At the time of this writing this book is an Audible Original and is included in the Audible Plus Catalogue
🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 2.5/5 | Steam: 🔥
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read The Eternal Realm yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening
I’m a Michael Connelly fan. I have enjoyed his Lincoln Lawyer series. So when I tell you this book just missed the mark for me, I need you to understand that’s not something I say about his work lightly. The concept is genuinely interesting. A professional skeptic investigating a writer’s death and uncovering that antique safes are literal portals to the spirit realm? That’s a solid premise. But I just didn’t love the production, the narrators, and the storyline.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
Raven Freedman is a professional skeptic. Her whole thing is showing up and proving that whatever supposedly supernatural thing happened can be explained away. So naturally, she investigates the sudden, unexplained death of horror writer Paul Robinette and immediately finds a ghost.
The Dead Don’t Stay Put
She’s barely through the door of Paul’s house before she comes across Lucy — a little girl, soaking wet, clearly not among the living. Lucy is the ghost of the safecracker’s daughter. Her dad Brian was hired to open one of the antique safes in the house, and when he opened it Lucy came through. Her being young and wet told him everything he needed to know — she would die young in water. Brian had tried to change Lucy’s fate. They went to a psychic hoping to learn she could be saved. The psychic said no. One way or another, Lucy was going to drown. And she did — in a flash flood, with both her parents. In the desert. Fate always wins.
Raven tracks down Roy Holloway, Brian’s father, currently sitting in prison. Roy’s message is pretty clear: stay away from the safe. Raven does not listen. She opens it, waits for hours, nothing comes through. She falls asleep. She wakes up to something visiting. It tells her she’s almost out of time. The voice is weird — but then she sees her own face. It’s her. Already this book is doing some weird things.
Six Safes, One Very Bad Psychic
Here’s where it really gets going. Raven starts working with Evelyn, a psychic who helps piece together the bigger picture. Six threshold safes were built in total, designed by a Mr. Blankenship, built by the Peppin family. People died sourcing the materials, and death is associated with these safes all around. Each safe is a portal to the spirit realm. They all need to be destroyed. And they come with a warning baked right in: destroy the safes and the safes will meet you with equal measure to destroy you right back.
Roy escapes from prison because he can’t live with his conscience anymore and shows up to help. They break into a church rectory, find a safe that’s already open but sealed behind a wall. Evelyn helps decipher the symbols. The ghost of the original owner tries to stop them. Cops show up looking for Roy. Roy slips away. They keep moving.
Safe after safe, the ghosts get worse, more aggressive. Roy’s dead brother Ronnie tries to stop them at one location. At another, they use AI to decipher the symbols and the ghost of Hector arrives — a man who literally killed himself because he thought it would make him immortal. It’s a lot happening, and it all blurs together a little.
The last safe brings them back to the Robinette house, where this all started, with police already watching outside. Paul’s daughter Lacey gets them inside. No ghosts guarding it, closes without a fight. Raven calls Evelyn, tells her all the safes are shut. Evelyn says they’re free. Done. Golden. But it feels anticlimactic… A little off…
The Twist
And then Paul’s ghost shows up.
Evelyn lied. As long as even one threshold stays open anywhere in the world, ghosts can walk the earth. Evelyn used Raven to close every other portal so that she, Evelyn, would have sole control over the one remaining. They find Evelyn’s safe. There’s a standoff — Evelyn’s friend shoots Roy, Roy shoots back. Raven shuts down the final portal and Evelyn just disappears.
Turns out Evelyn was never a psychic. She was a ghost the entire time, and she felt she deserved to be the one running things.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥 / 5 — Zero. No romance, no heat, nothing. Pure supernatural thriller from start to finish.
The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?
Disappointed. The Evelyn twist is actually clever, and I wish the whole book had that energy working for it from the beginning. But everything felt rushed, and I think part of that comes down to the format. The Eternal Realm was written as episodes, but there’s no real marker between them. No “Episode 3.” No shift in tone or pacing. It just reads like a short book — a novella, honestly. For a Michael Connelly? That was a deflating realization.
Would I Relisten?
No. And I take no joy in saying that.
Who Is This For
If supernatural thrillers with ghost mythology and portal lore are your thing, there’s enough here to keep you interested. If you’re picking this up because you love Michael Connelly and you want that Connelly experience, set your expectations before you start.
Where to Get This Book
🎧 Audiobook (Audible Exclusive — not available in print or ebook)
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Plot Twisted. 🔥
🎧 | Genre: Supernatural Thriller | Steam: 🔥