Bauer tells a captivating historical mystery set both on the cliffs of Metland in the 1923s and in contemporary UK settings. Young and little, Celine is enlisted to retrieve the eggs of thousands of birds nesting on a remote and hard to reach cliff. She retrieves a unique red egg, and repeats the feat year after year, eventually selling them to a rich egg dealer. after accumulating years of eggs, the broker’s body is found floating off the cliffs and the eggs have disappeared. Fast forward to contemporary times when one egg, nestled in a beautiful box, turns up in the attic of a quirky, challenged young man. He tries to sell it, which is illegal, and it’s stolen. Paired with an equally quirky and challenged friend, they set out to retrieve it. This engrossing novel is based on an actual historical occurrence but the characters, which are drawn and developed beautifully, and the settings - the cliffs, the birds, and a natural history museum, take on roles as additional characters. The novel is enhanced by Phil Dunster‘s expert narration. The Impossible Thing is impossible to put down, and will linger in readers’ minds long after they hear or read the last word. highly recommended.

A delightful surprise that’s both heartfelt and clever — a hidden gem with Yorkshire soul!

I requested “The Impossible Thing” because of its ties to Yorkshire, knowing very little about the actual premise, but what a treat this turned out to be!

Set against the dramatic cliffs of Yorkshire in 1926, the novel begins with an unusual but fascinating practice: men being lowered on ropes to steal rare and beautiful guillemot eggs from the cliffs, which could fetch a hefty price. When young Celie Sheppard stumbles upon an “impossible” red egg, it sets off a ripple effect that touches lives a century later.

Flash forward one hundred years to a remote cottage in Wales, where neurodivergent Patrick Fort finds his best friend Nick and Nick’s mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing? A carved case containing that same scarlet egg. What unfolds is a charming, clever, and moving mystery, as Patrick and Nick dive into the dangerous world of egg trafficking and the hunt for a priceless collection lost to history.

While the plot is engaging and moves with the pace of a good mystery, what really makes this book shine is the writing—witty, intelligent, and full of heart—and its unforgettable characters. The friendship between Weird Nick and Patrick is endearing, the dialogue will make you chuckle, and Patrick’s neurodivergent character is perfectly written with warmth, care, and authenticity. Yes, there are moments of sadness—but there’s so much hope and humanity throughout, it leaves you feeling uplifted.

I only realized after listening that the narrator was Phil Dunster—yes, from Ted Lasso! I loved that, because his narration was so natural and immersive, it never distracted from the story. He brought the characters and setting to life in such an effortless, engaging way. A really fun, easy listen that added even more charm to the experience.

A standout book that surprised me in all the best ways!

Thank you NetGalley for the audio version of this book!

A historical fiction of sorts, this is a book that teeters on strange but true. The story follows true events that happened: a prized red egg that is suddenly deemed valuable and the lengths at which a person will go to own it. Or rather, complete a collection without a thought or care to the birds that lay them.

The banter between Nick and Patrick had me giggling. The story line of Sealy was heartbreaking from the start. To add to the lay down tragic and stand up comedy is suspense and danger. For some that meant a means to survive, for others completing an impossible collection, and yet others understanding the truth and setting things right.

This would be a wonderful palette cleanser for those who read series. If you are looking for a topic that is very uncommon, or simply enjoy a tale from the folds of human history that are bizarre yet cruel… this is for you.

This was an enjoyable and charming adventure, but overlong.

Apparently, this is the second in a series featuring Patrick, a medical student who has ASD. Here, we have interlocking timelines, with Patrick and his buddy Weird Nick in the present, and Celie, a forlorn girl in the past, centred on a quest about a rare egg.

I had no idea where this was going. There was a little bit too much going on, and a little too much detail in the wrong places, such that keeping the thread of the story was difficult at times. A core cast of oddball and memorable characters pepper the plot, from Weird Nick to Celie the cliff-stormer. And of course the illicit egg-seeking at the heart of the plot.

The narration by Phil Dunster was a perfect fit. I could really distinguish the characters and their personalities.

