Circling the Drain

Mason Brandt carries a shadow wherever he goes. A former seminary student turned counselor at a spiritual retreat for troubled youth, he has spent years trying to outrun a past that refuses to stay buried. When another young woman is found dead and suspicion closes in around him once more, Mason flees to Merle House, hoping the place that sheltered him before can do so again. The third installment in Lisa Unger's House of Crows serial plunges into questions of guilt, conscience, and whether sanctuary is ever truly possible for those who have made certain choices.

At under two hours, the story is compact but dense, and the four-narrator cast earns its complexity. Adam Verner, Frankie Corzo, Susannah Jones, and James Anderson Foster each bring a distinct register to the material, reinforcing the serial's theme of fractured perspectives and shared darkness. The voices layer tension without melodrama, letting Unger's prose do the unsettling work. Listeners who have followed the series will feel the accumulated dread; newcomers will find the format rewarding on its own terms.