Creator: Neil Pearson
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2006-08-04
RRP: £13.00
Price: £8.32
Review Dry Bones That Dream / Macmillan Audio Books:
Creator: Nathaniel Parker
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2006-06-02
RRP: £10.99
Price: £3.91
Review The Blood-Dimmed Tide / Macmillan Audio Books:
Publication date: 2004-07-01
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £16.99
Price: £8.00
Review The Star of the Sea / Random House Audiobooks:Tragedy is a word too often used. Nevertheless, in Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor manages to achieve a real sense of the tragic, as personal dramas of the most distressing kind play themselves out against the background of the Irish potato famine and the almost equal nightmare of the mass emigration that it caused. As passengers die of starvation and disease in steerage, a drama of adultery, inadvertent incest and inherited disease plays itself out in first class. O'Connor raises, and does not attempt definitively to answer, real questions about responsibility and choice. Bankrupt aristocrat Meredith is emigrating, pursued by the hatred of his tenants and the memory of his mad-hero father. His children's nurse, Mary, has memories of lost love to torment her, as well as of the husband and child who died of hunger. And the ballad singer Mulvey has both his monstrous past and the certain promise that he will be tortured to death by the Liable Men should he not kill Meredith. This is a kaleidoscopic novel, whose events are seen in many idioms, from many points of view-it is a rich novel that knows that there are limits to the sense that can be made of history. -Roz Kaveney.
Creator: James Macpherson
Publication date: 2007-08-02
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.25
Review Resurrection Men (CD: LATEST EDITION) / Orion:Rebus is back. Resurrection Men, the 13th DI Rebus novel, finds Ian Rankin's doughty detective off the case. He explodes at his superior DCS Gill Templar over the increasingly frustrating murder inquiry into the savage killing of an Edinburgh art dealer and his punishment is a spell cooling his heels at the Scottish Police College in central Scotland. Rebus balks at his "retraining" but he's not alone: he's part of an ill-assorted group of similar officers-all with an attitude problem and a dislike of the institution they find themselves in. Given an old unsolved case to work on the group is obliged to polish up their teamwork while supervisors assess the reprobates. But some of the team have secrets not unconnected to the case they've been handed and Rebus finds that anything goes when it comes to keeping the past obscured. This is Rankin in top form with Rebus rejuvenated by the edgy new milieu he's dropped into. Complicating things, the Scottish Crime Squad asks Rebus to act as a link to someone who can deliver the inside dirt on an old nemesis, gangster "Big Ger" Cafferty. In Edinburgh, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke has to take over the case of the murdered art dealer and, like Rebus, finds herself getting closer to the unpleasant Mr Cafferty. Forget the miscast John Hannah in the TV movies, this is the real Rebus: gritty, idiomatic and etched in prose that wastes nae a word in its redefining of the crime novel. [+]-Barry Forshaw.
Creator: Scott Brick
Edition: MP3 Una
Publication date: 2008-04-15
Dewey code: 813.54
RRP: £16.38
Price: £7.47
Review Hold Tight / Brilliance Corporation:
Publication date: 2006-10-05
RRP: £16.99
Price: £10.76
Review The Russia House / Hodder & Stoughton:
Creator: Christopher Lane
Edition: MP3 Una
Publication date: 2007-05-29
Dewey code: 813.54
RRP: £16.38
Price: £10.63
Review Lightning / Brilliance Audio:
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2005-03-21
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.13
Review Lord Edgware Dies (BBC Audio Crime) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Mel Foster
Edition: MP3 Una
Publication date: 2007-09-29
Dewey code: 813.54
RRP: £25.76
Price: £24.36
Review The House of Thunder / Brilliance Audio:
Creator: David Timson
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2001-03-31
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £6.79
Review The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: "A Case of Identity", "The Crooked Man", "The Naval Treaty", "The Greek Interpreter" v.4: "A Case of Identity", "The ... 4 (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Audio)) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Jenny Funnell
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2006-07-07
RRP: £13.00
Price: £5.54
Review The Seven Dials Mystery / Macmillan Audio Books:
Creator: Aoife McMahon
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2007-07-02
RRP: £15.99
Price: £9.74
Review The Last Testament / HarperCollins Audio:
Creator: Jim Bond
Edition: MP3 Una
Publication date: 2007-07-17
Dewey code: 813.54
RRP: £16.38
Price: £13.81
Review The Devil's Labyrinth / Brilliance Corporation:
Creator: Lorelei King
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2004-11-01
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £15.99
Price: £1.99
Review Metro Girl / HarperCollins Audio:More beguiling criminal diversion from the ever-dependable Janet Evanovich, Metro Girl may not introduce any new elements into the quirky Evanovich universe, but fans won't give a damn-all the usual fingerprints are well in evidence. Previously, her carefully numbered Stephanie Plum novels offered real delight for those who could get past the arch name of the heroine, and her brilliantly drawn New Jersey settings were counterbalanced by machine-tooled plotting and a cherishable sardonic wit. Metro Girl has a slew of unlikely elements stirred into a heady brew: treasures sunk beneath the ocean, bloody murder and (believe it or not) a highly sensuous stock car racer. The unreliable `Wild' Bill Barnaby has vanished, and his not-to-be-messed with sister Alex makes her way to Miami to track him down. Alex fights to keep body and soul together in the sultry climate, as both unmanageable coiffure and vicious thugs threaten her equilibrium. She discovers that Bill unwisely appropriated the yacht of the formidable Sam Hooker, and Sam realises that keeping close to Alex may lead him to Bill, with a little score-settling on the menu. Soon, both are heading into dangerous waters (both literally and figuratively) with Cuban gold and leftovers from the Cuban missile crisis making things very hot for the protagonists. Alex is one hell of a heroine, and the perfect conduit for the reader through the unlikely (but strangely plausible) narrative. You've heard books described as a wild ride before-this is one time where that description really fits the bill. Get your ticket and climb aboard-and don't forget your hairspray. [+]-Barry Forshaw.
