Jacey Bedford's Journal

Narrated by Matt Addis.

September 1145. Two small boys discover the corpse of a Templar knight in the Forest of Wyre on Worcestershire’s northern border. The corpse carries a parchment revealing the identity of a traitor. (We’re in the time of the Anarchy, when Stephen and Mathilda are slugging it out for the crown.) Bradecote, Catchpoll and Walkelin are sent to investigate. Because of what the children saw, the locals believe the knight has been killed by the Raven Woman, a mythical bird shapechanger who haunts the forest. William of Riversford denies knowing who the corpse is, but Bradecote doesn’t quite believe him, and his instinct turns out to be correct. The corpse is Ivo de Mitton who fled the country many years ago accused of killing his family and burning down their house, all but the youngest who is now grown and is the last of his family in charge of Mitton. There’s a parchment on the corpse suggesting that a prominent Lord is planning to turn traitor against Stephen. But something is off. The Sheriff’s trio find the investigation throws up more questions than answers, Was there a second knight? Who is the Raven Woman? Did Ivo kill his family all those years ago? The story gives up its answers slowly and effectively as the corpses mount, stretching out the dramatic tension. Matt Addis’s reading is excellent as usual. I’ve been binge listening to these books, but this seems to be the most recent, so apart from a couple I missed along the way, I’ll have to wait for the next one.

Audiobook narrated by Jonathan Keeble.

June 1144. A body found in woodland turns out to be a Welsh messenger on his way to see Earl Robert of Gloucester. Bradecote and Catchpoll are sent into Wales, but the murdered man, though sent on an important errand into England, turns out to be a lecherous menace to any women he sets eyes upon. In the end the answer to the murder lies not in the message, but the messenger himself. Jonathan Keeble reads it well enough, but he’s not as good as Matt Addis who has read all the other Bradecote and Catchpolls that I’ve already heard. I know what the main characters' voices sound like - and in this, they don't. Also it's one of the bland covers. Why change cover style and why change narrator? Seems a bit odd. Don't get me wrong, it's still a good story. 

Audiobook narrated by Matt Addis.

September 1143. Bradecote is the recently appointed under sheriff and Catchpoll is the wily and experienced serjeant-thieftaker. A series of deliberately-set fires in the city of Worcester stirs the population. Bradecote and Catchpoll must find the culprit before the whole city burns, but that means finding the link between the victims. At first that seems impossible. What connects Simeon the Jew with a silversmith, and an old healing woman? For a while all they can do is set a firewatch, at first believing that the property owner is burning out his tenants so he can redevelop the area. Gradually they piece threads together, discovering the motive delves back into the past. Matt Addis reads well and differentiates the voices beautifully. Bradecote speaks English (unlike most of the nobility of the day who still speak Norman French) and the local characters all have Worcestershire accents, which seem perfectly natural for story purposes. Catchpoll, in particular, sounds beautifully grizzled.

Audiobook narrated by Annabelle Tudor.

A historical romance set in 1780 which has a lot more than just romance in it. Greer, MacAlistair an abandoned wife with a deaf daughter, Fen, leaves Edinburgh for the north when she's advised that her husband - an English exciseman - has been killed in the line of duty and therefore she can claim the wages owed to him. Unfortunately, upon making the request she discovers that his 'wife' has already clzimed it, and her own marriage lines count for nothing. She's rescued by Mr Gordon (a widower) and employed as his housekeeper, travelling to Glasglen, a remote highland village where the villagers survive by making illegal whisky and selling it to supplement their meagre agricultural subsistence. Gordon is at the heart of it. The villagers are hostile at first, especially Gordon's family, and Fen is despised for her deafness, until her 'finger-talking' learned in Edinburgh becomes central to the plot as the Excise men close in and Gordon lands in a heap of trouble. It's a long book, but it kept me invoilves and Annabelle Tudor reads it very well. Her Scottish accent rings true (Note I am not a Scot). Listening to samples of other books she's narrated she seems to so a variety of accents very will.

