Review: AGENT RUNNING IN THE FIELD, John Le Carre - audio book

• 
  this audio book from Audible.com
• Narrated by: John le Carré
  
• Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 10-17-19
• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, 2019

Synopsis (Audible)

Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.

Nat is not only a spy, he is a passionate badminton player. His regular Monday evening opponent is half his age: the introspective and solitary Ed. Ed hates Brexit, hates Trump and hates his job at some soulless media agency. And it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Prue, Florence and Nat himself down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all. Agent Running in the Field is a chilling portrait of our time, now heartbreaking, now darkly humorous, told to us with unflagging tension by the greatest chronicler of our age.

Listed in Times Books of the Year, New Statesman Book of the Year, Guardian Books of the Year, Sunday Times Books of the Year, TLS Books of the Year, Daily Mail Books of the Year, Mail on Sunday's Best Books of the Year, Apple Best books of 2019

My take

This audio book comes with an impressive list of credentials, not the least that it is read by the author. 

Nat is fully expecting to be retired but management has other ideas. There is a Russian agent, a sleeper, in London whom the service is fully expecting to be activated any time soon, and he becomes Nat's responsibility. Nat decides he will hand him over to "young" Florence, one of his brightest agent-runners. Meanwhile someone turns up at the Badminton club who wants to play Nat, the club champion despite his age. Ed wants to play him now, without having to go through the "ladder" system. Ed is taciturn most of the time but it is clear he has strong political views, and is keen to do something about them. He has no idea that Nat is a spy.

And then things begin to go a bit pear-shaped when Florence storms out, and rumours abound of a new double agent in London.

An interesting story with several puzzles to solve. Le Carre does an impressive job as narrator, particularly considering his age when he produced it. He died in 2020 at the age of 89.

My rating: 4.5 

I've also read

4.0, SINGLE & SINGLE
3.5, OUR KIND OF TRAITOR - abridged audio

Review: THE MURDER ON THE LINKS, Agatha Christie - audio book

• 
  edition available from audible.com
• Narrated by: Hugh Fraser
• Series: Hercule Poirot, Book 2
  
• Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
• Release date: 01-30-09 
• ©2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Synopsis (Audible)

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course.

But why is the dead man wearing his son's overcoat? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse... 

My Take

I have recently read the printed copy which I reviewed here. So why, you say, listen to it as well? The narrator is Hugh Fraser and he does an excellent job. I'm not sure about his "French" voice but he does make the various characters easily distinguishable.

But the other thing with an audio book is that it forces you to "listen" (no pun intended) to the author in a different way, because in some ways you pick up the narrator's interpretation as well. Sub-plots seem to take on a life and certain nuances seem a little more obvious.

The one thing with an audio book is that it is not easy to go back over something and "read" it again, although my system does allow you go back in 30 second bits.

My rating: 4.5

Review: THE CHIMES, Charles Dickens - audio book

• format: audio book from audible.com
  
• Narrated by: Richard Armitage
  
• Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 12-11-15
• Language: English
• Publisher: Audible Studios
• originally written in 1844
• aka A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In

Synopsis (Audible)

The magnificent Richard Armitage (Hamlet: King of Denmark: A Novel) performs The Chimes by Charles Dickens.

This classic story is the second in a series of five Christmas books Dickens was commissioned to write - beginning with A Christmas Carol. A haunting tale set on New Year's Eve, The Chimes tells the story of a poor porter named Trotty Veck who has become disheartened by the state of the world - until he is shown a series of fantastical visions that convince him of the good of humanity. Though much different from and certainly a bit darker than A Christmas Carol, the moral message of The Chimes is equally poignant - touting the importance of compassion, goodwill, and the love of friends and family. 

My Take

This is really not crime fiction at all, but rather a moralistic tale along the lines of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, where ghosts tell us how we should live. Trotty Veck is convinced that the cathedral bells are talking to him and on New Year's Eve, unable to sleep, goes up into the bell tower where they point out the faults of the way he lives.  It is actually a very sombre tale, not the least aspect of which is the squalid nature of daily life for those in England's poorer classes.

I think it is a reminder too of how fiction writing has changed. I can't imagine a novella like this being written today.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read A CHRISTMAS CAROL among many other Dickens titles

Review: THE KILLINGS AT KINGFISHER HILL, Sophie Hannah - audio book

• 
  From audible
  
• Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt
• Series: New Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book 4
• Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 08-20-20
• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins

Synopsis (audible)

The world’s greatest detective, Hercule Poirot - legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile - returns to solve a fiendish new mystery.