British mysteries always seem to scratch a specific itch. "Impossible Thing" is a fun, clever mystery with twists and turns.

Thank you @NetGalley for this audio ARC. Belinda Bauer writes a very informative and tragic story of special egg catchers. It is such a dangerous job that seems worth it, getting the prized eggs. At times I got lost between the past and present of the story, but did enjoy it.

I'm sorry this was not for me at all!
The narration and the writing was good. its the story I had issues with. why would anyone write a story about eggs even if it was inspired by real events?
I cannot imagine many people will find this a fascinating story.
There is a dual timeline: Present following Nick and Patrick who find a weird looking red egg in the attic only for it to be stolen and the rest of their story is them trying to find out more information about this mysterious egg, why and who stole it. We also have the BEFORE which starts off in the 1920's and progresses up to 1940s and follows the family who originally discovered these rare red eggs.
The most interesting this about the book was the way of life of the family in the BEFORE. other than that I cannot say there was too much to keep me interested or invested in this story. had it not been for the fact that it was an audio i would have DNF'd it.
Perhaps its just me.
Thanks to Dreamscape Media who provided me with the audio version of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Impossible Thing is the second book in the Rubbernecker series by award-winning British journalist, screenwriter and author, Belinda Bauer. The audio version is narrated by Phil Dunster. Immediately post-WW1, making a living on a small-holding farm in Yorkshire isn’t easy; even harder for Enid Sheppard when her husband takes one look at their new baby daughter and abandons the family.

Tiny Celie Sheppard is given to the care of eight-year-old farm boy, Robert, but turns the family’s fortunes, and perhaps their sentiments about her, when at six years old, she shows a talent for climming. In a makeshift harness fashioned by Robert, she returns from under the overhang on the edge of her family’s holding, Metland Farm, with an extremely rare red guillemot egg. Egg Broker George Ambler is beside himself: what won’t a collector pay for such a beauty!

Almost a century on, Patrick Fort has been washing dishes at the Rorke’s Drift for three years and not yet tired of it. Returning home one winters evening, he discovers his friend and neighbour, Weird Nick, and Nick’s mum Jen gagged and bound in their unlit house. Two men in ski masks (it’s not even snowing!) with cable ties to secure the residents of Ty Newydd have ransacked the place. The only thing missing is a red egg in a fancy carved box.

Belatedly, Nick has discovered it’s illegal to sell, or even own, wild bird eggs, but the fleeting listing on Facebook Marketplace was sufficient, it seems, to make their little Welsh cottage a target. Legal or no, he wants the egg back. Patrick’s brilliant deductive work leads them to the probable thief, and Nick ropes in his unwilling friend to confront eggman456.

That doesn’t end well: “Before Nick could open his mouth, the big man grabbed him by the front of his jumper, yanked him forward, headbutted him, then withdrew and slammed the door. It all happened so fast that Patrick was left open-mouthed with amazement, already replaying it in his head. The door, the arm, the fist, the head, the door. It was like a very violent cuckoo clock.”

Before they finally locate the egg, and several more like it, there’s a courtroom scene with lots of shouting, a visit to a museum with thousands of eggs, and a jaw-droppingly vindictive destruction of a felon’s collection.

Patrick has a too-close encounter with dog droppings, is an accidental stowaway in the car of a nasty, violent man, and has to climb through a toilet window. A balaclava and a potato masher play significant roles. At one point, Nick asks where his sense of adventure is: “Patrick didn’t answer. He’d already accidentally had one adventure in his life and it had been very stressful. He didn’t really fancy another.”

Told through multiple narratives and a dual timeline, Bauer gradually reveals the path that the Metland egg takes from 1920’s Yorkshire to modern-day Wales and beyond. She gives the reader some wonderful descriptive prose “…barristers in yellowing wigs and black cloaks flitted between them like giant bats”, and only the hardest hearts won’t have a lump in the throat at the poor guillemot’s ordeal. There’s plenty of action drama which, together with the dialogue, offers some very black humour. Fans can only hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of Patrick Fort. Utterly brilliant.
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley and Dreamscape Media.