Audiobook narrated by Steven Crossley

The first Oxford Time Travel book is a collection of short stories, the second is Doomsday Book, read and reviewed earlier this month. This is the third which I was persuaded to try because (unlike Doomsday) it’s supposedly light and frothy, and it also won the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1999. And indeed it has elements of Three Men in a Boat meets Dr Who. Ned Henry, one of Oxford’s time-travelling historians, is searching for the Bishop’s Bird Stump, a (fictional) vase lost in the wartime bombing of Coventry Cathedral, in order to please Lady Schrapnell who holds the purse strings of the project to rebuild the cathedral. He’s been sent hither and thither to jumble sales and air-raids that he’s impossibly time-lagged and brain-fogged, so to get him safely out of the way his professor (Dunworthy whom we met in Doomsday Book) sends him back to Oxford 1888 for a relaxing fortnight beside the River Thames. He goes through the veil somewhat precipitously to get away from Lady Schrapnell, ill-prepared and barely taking in his instructions. Thus he makes a mess of his first encounter, fails to do something important and ends up on the river with an Oxford undergrad, Terence St Trewes, and a dotty history professor. Eventually he manages to meet up with his contact (the lovely Verity) and ends up a guest in a country house belonging to a bunch of Lady Schrapnell’s great-great-many-times-great-grands with the beautiful but vapid Tossie who speaks in diddums-diddums baby talk, her goldfish-fancying father and a scarily Schrapnell-like mother, plus the family butler, the Jeeves-like Baine. Thus the romantic comedy is set as Ned and Verity try to put right a variance in the space-time continuum which they accidentally caused in the first place. The Bishop’s Bird Stump is constantly bubbling away in the background as it’s a pivotal object that changes Tossie’s life. The book is light, but not a comedy in the laugh-out-loud sense, more slightly quirky and absurdist. Yes, there’s a dog (Cyril the bulldog) and a goldfish-eating cat (Princess Arjumand). Steven Crossley reads it well in an RP accent, with a good range of voices. You’re never far from hearing Lady Bracknell in a raft of imperious women from the book’s present (2057)  to Victorian England. And, of course, all is well in the end with the bird stump found, and the right lovers paired up, more thanks to time itself than the hapless Ned. Connie Willis captures the Three-Men-in-a-Boat vibe very well

Full cast audio recording featuring Brendan Fraser, Luke Kirby, and Vanessa Sears

A bunch of astronauts have been uploaded into a quantum computer and their bodies cryogenically frozen for a centuries long trip to colonise a far distant star system. When the captain, Letitia Garvey, and the crew’s doctor are downloaded back into their bodies after half a millennium they discover that they are still on Earth but Earth-as-was is no longer viable following some unspecified disaster. The astronauts are the dole survivors of humanity – until, that is, a larger group of timer-served prison inmates are also downloaded. How is their new polarised society going to survive – or is it going to survive? The whole thing is told in a series of audio-interviews by three major characters, the captain, the doctor and the leader of the ex-criminals, Roscoe Koudoulian, plus a few side characters. But for the longest time we don’t know who is asking the questions. Gradually the whole picture builds, and a potential solution is offered. The voices work well. There are a few background sound-effects but not too many as to disrupt the narrative (which is often the case with full cast recordings).

Audiobook narrated by Dominic West.

Clem used to be in charge of policing in the sleepy northern village of Watersmeet, now he’s 62 and a special constable, working under a boss who hates him. The feeling is mutual, but Clem gets on with being a community copper and puts up with it for the sake of his job. It’s all he has left since his wife died. A pair of grisly murders within a few days of each other sets the whole village in an uproar. Regional police get involved and there’s a lot of posturing and media preening from Clem’s superiors. They’re sure it’s a drug-gang to blame, but Clem knows better. A little girl sees a monster lurking in her back garden and Clem goes in search of answers. Could a local legend be true? Is the River Man on the prowl, and if so how can Clem prevent more deaths? Suspended from his job over a disagreement, he takes matters into his own hands. It’s his village and he’s going to sort it whatever the challenges. This is a murder mystery with supernatural elements. Dominic West reads this brilliantly; the characters are well delineated and the pacing is spot-on. An excellent listen.

Audiobook narrated by Joanna Scanlon and others.

A short, darkly comic soliloquy from Allison, an elderly-care nurse on the cusp of requirement. She reflects on her life and nursing career, her previous partners and the gambling ring she ran in the hospital. And then there’s the analgesics… There’s a twist. Joanna Scanlon narrates, with other narrators doing voices.

