Category Archives: Audio

The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz

The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz

After Magpie Murders, I wanted to read more Anthony Horowitz. In particular, I wanted to read the next one in the Magpie series, but that wasn’t in our Audible library (and I am trying not to buy anymore books). However, I did find this one.

Here’s the blurb …

For the first time in its one-hundred-and-twenty-five-year history, the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel.

Once again, The Game’s Afoot…London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap – a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.

Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase-the House of Silk-a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Estate chose the celebrated, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk because of his proven ability to tell a transfixing story and for his passion for all things Holmes. Destined to become an instant classic, The House of Silk brings Sherlock Holmes back with all the nuance, pacing, and almost superhuman powers of analysis and deduction that made him the world’s greatest detective, in a case depicting events too shocking, too monstrous to ever appear in print…until now.

I have never read any Sherlock Holmes, but I did love the series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I was picturing them while reading/listening to it.

I very much enjoyed this – if this is what the original Sherlock Holmes novels are like, I will have to read them. There was more than one crime, several mysteries, poor children, rich ladies, American outlaws, art and possibly poison.

A review.

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Filed under 5, Audio, Classic, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Recommended

Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz

Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz

I watched the T.V. adaptation Magpie Murders, which I really enjoyed. It has the fabulous Lesley Manville in it as Susan. When I saw it in our Audible library I thought it would be the perfect thing to listen to.

Here’s the blurb …

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective. 

It is very clever – there is a golden age crime type of mystery and a modern mystery. Both written in the appropriate style.

Atticus Pünd is a quieter, less flamboyant version of Poirot. And I loved how the author in the story (Conway) wrote his neighbours, family, etc. in and changed their names to something appropriate. For example, Locke became Chubb (i.e. the people who make locks). I suspect Anthony Horowitz had a lovely time writing this novel.

Susan is an engaging character/detective and I enjoyed how we followed her thought processes.

If you like crime, and in particular cozy crime, then this is for you.

A review.

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Legacy – Chris Hammer

Legacy – Chris Hammer

I was browsing our Audible library and came across this one. I enjoyed Scrublands and Silver.

Here’s the blurb …

The blast hits them, a shock wave … glass smashing … Somewhere a woman screams. A second explosion, and Martin looks towards the hall, what’s left of it, flames roaring and smoke pouring skywards.

Someone is targeting Martin Scarsden. They bomb his book launch and shoot up his hometown. 

Fleeing for his life, he learns that nowhere is safe, not even the outback. The killers are closing in and it’s all he can do to survive. 

But who wants to kill him and why? Can he discover their deadly motives and turn the tables? 

In a dramatic finale, he finds his fate linked to the disgraced ex-wife of a football icon, a fugitive wanted for a decades-old murder, and two nineteenth-century explorers from a legendary expedition. 

Martin Scarsden’s most perilous, challenging and intriguing assignment yet.

This is Australian noir, you know the genre, a small town in the outback, it’s hot and there is a murder in the past. There is also a little bit of spy stuff, deep fake pornography, secret treasure and lost explorers. It had different view points (Ecco and Martin) and the journal of a missing (a fugitive) young woman.

I enjoyed it the setting was beautifully described and the murderer was unexpected. I also liked the machinations around Martin – who wants him dead and discredited?

All in all a very satisfying and fun read.

A review

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Filed under 4, Audio, Australian, Crime, Fiction, Mystery

My Friends – Fredrik Backman

My Friends – Fredrik Backman

This was in our Audible library – I think my husband was trying to try different genres of fiction. Anyway, I decided to give it a go.

Here’s the blurb …

#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

This was a moving story about friends, chosen family and art. There is violence, despair and both hopelessness and hopefulness. It’s a bit unrelenting at times – nothing goes right and everything goes catastrophically wrong. It’s about finding your tribe (those with wings) and helping them however you can. Finding a way to live with grief. And it is funny – the dialogue between Louisa and Ted in particular, but also some of their exploits as children (drying socks in the toaster).

A review

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Outline – Rachel Cusk

Outline – Rachel Cusk

This book was on the Backlisted podcast – well, Transit was, and I thought I should start with the first one. I listened to this and it was narrated by Kristin Scott Thomas (fabulous).

Here’s the blurb …

Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her student in storytelling exercises. She meets other writers for dinner. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her seatmate from the place. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves, their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast, a portrait of a woman learning to face great a great loss.

This was great, I have been raving about it to all of my reading friends. It feels like a friend (a very articulate friend) telling stories about their encounters. And through the various stories, we gain an idea of our narrator. The writing is beautiful (I am awed by her talent and intelligence).

A review.

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Columbus Day – Craig Alanson

Columbus Day – Craig Alanson

I was looking for something to listen to on my husband’s audible account (it was in alphabetical order) and I decided to give this one a go. Science fiction is not my usual choice, but I do, occassionally read it. I didn’t realise this was book 1 though.