Told in two timelines, this audiobook blends historical fiction and adventure. In the present-day storyline, Patrick and “Weird Nick” set out to solve the mystery of a stolen egg. In the past, we learn about climmers and egg collecting in the 1920s.

I love a book that entertains and teaches me something new. I knew nothing about Guillemot eggs or the history of egg collecting, and I found it fascinating. The earlier timeline takes place before egg collecting was illegal, and the way people risked everything to steal rare eggs from cliffside nests was both interesting and sad.

Bauer's writing is clean and clear, and the story moved at just the right pace. The narrator’s voice was excellent. I usually listen at 1.5x speed, but the accent and tone fit the story so well, I stuck with normal speed and really enjoyed it.

This is a great pick for anyone who likes layered stories, historical detail, and interesting characters.

Belinda Bauer
The Impossible Thing
Narrated by Phil Dunster
As always, my reviews are of the audio version of this book. As a rule, I listen at 70% speed or less as this makes it easier to hear details without needing to rewind as often. If things get tedious, I generally speed up.
It's very hard to summarize this book in a few paragraphs. These boys (they are, in fact, grown men, but act so much like teens I find myself thinking of them in that way) get up to ALL SORTS! Nick is weird and Patrick is endearing. This is definitely an adventure tale as regards the "present day" part of the story. The past part has its moments of drudgery, but stick with it. I nearly skipped and I might've been quite confused later. There is a lot of in-depth information about egg collecting and egg hunters and dealers. The info spans the time from the legal pursuit to the illegal. Most would agree that, legal or no, the process can be distasteful. I enjoy learning about unfamiliar subjects and the only thing I knew about egg dealers I learned from Vera Stanhope novels!
*Note: Next to Scottish, the Yorkshire accent may be my favorite (I realize accents differ even within regions, but I am a southern american, so I find them all charming and wonderful to hear).
I am honestly amazed at how much I TRULY enjoyed this book! It was educational, funny, intelligent, sweet, exciting, poignant, and, dare I say, magical.
No one is more surprised than I am...but very happily surprised!
All I can say is, unless you are completely put off by birds, you need to give it a try if only for the sake of Patrick and Nick.
As always, thank you to NetGalley for allowing me early access to this audiobook in exchange for a (brutally) honest review!

This is my second book by Belinda Bauer, Blacklands being my first. This was a hybrid read, meaning I read the book while alternating with the audiobook - the reader did a read job bringing this story to life.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started, a book about eggs. It sounds not that interesting but I was intrigued. What I got was an entertaining and highly educational read about a subject I knew nothing about.

Beginning in 1926 as recently laid eggs are stolen from the nest of migrant birds. I did not realize how sought after these eggs are because of their colour and shell designs. An act that is illegal now and rather barbaric. A tiny hole is made to empty out the shell.

This is a dual time-period story that shows what length people will go to for these treasures. A captivating story about greed, friendship and deceit. It was mysterious, suspenseful and like I said educational. And yes, I did Google it, what a fascinating subject. It gives homage to the learn something new every day saying.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic (for the kindle edition) and Dreamscape Media (for the audiobook) in exchange for a honest review.

Spanning nearly one hundred years, following different times, characters and stories, all woven together by a bird's egg. Collectible, sought after, and potentially worth killing for. Aside from having an egg in common, another theme that runs through all the narratives is greed and the immorality that inherently comes with it.

As a reader of primarily dark speculative fiction, this was a refreshing breakaway read. The bad guys are fueled by greed, not possessing one's soul or eating brains. To be honest, the lack of a malevolent antagonist threw me for a few chapters until the story grounded me. I was settled in by the world building.
The characters are crafted well and I was able to sympathize with them, and that includes the birds whose eggs are being stolen.
The Impossible Thing has made me want to branch out into other genres more often.
Well played.