Hercule Poirot is travelling by luxury passenger coach from London to the exclusive Kingfisher Hill estate. Richard Devonport has summoned him to prove that his fiancée, Helen, is innocent of the murder of his brother, Frank. There is one strange condition attached to this request: Poirot must conceal his true reason for being there from the rest of the Devonport family.

On the coach, a distressed woman leaps up, demanding to disembark. She insists that if she stays in her seat, she will be murdered. A seat-swap is arranged and the rest of the journey passes without incident. But Poirot has a bad feeling about it, and his fears are later confirmed when a body is discovered in the Devonports' home with a note that refers to ‘the seat that you shouldn’t have sat in’.

Could this new murder and the peculiar incident on the coach be clues to solving the mystery of who killed Frank Devonport? And can Poirot find the real murderer in time to save an innocent woman from the gallows?  

My take

There has been considerable discussion about whether Sophie Hannah has quite captured Hercule Poirot, whether her characterisation of him rings true. My feeling is that while she has captured the essence of the great detective, she hasn't quite got it with the plotting. The plots to me become trivial, too much detail, and lacking in Agatha Christie's economy of words.  I think this is partly because the books are longer than Agatha Christie's were.

In the long run the author manages to bring the plot threads together and even to introduce a a couple of elements that we didn't see coming, to bring an element of surprise to the final denouement.

I must add also that the narration is superb.

I've also read

4.4, THE CARRIER
4.3, THE MONOGRAM MURDERS -#1
4.2, CLOSED CASKET- #2
4.4, CLOSED CASKET - audio book
4.4, THE MYSTERY OF THREE QUARTERS -audio book   - #3

Review: THE MYSTERY OF THREE QUARTERS, Sophie Hannah - audio book

• audio book available from Audible
  
• By: Sophie Hannah, Agatha Christie
• Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt
• Series: New Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book 3
  
• Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 08-23-18

Synopsis (Audible)

The world’s most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot - the legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and most recently The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket - returns in a stylish, diabolically clever mystery set in 1930s London.

Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met.

Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him - a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy....

Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?

My Take:

When you read the book you will understand why I have included an image of a Battenberg cake here. It is a motif that Poirot uses with great effect in the novel, as he speculates about the relationship between the squares in the cake. Why were there 4 letters sent to people accusing them of murdering Barnabas Pandy when they did not know each other? Or is there some other connection?

And is one of those four a murderer or not, or just waiting in the wings, ready to commit a murder? Poirot works with Scotland Yard's Inspector Catchpoole to work out the motive behind the letters.

There were times when I thought the plot was unnecessarily devious and long winded but the audio production is excellent.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read

4.4, THE CARRIER
4.3, THE MONOGRAM MURDERS
4.2, CLOSED CASKET
4.4, CLOSED CASKET - audio

Review: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT, Hilary Mantel - audio book

• audio book from Audible
• Narrated by: Ben Miles
• Series: The Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 3
• Length: 38 hrs and 11 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 03-05-20
• Language: English
• Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks
• Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020
  Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020

Synopsis (Audible)

The long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning Thomas Cromwell trilogy.

‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?

With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.

My take

We listened to this in the car over a number of weekends (38 hours of it) and were very regretful when it finished, not just because the recording came to an end, but because it was almost as if a well-known friend had died.

The story of Henry VIII and his six wives is one that all history lovers are familiar with, and so we have a broad idea of the content of this book. Where THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT excels is in bringing the times, characters and issues to light both through the text and the excellent verbal rendition.

An excellent series.

My rating: 5.0

I've also read 4.7, BRING UP THE BODIES

Review: BRING UP THE BODIES, Hilary Mantel - audio book

• format: an audible book 
• Narrated by: Simon Vance
• Series: Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 2
• Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 05-21-12
• Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks 
• Costa Book of the Year, 2012
• UK Author of the Year - Specsavers National Book Awards, 2012
• Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2012

Synopsis (publisher)

By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church.

In Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn. This new novel is an audacious vision of Tudor England that sheds its light on the modern world.

My Take

This really is one of those books you could read again and again (as I have done) because there is always something "new" to absorb.