Audiobook narrated by Kaylin Heath

Fairy-tale-ish story about Rhea, a low-born miller’s daughter, who is engaged to be married to sorcerer Lord Crevan against her wishes. When he demands she come to his strange house in the woods she discovers he already has six wives, only one of which is dead. Befriended by the wife-cook who used to be a witch, Rhea discovers that Crevan takes something from each wife, witchy power from the cook, sight from one of the others. He’s planning to take Rhea’s youth just as soon as they are married. However she can put off the awful day if she completes each of the strange tasks he gives her. This strains Rhea’s resourcefulness to the limits as, aided by a clever hedgehog, she completes task by task – until there’s one she will not complete and the wedding looms. Rhea has to rally the remaining wives and visit the Clock Wife in order to defeat Crevan. Kaylin Heath does a good job on the narration.

Audiobook narrated by Lauren Fortgang and James Patrick Cronin

Ah, maybe I should have started by reading The Bridge Kingdom. This is the second book in the sequence, but the stortytelling is a bit muddled and at nearly 1/3^rd of the way in I’m giving up. The narrators are OK, but not spectacular.

Audiobook narrated by Jessie Van Hove

Both the title and the cover make this sound like fantasy, but it's firmly science fiction.  There are youngsters escaped from a super-soldier, DNA altering US government experiment, and aliens invading Earth, but not - it seems - in all out warfare. It was a bit vague as to what the aliens were doing and why, but an alien prince is attacked by members of his own squad and saved by a trio of super-soldier escapees, who are heading out of town to keep away from their own scientists (who are trying to recapture them), and ro ride out the alien invasion.  There's a kind of three-way love story going on and the aliens seem more decent than the humans, so I'm not sure where this series is heading. The main characters are reasonably well-drawn but the others are two dimensional. The narration is quite good except for one of the character voices which is too stretched out and drawly. If these super-soldier kids were grown in a lab and educated altogether why to they have different accents? Why does once sound as though he's from the deep south?

Narrated by Alex Wyndham

Sadly, I couldn’t get on with this, though I got about halfway through it before I gave it up.  It mixes the traditional Scottish ballads of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin with aliens instead of the fae being the bad guys. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for these two ballads in particular, but this didn’t hit the mark for me. I also didn’t get on well with the narrator who seemed to be reading it all with a kind of sneer in his voice. I’ve listened to other samples of his work and when reading non-fiction, I don’t hear that at all.

Audiobook narrated by Katie Villa

This is the third Unholy Island book, following on from The Ward Witch and the Book Keeper. It's set in the same universe as her Crow Investigations books and there is a little bit of crossover, but not enough to confuse a new reader. THe island, Unholy Island, is off the coast of Northumberland, joined to the mailland at low tide by a causeway. It's a sanctuary for magical misfits and people hiding from their past. In the first book. Luke came to Unholy Island looking for his missing brother, and met a whole cast of characters including Esme Gray. In the second book he became a permanent resident, taking over the island's magical bookshop. In this book, the island's mayor goes missing, Luke's twin, Lewis, finally turns up, but he's not quite what he seems to be. Esme and Luke's new relationship comes under strain when she seems to be the only one on the island immune to Lewis's particular form of attraction. I've enjoyed this whole trilogy. It has a certain cosiness without sacrificing tension. Katie Villa's reading is easy on the ear.

Audiobook read by Travis Baldree.
Oh my goodness, how boring. I gave up at Chapter 8 after listening to what felt like hours and hours of a gamer’s handbook outlining points for this and powers like that. There might be a story, but if so it hadn’t started by the time I lost the will to live. The premise sounded interesting, but the writeup gave no indication that this was basically a game scenario. Sure, Silas has to save the world, but it’s basically a game. Travis Baldree did his usual good job but he might as well have been reading the phone book for all the interest it held for me. Maybe you’ll love this if the minutia of RPG games is your thing. Sadly, it’s not mine. Travis Baldree reads it as well as he can, but there are long tracts that amount to the gamer-equivalent of reading the phone book.

Audiobook read by Katie Villa.

Luke Taylor has been accepted by the mysterious Unholy Island and the islanders, and has become the keeper of the island’s only bookshop, a position he’s inherited. The bookshop itself seems sentient, not revealing all it’s secrets until it trusts Luke. He’s just setting in when a box of books arrives from a bookshop in York. It contains a curse which strikes at Luke, and he’s only saved by the intervention of one of the three (scary) witch sisters who love on the island. He discovers that the York bookshop has since burnt down, killing the owner. And then he finds another cursed book in an Edinburgh bookshop. Who is sending the cursed objects and why? Luke’s feelings for Esme, the island’s B&B host, are deepening, but a newcomer to the island is determined to muscle in. More magical goings-on. Expect peril, magic and a touch of romance. Katie Villa reads well.

