himself years previously. He had seen service with US forces in Lebanon, and returned to Detroit and then his native Canada. Something disturbing had happened to him in Lebanon. Memories are awoken for Nora and she decides to head to Detroit to see if she can find out more. She tracks down people who had known both her father and her mother (whom he met in Detroit, but had come from Lebanon) – and the mystery deepens. Someone, or some people, are not wanting her to find out more. She is brutally attacked a couple of times – but survives. She has to think on her feet. But what is the secret that is being protected?Nora is a deeply flawed hero, existing in deeply flawed surroundings. Vancouver may well be a beautiful city, but there is a pretty rough underbelly. A culture of drugs and guns. The equivalent in Detroit is hardly an underbelly. A long time since Motown was at its height, much of the city is depressing and depressed with poverty and danger on every corner. Gangs run riot. [Incidentally one Sunday 15 years ago I walked six miles or so from the ring road around Detroit down to the quite smart harbour area. It was like going through a war zone…]. It All Falls Down captures the atmosphere of both Vancouver and Detroit in a way that pulls no punches.I suspect a lot of Sheena Kamal’s own experience has gone into the book. She has been the researcher for a pretty dark TV crime series set in Toronto, and she had previously at University been awarded a scholarship for ‘community leadership and activism around the issue of homeliness’. She is someone who cares about poverty and deprivation.It All Falls Down is the second book in the Nora Watts series (note to self: must read first). The third is already written and is previewed at the end of It All Falls Down. Highly recommended.

This is the second book in the Nora Watts series and even though I did not read the first one, I had no trouble understanding what went on. Nora’s search for answers about her father’s death take her from Canada to the streets of Detroit. It is an intense thriller with many shocking twists as Nora faces danger every step of the way. Events that are related to her father’s past bring Nora up against troubles that are insurmountable. She never gives up, even when her own life is at stake.I enjoyed this thriller and will certainly read the first one. I admire Nora’s strength and tenacity in every situation.

I enjoyed this a lot..but I think The Lost Ones abit more.