Henry VIII has an almost insurmountable problem: he is aging, and he does not have a legitimate male heir. Most of us know this story well but probably haven't realised that it played out over such a long period of time. Henry ruled England from 1509 to 1547. He was married to Katherine of Aragon for 20 years and Mary was their only legitimate child. By 1533, after 24 years of marriage, Katherine was unlikely to produce any more surviving children, so Henry had their marriage annulled, so he could marry Anne Boleyn. He married Anne in 1533 and had her beheaded for adultery and treason in 1536 after she had produced just one surviving child, a female, Elizabeth.

This book is the story of Anne's struggle for survival and the steps Henry took to secure a male heir.

My rating: 4.7

 I had reviewed this previously: 4.7, BRING UP THE BODIES

Thomas Cromwell Trilogy
   1. Wolf Hall (2009)
   2. Bring up the Bodies (2012)
   3. The Mirror And The Light (2020)

review: THE REMORSEFUL DAY, Colin Dexter - audio book

• format: audio book from Audible
• Narrated by: Samuel West
• Series: Inspector Morse Mysteries, Book 13
• Originally published 1999
• Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
  Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 12-14-17
• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio

Synopsis (Audible)

'Where does this all leave us, sir?'

'Things are moving fast.'

'We're getting near the end, you mean?'

'We were always near the end.'

The murder of Yvonne Harrison had left Thames Valley CID baffled. A year after the dreadful crime they are still no nearer to making an arrest. But one man has yet to tackle the case - and it is just the sort of puzzle at which Chief Inspector Morse excels.

So why is he adamant that he will not lead the re-investigation, despite the entreaties of Chief Superintendent Strange and dark hints of some new evidence? And why, if he refuses to take on the case officially, does he seem to be carrying out his own private enquiries?

For Sergeant Lewis this is yet another example of the unsettling behaviour his chief has been displaying of late....

My Take

This is the last of the Morse series and again another excellent novel, and another excellent narration by Samuel West.

Morse met Yvonne Harrison when he was in hospital last and he fell for her, and she for him.
Her murder comes when he is involved in another case and he initially won't take on the case and is fully aware of a conflict of interest. But he continues to take an interest in it, and when a second murder happens he agrees to become involved.

Lewis finds Morse's attitude hard to fathom and he worries about how involved Morse actually was with Yvonne Harrison, particularly after he discovers part of a letter that Morse sent to her.

This was also virtually the last of Colin Dexter's novels although he remained involved in the television series Lewis and Endeavour. Like the earlier novels in the series, it gave Dexter the chance to display his erudite knowledge and literary skills. These are not just police procedurals but display complicated interweaving of plot threads and character development.

Colin Dexter died in 2017. He won many awards for his novels and in 1997 was presented with a well deserved CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding services to crime literature. I think he raised crime fiction writing to a real literary level.

My rating: 4.9

I've also read
4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE - #7
4.6, THE WENCH IS DEAD -#8
4.3, SERVICE OF ALL THE DEAD - #4
4.4, LAST SEEN WEARING - #2
4.6, THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE - #6
4.6, THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS - #9
4.8. THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS - #10
4.7, THE DAUGHTERS OF CAIN - #11,
4.7, DEATH IS NOW MY NEIGHBOUR - #12 

Review: DEATH IS NOW MY NEIGHBOUR, Colin Dexter - audio book

• format: audio book from Audible
• Inspector Morse Mysteries, Book 12
• Originally published 1996
• Narrated by: Samuel West
• Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 12-14-17
• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio

Synopsis (Audible)

As he drove his chief down to Kidlington, Lewis returned the conversation to where it had begun.

'You haven't told me what you think about this fellow Owens - the dead woman's next-door neighbour.'

'Death is always the next-door neighbour,' said Morse sombrely.

The murder of a young woman... A cryptic 17th-century love poem... And a photograph of a mystery grey-haired man...

More than enough to set Chief Inspector E. Morse on the trail of a killer.

And it's a trail that leads him to Lonsdale College, where the contest between Julian Storrs and Dr Denis Cornford for the coveted position of Master is hotting up.

But then Morse faces a greater, far more personal crisis...

My Take

Yet another in this wonderful series, superbly narrated by Samuel West.

Morse and Chief Superintendent Strange are coming up to retirement, and Morse is beginning to pay the penalty for his drinking in particular, so in this novel he has a medical emergency and the diagnosis of diabetes. But underneath it all, he is still the old Morse, and he and Lewis have a very credible relationship.