I've really enjoyed Belinda Bauer's writing in the past, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to listen to her newest story The Impossible Thing. There was just something about the premise with its egg trafficking angle that I found absolutely intriguing, as it was something I hadn't heard about before. I've been looking forward to start listening to it ever since, but I have to be honest here and say that I'm not sure what to make of this story. There are definitely mixed thoughts involved, and I'll try to explain what did and didn't work for me below.

First of all I have to say that I still love the premise of this story, and the whole topic of egg trafficking was both fascinating and clearly well researched. It's not something I had heard about before, and I always enjoy learning something new along the way. That said, trigger warnings are definitely in place for animal cruelty with those poor birds suffering that loss over and over again. I can understand why it is now illegal to have/hunt for eggs, that's for sure! The egg trafficking part of the story is actually based on true events, and it did make the story feel more authentic.

What I didn't realized was that one of the main characters actually wasn't new and had already appeared in Rubbernecker... Thankfully I saw this before it was too late and since I already had a copy on my kindle I ended up reading it first. I'm SO glad I did, because this book wouldn't have been the same otherwise. Why? Patrick Fort is such an intriguing and unique character, and he deserves a proper introduction to get to know him better. It's simply impossible to understand how his brain works otherwise, and his chapters won't hit the same if you haven't read Rubbernecker first... Especially since there are no introductions for the reappearing characters in this book.

The Impossible Thing uses a dual timeline structure, and here is probably partly where things went wrong for me. I usually prefer one much over the other, and this is exactly what happened in this story as well. While I appreciated the focus on the egg trafficking and the creation of the Metland egg collection, the pace used in the 1920s timeline was incredibly slow and it took me a long time to warm up to the characters. In fact, I struggled to find the motivation to listen to this audiobook until Patrick Fort's POV appeared in the present, who is for me the true star of the show. Both timelines have multiple POVs, and some are much more engaging than others... In fact, some almost felt like fillers and slowed down the pace even more.

I also struggled a little with the audiobook, and especially in the first half. This probably had to do with the fact that I had a hard time getting used to the narrator's accent, which made it a bit difficult to follow the story at times. Sure, I liked how he changed his voice with the characters and things did become better after a while, but I can't deny that his voice made it harder to properly warm up to the story for a long time. This might have to do with the fact that English isn't my first language, but I would definitely suggest listening to a sample before committing to the audiobook. I personally feel that I would have enjoyed The Impossible Thing better if I had read it on my kindle instead... I can't deny that the pace of the narration was solid though, and it fitted the story.

All in all I ended up having mixed thoughts about The Impossible Thing, and it took me a lot longer than expected to actually make it to the end. I kind of wish Patrick Fort would have been more present in the story, because he sure made it easier to keep reading. This dual timeline story has a lot of focus on the past instead of the missing egg mystery in the present; not a bad thing, but this abundance of historical details did slow down the pace. I do seem to be in the minority so far though, and most people seem to love their experience with this book.

Engaging, original, and well narrated. A recommended purchase for collections where quirky mysteries are popular.

Honestly I found this read very unique. Such a very strange story, to start with, who knew there was so much to know about collecting eggs. I learned a lot through the chapters and loved the overlap between the sag and the present.

I liked how the book eventually unfolded and I thought the characters were individual and the writing was excellent.

I really enjoyed listening to something a bit different and was a success for me.

Can it be real?

A scarlet egg with the hint of pink at the tip?

The first one discovered in 1926 sets the egg-collecting world on fire.

What?! You say reading about a rare egg sounds boring? The price of regular old eggs is enough to deal with? Think again!

It has been awhile since I first read Snap by Belinda Bauer, but I have never forgotten how her taut and precise writing style builds suspense and makes for a riveting read. This book is no different.

Bauer gives us a two timelines that are both focused on the Metland Egg-- considered the 8th wonder of the world by egg collectors in the 1920's. The egg was laid by the Common Guillemot off the cliffs of Bempton. A particular spot can only be reached by an enterprising wisp of a girl named Celie.