Here’s the blurb …

We were fighting on the wrong side, of a war we couldn’t win. And that was the good news. 

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. 

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn’t even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren’t our enemy, our allies are. 

I’d better start at the beginning….

This was quite long – 17 hours, and a lot happened and a lot had to be described. There is a lot of galaxy and world building going on (all done very well). But, as for any story, it really comes down to the characters. Skippy, the beer can AI, was my favourite and I loved how Joe and Skippy played off each other. It was a very immersive experience and I can imagine it as a film or television series.

A review

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Filed under 3, Audio, Fiction, Science Fiction

Down Cemetery Road – Mick Herron

Down Cemetery Road – Mick Herron

I have been making my way through Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series and when I saw the adaptation of this on Apple, I decided to give it a go.

Here’s the blurb …

CWA Gold Dagger winner Mick Herron’s debut novel introduces Sarah Tucker, whose search for a missing child unravels a murderous conspiracy.

 When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a young girl disappears in the aftermath, Sarah Tucker—a young married woman, bored and unhappy with domestic life—becomes obsessed with finding her. Accustomed to dull chores in a childless household and hosting her husband’s wearisome business clients for dinner, Sarah suddenly finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew, as her investigation reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead. What begins in a peaceful neighborhood reaches its climax on a remote, unwelcoming Scottish island as the search puts Sarah in league with a man who finds himself being hunted down by murderous official forces.

I didn’t realise this was his debut novel – it is certainly very good, with all of his trademarks. Self-serving spooks, witty dialogue and no character is safe (there is no plot armour).

It’s twisty and turny and there was one very unexpected event (no spoilers). I am looking forward to watching the adaptation now.

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Glass Houses (Gamache 13) – Louise Penny

Glass Houses – Louise Penny

I do like a Gamache story (I think there is 20 of them!).

Here’s the blurb for this one…

When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead.

From the moment the creature’s shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Quebec, suspects it has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized.

But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied.

Months later, on a steamy July day, as the trial for the accused begins in Montréal, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November from which there is no going back. More than the accused is on trial. Gamache’s own conscience is standing in judgment.

In her latest utterly gripping book, number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called the court of conscience. A court that supersedes all others.

This story is told over two time-frames. When the murder occurred (around Halloween) and when the murderer went on trial (July the following year). There are sneaky things afoot – a hidden door, perjury, feigned incompetence and a few red herrings as well.

Like all of the Gamache novels, it is beautifully written and we learn a bit about Cobradors (here is an article about them), although our Cobrador is more of a conscience than a debt collector.

A review

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South Riding – Winifred Holtby

South Riding – Winifred Holtby

I watched the 2011 TV adaptation (which is great), then I read a paper copy, and now I have listened to it. Clearly a bit of a favourite.

Here’s the blurb …

Winifred Holtby’s masterpiece is a rich evocation of the lives and relationships of the characters of South Riding. Sarah Burton, the fiery young headmistress of the local girls’ school; Mrs Beddows, the district’s first alderwoman—based on Holtby’s own mother; and Robert Carne, the conservative gentleman-farmer locked in a disastrous marriage—with whom the radical Sarah Burton falls in love. Showing how public decisions can mold the individual, this story offers a panoramic and unforgettable view of Yorkshire life.

I really enjoyed this novel. I think it shows a slice of rural life in England between the wars. The machinations of the local council, the living conditions of the poor (lack of sanitation, not to mention birth control), the lack of welfare services (I am thinking of Lydia having to leave school to look after her siblings after her mother dies), but there is also community spirit and a hope that things will improve.

A review and more about Winifred Holtby.

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Clouds of Witnesses – Dorothy L Sayers

Clouds of Witnesses – Dorothy L Sayers

I enjoyed the first Peter Wimsey story, so when I was looking for something easy to listen to (after Villette), I chose this one. I am very keen to get to Gaudy Night, but that is book number 10.

Here’s the blurb …

Rustic old Riddlesdale Lodge was a Wimsey family retreat filled with country pleasures and the thrill of the hunt — until the game turned up human and quite dead. He lay among the chrysanthemums, wore slippers and a dinner jacket and was Lord Peter’s brother-in-law-to-be. His accused murderer was Wimsey’s own brother, and if murder set all in the family wasn’t enough to boggle the unflappable Lord Wimsey, perhaps a few twists of fate would be — a mysterious vanishing midnight letter from Egypt…a grieving fiancee with suitcase in hand…and a bullet destined for one very special Wimsey.

I love everything about these novels. The settings, the language, the way of life, the characters – Lord Peter, Bunter and Inspector Parker (clearly in love with Lady Mary). I like how the crimes are solved. But it’s not just a cozy mystery they have some emotional heft to them.

A review.

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