If I haven't convinced you yet of how good this series is, how well plotted these novels are, how well Samuel West narrates them, then I guess I never will. But it is not too late to start if you are looking for good quality crime fiction audio.

And for me, just one book to go in the series, but I won't be tackling it for another month or so.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE - #7 audio book
4.6, THE WENCH IS DEAD- #8, audio book
4.3, SERVICE OF ALL THE DEAD - #4 audio book
4.4, LAST SEEN WEARING  - #2 audio book
4.6, THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE - #6 audio book
4.6, THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS - #9, audio book
4.8, THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS #10, audio book  
4.7, THE DAUGHTERS OF CAIN - #11, audio book

Review: THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS, Colin Dexter - audio book

• audio book available from Audible
• Inspector Morse Mysteries, Book 10
• first published 1992
• Narrated by: Samuel West
• Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook, released 2017 in English by Macmillan Digital Audio

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Quietly, rather movingly, Strange was making his plea: 'Christ knows why, Lewis, but Morse will always put himself out for you.' As he put the phone down, Lewis knew that Strange had been right...in the case of the Swedish Maiden, the pair of them were in business again....

They called her the Swedish Maiden - the beautiful young tourist who disappeared on a hot summer's day somewhere in North Oxford. Twelve months later the case remained unsolved - pending further developments.

On holiday in Lyme Regis, Chief Inspector Morse is startled to read a tantalising article in The Times about the missing woman. An article which lures him back to Wytham Woods near Oxford...and straight into the most extraordinary murder investigation of his career.

My take

This series, so skilfully narrated by Samuel West, just gets better and better.

The novels really are "academic" crime fiction. The plots are never straight forward, and the actual plots do differ a little from the television series. And, as I've said before, Morse is a little different in a number of ways from the character that John Thaw created for television.

Morse is presented warts and all, at times adamantly sure he is correct when he is absolutely wrong. He is a womaniser, definitely a bachelor, not particularly healthy.

I remembered the basic plot of this book but that didn't reduce my enjoyment of it.

If you want a reading project for 2020 then you could do worse than reading the Morse series from beginning to end, either in print, or as an audio. I have added the complete list for you at the bottom of this post. My recommendation is to read them in order.

BTW this is the one where Max the pathologist is replaced by Laura Hobson after Max dies from a  massive heart attack.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE -audio book #7
4.6, THE WENCH IS DEAD- audio book #8
4.3, SERVICE OF ALL THE DEAD - audio book #4
4.4, LAST SEEN WEARING  - audio book #2
4.6, THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE - audio book #6
4.6, THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS - audio book #9

Series

Inspector Morse
   1. Last Bus to Woodstock (1975)
   2. Last Seen Wearing (1976)
   3. The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1977)
   4. Service of All the Dead (1979)
   5. The Dead of Jericho (1981)
   6. The Riddle of the Third Mile (1983)
   7. The Secret of Annexe 3 (1986)
   8. The Wench Is Dead (1989)
   9. The Jewel That Was Ours (1991)
   10. The Way Through the Woods (1992)
   11. The Daughters of Cain (1994)
   12. Death Is Now My Neighbour (1996)
   13. The Remorseful Day (1999)

Review: THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE, Colin Dexter - audio book

• format: audio from Audible
• Narrated by: Samuel West
• Series: Inspector Morse Mysteries, Book 6
• Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 10-05-17
• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio 

Synopsis (Audible)

The thought suddenly occurred to Morse that this would be a marvellous time to murder a few of the doddery old bachelor dons. No wives to worry about their whereabouts; no landladies to whine about the unpaid rents. In fact nobody would miss most of them at all....

By the 16th of July, the Master of Lonsdale was concerned but not yet worried.

Dr Browne-Smith had passed through the porter's lodge at approximately 8:15 a.m. on the morning of Friday, 11th July. And nobody had heard from him since.

Plenty of time to disappear, thought Morse. And plenty of time, too, for someone to commit murder..

My Take

This is another cunningly constructed mystery, plenty of red herrings, so many that we lose sight of others who have disappeared, in our focus on one person. Eventually Morse gets help from a surprising quarter, which throws a very different light on his investigation.

