The Bone Queen: A Novel

· Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Tamsin Kennard
1 review
Audiobook
7 hr 26 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

A chilling horror-thriller debut where a mother's search for her missing daughter battles against the shadows of a historic, dangerous legend.

Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who’s disappeared from their London home. She has no idea why–all she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.

As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.

As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the village’s grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea. Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is next...

The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day she’ll collect.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books

A chilling horror-thriller debut where a mother's search for her missing daughter battles against the shadows of a historic, dangerous legend. Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who’s disappeared from th...

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Ratings and reviews

1 review
Valarie Kittle
December 30, 2025
The Bone Queen follows Jenna as she travels to a remote island in search of her missing daughter, Chloe. While Jenna thinks maybe this is the simple case of a runaway and she will find Chloe the moment she hits the island's dark shores, when she arrives and learns of the local legend of The Bone Queen, a sinister figure haunting the island like a curse, her investigation takes a supernatural turn. I immersion read this story, as the publishers were kind enough to send me both an audio and physical arc. The great thing about immersion reading is it usually draws me deeper into a story but with The Bone Queen there wasn't much to immerse myself in to start. The characters felt like they didn't care, Jenna seemed completely nonchalant and disinterested in the fact her daughter was missing and the townsfolk were just as blasé. I think this would have benefited from being a short story, cut down and straight to the point.
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About the author

WILL SHINDLER has spent most of his career working as a broadcast journalist for the BBC. He also spent nearly a decade working on a number of British television dramas, working for both the BBC Drama Series Department, and Talkback Thames Television as a writer and script editor. He has been writing novels since 2020, including the five-book critically acclaimed DI Alex Finn series: The Burning Men, The Killing Choice, The Hunting Ground, The Blood Line and The Cold Case. The Bone Queen is his first novel for Minotaur Books in the US. He currently combines reading news bulletins for BBC Radio London with his novel writing and has previously worked as a presenter for ITV West, a reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and as one of the stadium presenters at the 2012 London Olympics. He lives in London.
WILL SHINDLER has spent most of his career working as a broadcast journalist for the BBC. He also spent nearly a decade working on a number of British television dramas, working for both the BBC Drama Series Department, and Talkback Thames Television as a writer and script editor. He has been wri...

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