Audiobook read by Ray Porter

Halek Cain is the last survivor of the reaper programme. He’s an unstoppable cyborg killing machine, currently on death row. Offered a reprieve if he rescues a renowned scientist from a lawless penal colony (on an asteroid) he accepts the job, discovering that he hasn’t been given all the information he needs. Of course the job isn’t straightforward and he ends up fighting both the inmates and his own side. This is apparently set in the Renegade Star Universe, but not having any previous knowledge of this doesn’t hamper the enjoyment of this story. Ray Porter reads it reliably well.

Audiobook, read by the author. This prequel to Legends and lattes is a light-hearted, cosy fantasy about an unexpected interlude, friendship, the power of fiction, and first love. Viv is an Orc mercenary who is injured in a battle against a necromancer and is deposited in the quiet port town of Murk to recover, with the promise that her mercenary pals, Rackham's Ravens, will come back for her.. Bored, she finds a scruffy bookshop, and ends up with a book she can't put down. The bookshop owner, Fern, is struggling, but Viv sticks around, inadvertently falling for the local baker. When one of the necromancer's former operatives comes looking for a place to hide a valuable stolen artifact, Viv gets involved. She rescues a satchel that hosts a bony homunculus, enslaved by the necromancer. Yes, the necromancer fially puts in an appearance and Viv does wat must be done, leaving to rejoin the mercenaries with some regrets. I was in the mood for cosy and light after tackling Consider Phlebas, and this was just the ticket. Expect orcs, gnomes, elves and a whole load of skeletons. Very enjoyable.

Re-read via Audible. Audiobook Narrated by Zara Ramm

Hugely enjoyable revisit via audible recounting the origins of Smallhope and Pennyroyal, recovery agents extraordinaire. Beautifully read by Zara Ramm.

Original review of the Kindle version: This is the origin story of Lady Amelia Smallhope and Pennyroyal, butler of many talents. When Millie Smallhope's brother George marries a fortune hunter and her family falls apart, she's shuffled off to a finishing school. Trying to get her diamonds back from her sister-in-law, she comes nose to nose with a burglar who turns out to be much better at thievery than she is, and she ends up throwing her lot in with him - Pennyroyal - who just happens to have a time-travelling pod, and be a product of Butler school, though Millie suspects he learned all he knows in the nick. The two embark on a career as bounty hunters - err - recovery agents - and we follow their exploits, including where their story intersects with the St Mary's crew of disaster-magnet historians, and the Time Police, especially Team Weird. This is very engaging, and I stayed up far too late into the night because I couldn't put it down. Shades of Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin with a time pod.

Audiobook narrated by Georgia Tennant

I read this many years ago and then recently watched the TV series with David Tennant and Aidan Turner, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  When Georgia Tennant won the Best Audiobook, Romance category, at the 2025 Speakies' I thought I'd give it a listen, and I'm so glad I did. She reads it beautifully, getting all the voices pitch perfect. The story is set in Jilly Cooper's Rutshire in the 1980s, and features Rupert Campbell-Black who first appeared in Riders, Tony Baddingham, owner of Corinium TV, and Declan O'Hara, popular TV journalist. Rupert, a confirmed womaniser, is much more sympathetic that in his Riders incarnation, though just as hot-headed. Baddingham is the antagonist here and when Declan walks out of his contract (or is pushed out) Rupert, Declan and a host of Rutshire characters put in a bid for Corinium's franchise. In the process, Rupert has several affairs and finally falls in love. It's a saucy romp. Jilly Cooper doesn't hold back on the sex, but ultimately her characters shine through. Some characters come through unscathed, others get their (very enjoyable) comeuppance. Though it got the 'Speakie' for best romance, this is not just a romance. There's plenty of intrigue, too. Highly recommended.