These books are superbly read by Samuel West, and there's a literary quality to them that is rarely found in crime fiction.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE -audio book
4.6, THE WENCH IS DEAD- audio book
4.3, SERVICE OF ALL THE DEAD - audio book
4.4, LAST SEEN WEARING  - audio book

Review: SERVICE OF ALL THE DEAD, Colin Dexter - audio book

• Narrated by: Samuel West
• Series: Inspector Morse Mysteries, Book 4
• Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 10-05-17
• originally published 1979
• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio

Synopsis (Audible)

Chief Inspector Morse, a middle-aged bachelor with a fondness for crossword puzzles, Mozart, and attractive women, investigates a series of suspicious and sinister events at Oxfords Church of St. Frideswide.

The sweet countenance of Reason greeted Morse serenely when he woke and told him that it would be no bad idea to have a quiet look at the problem itself before galloping off to a solution.

Chief Inspector Morse was alone among the congregation in suspecting continued unrest in the quiet parish of St Frideswide's.

Most people could still remember the churchwarden's murder. A few could still recall the murderer's suicide. Now even the police had closed the case.

Until a chance meeting among the tombstones reveals startling new evidence of a conspiracy to deceive...

My Take

Six dead bodies makes this story feel very complicated. How many of them are murders and how many are connected to each other? Morse himself is responsible for the death of the final person.

This is almost a cold case, or at least an unsolved mystery. The first murder took place in the vestry during a service when the church warden was stabbed by an intruder as he was counting the collection. The second followed soon after when the vicar threw himself off the bell tower. The most recent was nursing sister found dead in a hotel room.  It took some time to work out her identity.

It takes Morse's peculiar brain to work out how all the deaths are connected to each other.

The novel is divided into four books. Each book takes its name from a book of the Old Testament and follows a different style of writing. Notably, the third is in the form of a statement taken from a witness and the fourth (mostly) takes the form of court proceedings.

It is a very convoluted set of events, and I don't feel that the structure of the novel helped create a particularly successful audio production, although the narration is excellent once again.

The final events show us just how human Morse is.

My rating: 4.3

I have also read
4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE -audio book
4.6, THE WENCH IS DEAD, Colin Dexter - audio book

Review: THE WENCH IS DEAD, Colin Dexter - audio

• this edition approx 6 hours
• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio; Unabridged edition edition
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1509885102
• ISBN-13: 978-1509885107
• Narrator: Samuel West
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

That night he dreamed in Technicolor. He saw the ochre-skinned, scantily clad siren in her black, arrowed stockings. And in Morse's muddled computer of a mind, that siren took the name of one Joanna Franks....

The body of Joanna Franks was found at Duke's Cut on the Oxford Canal at about 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22nd June 1859.

At around 10.15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in 1989 the body of Chief Inspector Morse - though very much alive - was removed to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Treatment for a perforated ulcer was later pronounced successful.

As Morse begins his recovery he comes across an account of the investigation and the trial that followed Joanna Franks' death...and becomes convinced that the two men hanged for her murder were innocent....

My Take

I'm so glad I've discovered this set of unabridged productions of the Morse books. At between 6 and 7 hours they are lovely renditions of Dexter's novels.

Lying in hospital recovering from a perforated ulcer Morse is given a small book written by a recently died patient investigating the very cold case of a woman who was found drowned in the Oxford Canal over 100 years earlier. As he reads he feels there was something wrong with the verdict which convicted 3 canal boatmen of the murder, but he can't put his finger on it. Luckily the man in the neighbouring bed is visited by his daughter who works in the Bodliean, just the sort of research assistant he needs.

Highly recommnended.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE -audio book 

Review: CLOSED CASKET, Sophie Hannah - audio book

• audio book - unabridged,
• narrated by Julian Rhind-Tutt
• source: my local library
• length: 10 hours
• publisher: www.harperaudio.com 
• published 2016

Synopsis:  Audible.com

Hercule Poirot returns in another brilliant murder mystery that can be solved only by the eponymous Belgian detective and his 'little grey cells'.

'What I intend to say to you will come as a shock....'

Lady Athelinda Playford has planned a house party at her mansion in Clonakilty, County Cork, but it is no ordinary gathering. As guests arrive, Lady Playford summons her lawyer to make an urgent change to her will - one she intends to announce at dinner that night. She has decided to cut off her two children without a penny and leave her fortune to someone who has only weeks to live....