Creator: Buck Schirner
Edition: MP3
Publication date: 2007-08-28
Dewey code: 813.6
RRP: £16.38
Price: £16.15
Review The Abduction / Brilliance Audio:
Creator: Adjoa Andoh
Publication date: 2004-03-25
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.00
Price: £7.88
Review Secret Smile / Penguin Audiobooks:The husband and wife team that is Nicci French have always produced psychological thrillers of tremendous assurance and acuity, and Secret Smile is no exception. Miranda Cotton is incensed to return home to find her new lover, Brendan, deep into the pages of her diary. She angrily gives him his walking papers. But (in an eerie reminiscence of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love), the spurned (and threatening) lover has no intention of leaving his erstwhile partner alone. Some weeks later, Miranda is listening to her sister Kerry enthusing about the new man in her life and learns, to her dismay, that the Brendan her sister is praising is her own ex-lover. Soon, she finds herself in a terrifying war of nerves with an opponent who knows how to wield the most lethal of weapons in psychological warfare. Eventually the mental conflict moves towards a physical threat that's every bit as dangerous as the preliminaries. French's novels work so well because of a perfectly judged combination of well-honed narrative (nary a wasted incident) and sharp, truthful characterisation. Here, Miranda and the implacable Brendan are truly memorable creations. -Barry Forshaw.
Creator: James Macpherson
Publication date: 2007-02-01
RRP: £13.99
Price: £9.99
Review Mortal Causes (CD: LATEST EDITION) / Orion:
Creator: Andrew Sachs
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2002-12
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £35.19
Price: £43.49
Review Boy: Complete & Unabridged: Tales of Childhood: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Michael Page
Edition: MP3 Una
Publication date: 2008-05-29
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £16.38
Price: £12.80
Review Second Wind / Brilliance Corporation:Dick Francis's legion of admirers can relax: his year off from writing is over and a new vigour has entered his style. Longtime readers will be happy to find the customary racetrack skulduggery, galvanised by some fascinating new elements. The very opening of Second Wind signals something new, with Francis's protagonist fighting for his life in a Caribbean storm at sea: "But now, as near dead as dammit, I tumbled like a rag-doll piece of flotsam in towering gale-driven seas that sucked unimaginable tons of water from the deeps …" In flashback, we are catapulted into the world of meteorologist Perry Stuart who agrees to fly through the eye of storm on Trox Island, a blighted place steeped in guano and harbouring a nasty secret. When the reader encounters details of the racing world in Francis's earlier thrillers, it had the satisfying ring of authenticity. The same is true in Second Wind, as Stuart's character was developed with the help of BBC weatherman John Kettley. Although a new venue for Francis, he still has the knack of quickening the readers' pulse with a few carefully chosen words: "Despair was too strong a word for it. Perhaps despondency was better. When they came for me, they came with guns. " -Barry Forshaw.
Creator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2002-08-29
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £14.99
Price: £14.99
Review Red Rabbit / Penguin Audiobooks:
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Dry Bones That Dream, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, The Star of the Sea, Resurrection Men (CD: LATEST EDITION), Hold Tight, The Russia House, Lightning, Lord Edgware Dies (BBC Audio Crime), The House of Thunder, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: "A Case of Identity", "The Crooked Man", "The Naval Treaty", "The Greek Interpreter" v.4: "A Case of Identity", "The ... 4 (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Audio)), The Seven Dials Mystery, The Last Testament, The Devil's Labyrinth, Metro Girl, The Abduction, Secret Smile, Mortal Causes (CD: LATEST EDITION), Boy: Complete & Unabridged: Tales of Childhood: Complete & Unabridged, Second Wind, Red Rabbit |