Audiobook narrated by Jefferson Mays

A bunch of (human) academic researchers on a planet called Anjiin are negotiating with their authorities for future funding and the continuation of their project. The political infighting ends suddenly when aliens (the Carryx) invade and take (most of) the research team to work on an arbitrary lab project as a demonstration to prove that they are 'useful'.  (More useful than teams of other species engaged on a parallel project.) Not being useful is likely to end in death, and there can be only one winning team (apparently). But what are the Carryx really up to? How is the team going to adjust to their new reality as prisoners? This is an ensemble piece, with several viewpoints, but Dafyd Alkhor, a research assistant, is learning to play the aliens' game, and he's the viewpoint I'm most invested in. Also, there is the puzzle of the Swarm, a different alien entity opposed to the Carryx. There were times when I found this frustratingly slow, but there’s an interesting story developing, if somewhat slowly. The book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but it’s obviously leading to more stories. I probably won't read further in this series. The narrator is invisibly competent.

Audiobook narrated by Finty Williams.

This is not advertised as a YA book, but it definitely is. Twelve-year-old Dara of Westwood captures and trains a falcon with the help of her supportive family. Much of the early part of the book is concerned with this, but when Minalan the Spellmonger becomes the new Lord of Sevendor, ousting the hated Sir Erendal, magic comes into the equation. Contending with new talents Dara plays an important part in saving Sevendor from an attack by a neighbouring lord, then goes on to enter a magical competition which leads to unexpected consequences. It’s a fairly standard coming-of-age tale with a few exciting sequences. Finty Williams' voice carries traces of her mother's (Judi Dench) and the narration is good, but the story is a bit slow. I generally like keeping up with what's available in the YA field, but I probably won't seek out then next book in the sequence yet. Although this is labelled as Spellmonger Cadet #1 I gather that it’s a YA retelling of events in a previous book. I guess I started in the wrong place.

Audiobook read by Will Watt

Stephen Oakwood is looking for his dad. Stephen’s magic use has brought him to the attention of The Winged, a mysterious group who hold the key to his father’s location. This continues directly from the previous two books, so not the place to start with this series. The narration is good. Stephen has taken a job as bodyguard to Calhoun, the heir of the Ashford family, At the same time he's trying to build his magic by raiding wells of power illegally, and making more sigls for himself, for both defence and offence. His long-term quest to find his father is resolved early in the book. He also seems to be finding more favour with his estranged mother and is becoming more involved with the Ashford family generally, though he's still wary of them, and rightly so. The head of the family – his grandfather – doesn’t seem to care much for him and only sees his value in how he can be used. There is a secret magical society, the Winged, alternately seeking to recruit or kill him. He must choose a side, his family or the Winged. He doesn't much care for either. I thought this was going to be the third book in the trilogy, but the ending is - if not a cliffhanger - not really resolved, and it seems as though this is going to be a series rather than a trilogy. To be honest, I'm a fan of Jacka's writing in general, but this was a little disappointing. It reads a bit like a middle book. It meanders, but doesn't really go anywhere. Sure, by the end of it, Stephen's life is moving into a different phase, but he's not settled. Sure, he foils an assassination attempt (on Calhoun) and kicks arse in a major set-piece fight or two, but there are no major wins. Stephen learns a few things, but he still doesn't have all the knowledge he needs. So there's obviously going to be a follow-on. Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus novels were a buy on sight series for me, this series less so. Stephen is not such an engaging main character as Alex, maybe because Alex had made all his coming-of-age mistakes by the time the series started, and in this series we're living through Stephen's uncertainties and missteps.

Audiobook read by David Tennant

The second in the How to Train Your Dragon collection on Audible.

The Viking boys move on from dragon-training to lessons in how to be a pirate. Hiccup and his friend Fishlegs are once more tormented by the bigger boys, led by Snotlout. This is all complicated by the search for the buried treasure of Hiccup’s infamous ancestor. It turns out to be more complicated than it looks like it’s going to be, and Toothless is instrumental in saving the day. Read nicely by David Tennant.

This is a re-read via Audible. Audiobook read by Zara Ramm

Cage and Jones are in the process of setting themselves up as supernatural investigators in part of the building owned my Melek and Iblis. They sort out a student ‘haunting’ and a country house lethal ghost, but this also delves more deeply into Elizabeth Cage’s backstory. She finally learns and accepts what has gone before (in a way distant past), but now has to deal with consequences. Why is there blood on her doorstep every morning. What does the note mean by ‘I always send the serpent’? We do finally get some answers amid the questions, and yes, we also get the serpent. Well worth reading the whole sequence – in order. Don’t start with this one. Beautifully read by Zara Ramm.