Among Lady Playford's guests are two men she has never met - the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited...until Poirot starts to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murderer to strike. But why does she seem so determined to provoke in the presence of a possible killer?

When the crime is committed in spite of Poirot's best efforts to stop it, and the victim is not who he expected it to be, will he be able to find the culprit and solve the mystery?

Following the phenomenal global success of The Monogram Murders, which was published to critical acclaim following a coordinated international launch in September 2014, international best-selling crime writer Sophie Hannah has been commissioned by Agatha Christie Limited to pen a second fully authorised Poirot novel. The new audiobook marks the centenary of the creation of Christie's world-famous detective, Hercule Poirot, introduced in her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

My Take

I have been a bit staggered to work out that I actually read the printed version of this novel 3 years ago. That didn't occur to me at all during this excellent rendition, so maybe it didn't make much of an impact on me.

The novel is a bit long winded, with an almost impenetrable mystery, lots of reasons why people would murder the victim, lots of red herrings.

I've given up thinking about whether Sophie Hannah writes well in the vein of Agatha Christie or not. I think this novel has a few questionable things: for example Hercule Poirot cheerfully crosses the Irish Sea - when we all know that Christie's detective suffered atrociously from "mal de mer".

It does have one characteristic of a Christie novel: a very long meeting between Poirot and all the other characters in which he reveals who the murderer is and how it was done.
The emphasis in the novel is on Poirot's interest in psychology and the "why' rather than the "how."

Nevertheless perfectly acceptable listening if you have 10 hours or so to spare.

My Rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.4, THE CARRIER
4.3, THE MONOGRAM MURDERS
4.2, CLOSED CASKET (printed version)

Review: NIGHT OVER WATER, Ken Follett - audio

• Audible Audiobook
• Listening Length: 18 hours and 41 minutes
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Unabridged
• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio
• Narrator: Russell Bentley
• Audible.com.au Release Date: 23 August 2018

Synopsis (Amazon)

Set during the outbreak of the Second World War, Night over Water is a feat of storytelling from the best-selling master of the historical thriller, Ken Follett.

On a bright September morning in 1939, two days after Britain has declared war, a group of privileged but desperate people gather in Southampton to board the largest, most luxurious airliner ever built - the Pan American Clipper, bound for New York: an English aristocrat, fleeing with his family and a fortune in jewels; a German scientist, escaping from the Nazis; a murderer under FBI escort; a young wife running away from a domineering husband; and a handsome, unscrupulous thief....

My Take

War has just been declared and there are a number of people desperate to leave England for America. The novel tells the stories of these people, and why they want to leave, in a number of plot strands. Amid these strands a crew member's wife is abducted and he is under pressure to bring the flying boat down just off the New England coast.

The tension grows as the plane approaches the American coastline, but meanwhile we have learnt a lot about this luxurious airliner, and the details feel very authentic.

There are 15 discs in the set, with each running for a little over an hour. Takes up a lot of listening time.

I could have done without the gratuitous sex which felt a bit sleazy.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read WORLD WITHOUT END (Audio CD)

Review: NO SECOND CHANCE, Harlan Coben - audio book

• this audio book produced by Penguin Audio
• Original novel published 2003
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

No Second Chance is yet another of Harlan Coben's terrifying explorations of the worst of fears--Marc Seidman wakes in hospital after narrowly surviving a shooting in which his wife died and their baby daughter went missing.

The handover of a ransom from his rich in-laws goes wrong and Seidman realises that he is not only without wife and daughter--and the sister who may have been an accomplice--but he is also the principal suspect. The reader knows even more than Seidman just how much jeopardy he is in--Coben does a brilliantly disturbing job of introducing us to a pair of psychotics who are in charge of the ransom plot and who plan to take Seidman and his in-laws for another ride into insecurity and hell.

Marc turns to the one person he thinks can help him--the ex-girlfriend who still has a place in his heart and used to be a senior Federal agent. The problem is that Rachel comes with baggage, and enemies, all of her own..

My Take


This plot felt a bit as if Coben had two strands in mind: one where a child is abducted during a home invasion, and the other an adoption scam where illegal immigrants give birth to babies who are found "good homes".

The final truth of the connection between the two strands was horrifying.