In modern times a young man tries to put an egg up for sale on Ebay. Nick is trying to raise money for a proper gaming chair and discovered the red egg in a box in the attic. Little does he know the events he has set in motion. Along for the ride is his best friend Patrick. We can read more about Patrick in the first Rubbernecker book (I am sorry to have missed it before now.)

This is an amazing read and you will be as surprised as I was to find just how engrossing and egg tale can be. An impossible thing? Not for Belinda Bauer.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review. Phil Dunster gets all the stars for his performance.

Come fly away!

Charming, quirky, weird, and, unforgettable. The story uses a dual timeline to explore the lucrative business of collecting and owning wild bird eggs.
The story combines mystery, humor and flawed but interesting characters. Perhaps because this story is so different, it did take me time to connect to the story. Bu once I was hooked I wanted to keep listening as I could not figure out how this was going to end.

Narration by Phil Dunster was superb providing enough emotion and dialects that the listener is quickly immersed in this bizarre world.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic | Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for this audio ARC.

Crimes, danger, obsession, poverty, wealth, fascinating characters, friendship, loyalty, and a remarkable adventure spanning decades. The most beautiful books are the most difficult to review. At least they are for me.

Belinda Bauer is remarkably talented. Her multi-strand novel pulled me in from the first page and kept me mesmerized by places and things entirely foreign to me. I knew nothing about egg collecting prior to experiencing this book. On the surface, it might not sound like a scintillating topic. The web of events and lives held me spellbound. This is one of the most gripping historical novels I've read, and it's equally successful as crime fiction.

I'm grateful for the audiobook experience. Phil Dunster displays phenomenal vocal talent. It was like listening to a full-cast recording, and his accents made the locations come more fully to life.

Bauer displays great mastery of suspense and compelling characterization. There's wonderful dialogue and great power in the things that aren't said. The emotional nuances are orchestrated across multiple scenes, rising in small revelations to great crescendos.

Although there are disturbing things in the book, it never became overwhelming. There's a lot of heart and some humor, and overall, it's uplifting.
The settings in nature and in homes of people at different economic levels were vivid and added to the immersion.

She's as adept with action, adventure, and believable men as fully dimensional girls and women. Aspects of women's lives that are often hidden or left out of history appear here powerfully and with respect. Being Neuro-atypical is presented in a matter of fact manner. The Impossible Thing moved me. The ending landed perfectly and left me choked up.

I highly recommend this audiobook to readers of general and literary fiction as well as to those who enjoy historical, crime, and mystery novels. The Impossible Thing transcends genre. I look forward to experiencing more books by Belinda Bauer as well as those narrated by Phil Dunster.
Thank you, Dreamscape Media, for the ALC for consideration.
I'll add links soon.

Thank you, Netgalley and Grove Atlantic, for providing me with a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

The Impossible Thing is a fictional account of the collection and disappearance of real Metland Eggs, the priceless red Guillemot eggs collected in Yorkshire, England. The novel volleys between the 1920s when the eggs were first collected by an impoverished young girl and sold to collectors for large sums of money. A century later, Patrick Fort is aiding his friend Nick, whose egg was stolen. It was nice to revisit Patrick, the neurodivergent protagonist of <I>Rubbernecker</i>. He's earnest and clever. Once again, I appreciated how well Bauer wrote a character on the autism spectrum. I also enjoyed "Weird Nick" and the 1920s characters Celie and Robert.

The book is also an eye-opening look at the world of egg poaching. Bauer covers this criminal trade from all angles: the people that risk their lives to obtain the eggs as a means of feeding their families, the wealthy collectors, the conservationists, and the birds themselves. The cruelty imposed on these birds is hard to read but important as it is based on real-world practices.

Bauer once again delivers incredible prose. I highly recommend this to readers of historical fiction and crime novels. I hope Bauer brings Patrick Fort back for another mystery soon.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narration was very well suited to the story and was easy to listen to. The story was fun and moved along at a good pace. I had no idea about the history of egg collecting, so the historical basis for the story was fascniating!