Out worldwide exclusively on Audible on January 10 and now available for pre-order is my latest audio adventure, Last Seen Wearing, the most adventurous drama project I’ve ever written.
It’s been in development for eighteen months and is, quite simply a massive undertaking, big cast, big story, specially-written music and sound effects… a blockbuster. Very much what I tried to achieve with my earlier audio projects — a movie for your ears — but this time on a far bigger scale.
This isn’t an audiobook. Its ambition is to be a binge-listen thriller in the mould of those great TV series that have come to grab our attention over recent years. Eight episodes over nine hours, performed by a fantastic American cast, directed by the legendary Garrick Hagon and including one of one of audio’s great performers, Lorelei King, in a key role.
The story takes place over a few days in New York. Dinah Collins, played with great conviction by Laurence Bouvard, is a young woman trying to make a living as a private investigator after being forced out of the NYPD. She got caught trying to hack background information on her missing brother, Danny, a fellow cop who vanished after being accused of corruption, a charge Dinah refuses to accept.
Her way of dealing with Danny’s loss is to take on missing person cases — with mixed results. Then along come Tom and Caroline Fisher, a mysterious couple from California. Tom’s daughter, a music student in the city, has vanished during the Halloween parade in the village. He hires Dinah to find her though the police doubt she’s really missing at all. And as Dinah delves more deeply into the Fishers and their past she begins to realise her missing brother may well be a part of their story too.
It’s a fast-moving, episodic tale, told exclusively from Dinah’s point of view, an acting feat Laurence handles wonderfully. So this isn’t standard audio drama where listeners have to work out where they are and who’s talking. Nor do you have a disembodied anonymous narrator accompanying you along for the ride.
From beginning to end, through all the twists and turns, we’re in the head of Dinah Collins, a bright, brave, confused young woman who maybe brings a different dimension to the role of unreliable narrator.
It’s been a blast and a privilege to work with such a talented crew of actors and production professionals. Too many to mention them all here but the music by Jordan Killiard is exceptional as is the sound production by Steve Foxon.
I couldn’t be more excited to be part of the Audible team bringing this groundbreaking project to you. Or more terrified…
David Hewson 