One of the problems with this story was that I didn't particularly like Marc Seidman the main character. I found him self-opinionated, always sure he was right, and blind to alternatives.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read
4.4, CAUGHT
4.3, DON'T LET GO

Review: MARLBOROUGH MAN, Alan Carter

• format: audio (mainly) Audible
• Narrated by: Jerome Pride
• Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 12-01-18
• Language: English
• Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Synopsis (Audible)

Nick Chester is working as a sergeant for the Havelock police in the Marlborough Sound, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. If the river isn’t flooded and the land hasn’t slipped, it’s paradise. Unless you are also hiding from a ruthless man with a grudge, in which case remote beauty has its own kind of danger. In the last couple of weeks, two locals have vanished. Their bodies are found, but the Pied Piper is still at large.

Marlborough Man is a gripping story about the hunter and the hunted and about what happens when evil takes hold in a small town.

Ngaio Marsh Award 2018
Alan Carter’s Marlborough Man (Fremantle Press) has won the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.
The novel, about an ex-undercover agent from England trying to distance himself from his dangerous past and settle into a quieter life as a local cop in the Marlborough Sound, was chosen from a shortlist of six, with judges calling it a ‘terrific, full-throated crime thriller that puts the freshest of spins on the cop-with-a-past trope’.

My Take

This novel has a chequered history for me. I began reading it on my kindle, then found an audio version which I decided to listen to with my fellow traveller on our weekend journeys. At the end of today I had just an hour left to listen to and so decided to read the final chapters on my kindle.

For some reason I didn't at first really take to Jerome Pride's Geordie narration, but as it proceeded the story took over. By the end I really just wanted to know how the story came together.

Nick Chester is a cop from Sunderland (UK) who was part of an undercover operation to bring down one of the local underworld bosses. He has been sent to New Zealand as part of a protection programme, and for the first half of the novel is waiting for the thugs to catchup with him.  When they finally arrive though, and that element of the plot is solved, the local elements of child abductions takes over.

The New Zealand setting and excellent writing gives him the 2018 Ngaio Marsh award.
Also shortlisted for the 2018 Ned Kelly Award.

Good reading.
It reminded me that I really need to read more Alan Carter.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
4.7, PRIME CUT
4.7, GETTING WARMER

Review: THE QUARTET MURDERS, J. R. Ellis - audio book

•  Narrated by: Michael Page
• Series: Yorkshire Murder Mystery Series, Book 2
• Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 08-09-18
• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• available from Audible.com

Synopsis (Audible.com)


A priceless violin. And a dark secret someone is prepared to kill for.

DCI Oldroyd has seen his fair share of victims, but he has never witnessed a murder - until now. When world-famous violinist Hans Muller is shot and killed during a concert, the detective is faced with a case beyond logic. The culprit is nowhere to be found - and the victim’s priceless violin has disappeared too.

As Oldroyd investigates the mystery of the murderer’s identity and the motive for the killing, he enters the ruthless world of wealthy instrument collectors and stumbles upon a dark path where shocking secrets have been buried in the past. But the secrets will soon take centre stage.

Oldroyd must use all his cunning to recover the priceless instrument. But can he also solve the mystery of a murderer who vanished in front of his own eyes?

My Take

Oldroyd's offsider is again DS Carter, the new man from London, But I think his character was better drawn than in the first novel in the series.

I liked the further fleshing out of Oldroyd's character and I thought the mystery was better plotted.
Narrator Michael Page again does a good job of his voice presentation.
This series is engaging enough for me to look for another audio book.

My rating: 4.4

I've also listened to
4.3, THE  BODY IN THE DALES

Review: THE BODY IN THE DALES, J. R. Ellis - audio book

• format: audio book (Audible.com)
•  Narrated by: Michael Page
• Series: Yorkshire Murder Mystery Series, Book 1
• Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• published 2017
• Release date: 08-09-18
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• aka The Body in Jingling Pot

Synopsis  (Audible.com)

An unpopular victim. An impossible crime. A murderer on the loose.

A body is discovered deep in a cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales. Leading the investigation into the mysterious death are experienced DCI Jim Oldroyd and his partner DS Carter, a newcomer from London.

The deceased is Dave Atkins, well known throughout the village but not well liked. While there is no shortage of suspects, the details of the crime leave Oldroyd and Carter stumped. How did Atkins’s body end up in such a remote section of the cave? When someone with vital information turns up dead, it becomes clear that whoever is behind the murders will stop at nothing to conceal their tracks.

Oldroyd and his team try to uncover the truth, but every answer unearths a new set of questions. And as secrets and lies are exposed within the close-knit community, the mystery becomes deeper, darker and more complex than the caves below.

My Take

This story certainly takes most of us to places we have not been - underground into a cave system.
In reality this is something I would much rather do vicariously. Getting stuck underground would not be my idea of fun. Nevertheless I learnt a lot about caving

The first mystery to be solved is how the body got there? a remote section of a cave that is relatively difficult to get to. Did somebody carry the body there? It doesn't seem that the location was where the murder was committed. And then what was the motive for the murder?

DCI Jim Olroyd is an interesting character, and one can't help thinking of Andy Dalziel, and his treatment of newcomer DS Carter is kindly. I could have done without Carter's phone conversations with his inane London mate, although I suppose they do emphasis how very different life in Yorkshire is.

There were some inconsistencies in the mental picture of the deceased Dave Atkins who is described as both attractive to women, and a difficult person to like, but perhaps the last was from the point of view of cuckolded husbands.

The final solution to the first mystery was similar to my first thoughts on the topic, although the actual motive was harder to guess.

The narrator was set a hard task in this reading in that he attempts to reproduce an incredible number of voices. In the main he manages to make most voices distinctive.

My Rating: 4.3

About the author
John R. Ellis has lived in Yorkshire for most of his life and has spent many years exploring Yorkshire's diverse landscapes, history, language and communities. He recently retired after a career in teaching mostly in further education in the Leeds area. In addition to the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series he writes poetry, ghost stories and biography. He recently completed a screenplay about the last years of the poet Edward Thomas and he is currently working on his memoirs of growing up in a working class area of Huddersfield in the 1950s and 1960s.

Review: QUOTA, Jock Serong - audio book

• audio book - source my local library
•  Narrated by: Simon Harvey
• Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 09-01-16
• Originally published: 28 May 2014
• Language: English
• Publisher: Wavesound Audio
• Read it on Google Books

Synopsis (Audible)

Charlie Jardim has just trashed his legal career in a spectacular courtroom meltdown, and his girlfriend has finally left him. So when a colleague slings him a prosecution brief for the remote coastal town of Dauphin, Charlie reluctantly agrees to go.

The case is murder. The victim was involved in illegal abalone trading and even more illegal drug trafficking. And the witnesses aren't talking. As Dauphin closes ranks around him, Charlie finds his interest in the law powerfully reignited.

My Take

HIS HONOUR: Mr Jardim, withdraw that comment immediately.

MR JARDIM: Your Honour, I'm not withdrawing it because it's got nothing to do with the merits of this case, just as your small-minded treatment of my client has got nothing to do with the merits of the case. I mean, could you have cocked this thing up any worse? Bloody helpless kid and you know she's back out on the street now. You're known throughout the state as a heartless old prick and a drunk, and seeing I've gone this far, your daughter-in-law's appointment to the court is widely viewed as a grubby political payoff. Today's pretty much the lowest I've seen you stoop but it's been a rich field of excrem—

HIS HONOUR: Senior, will you have Mr Jardim removed?

QUOTA takes an unusual case, the murder of an abalone fisherman who is also dabbling in drug distribution.

Charlie Jardim is trying to put together a case to prosecute the victim's murderers. The account given of events by the victim's brother just does not hang together so Jardim travels to a small seaside Victorian town to see if he can get people to talk.

On the way to Dauphin he hits a kangaroo and wrecks his car. He is easily identified as a city man, and outsider, and before long every knows the Prosecutor is in town. Only the pub owner will talk to him.

Eventually he befriends the victim's brother and gets a different version of what occurred, and more importantly, gets him to agree to replace the original statement that the police have on record. But this is just the start of the plot.

There is a strong Australian flavour to this recording reinforced both by the language particularly the dialogue, but also by the narrator's voice. There are superb descriptions of the Victorian countryside, of the heat, of the declining nature of the town, of the way things are ruled by one family, and the way others have to take drastic measures to survive.

My rating: 4.6

I've also reviewed
5.0, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET
5.0, ON THE JAVA RIDGE
4.8, PRESERVATION

QUOTA is Serong's first novel and didn't get the same attention and recognition that his later novels have. I think taht is possibly because his voice is so different to other Australian crime fiction writers.
He was a practising lawyer when he published QUOTA