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 Roy McMillan
Christopher Fairfax, priest, rides across remote Exmoor in the 1400s, sent by the Bishop of Exeter, to find an isolated village with a dead priest awaiting burial… except it’s not the 1400s you might think. This is gradually revealed to be a post-apocalyptic landscape, 800 years after some unknown cataclysm. It’s regressed to pre-industrial revolution levels of living. Science is proscribed, and even researching into the past and its artifacts can get you branded (literally) a heretic. The church is law. Law is the church. What Fairfax finds in that village leads him to question truths that have always been self-evident to a young believer. Expect religion, science and the apocalypse. The writing is superb, the story gripping, and Roy McMillan (who also narrated Conclave) is a perfect narrator. He subsumes his narration to the story while still subtly delineating character voices.
Full cast recording featuring Peter Dinklage as Hercule Poirot.
There’s a serial killer on the loose and Poirot has received letters from the killer simply signed ABC. There’s a new inspector at Scotland Yard, who tries to sideline Poirot as old-fashioned, but in the end they are forced to work together. First a woman whose name begins with A is murdered in Andover, then Betty in Bexhill, then a C and a D etc. Poirot and the police are baffled. I worked it out before they did. Poirot gets there in the end, despite a red-herring. I prefer straightforward reads to full cast recordings as the voices are not always well-differentiated, but Dinklage makes a good – and easily recognisable – Poirot.
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.
Narrated by James Macpherson
A collection of short stories featuring Edinburgh cop Rebus through all stages (and ranks) of his career. Each story features a crime and a solution, sometimes unexpected in that the victims are not always what they appear to be, and neither are the criminals. Extremely engaging, and beautifully read by James Macpherson in a gentle Scottish accent.
Audiobook narrated by Roy Mcmillan
Just having seen the excellent movie, and with a Roman Catholic Conclave happening to elect a new pope in real life, it seemed an appropriate time to listen to this book. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel 118 cardinals are hoping to be guided by God to make the right choice, but though no one will admit it some cardinals have more ambition than others to become the head of the church. There are factions and rivalries, and through it all Cardinal Jacopo Lomeli, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, must keep order and direct the proceedings. This is a thriller filled with old men in robes, with no action sequences and no sex and violence, but tightly plotted and riveting all the same. Highly recommended.
Audiobook read by Samantha Bond.
Another one of the quirky little mysteries which make HM Queen Elizabeth II the main protagonist in solving a murder, aided and abetted by her assistant private secretary, Rosie, who does most of the leg-work. Set in 2016 when HMQE is 90, this involves the discovery of a severed hand floating in on the tide in a plastic carrier bag during the royal family's Christmas break at Sandringham. The Queen recognises the hand from a photograph by its signet ring and a missing finger tip. It's Ned St Cyr, a 70 year old member of a neighboring aristocratic family and as a boy he used to visit and play with the Queen's own children. Then a seciond man is found dead, presumed suicide, and a local woman is badly injured in a hit-and-run. The mystery becomes complex and the Queen is determoned to poiunt the police in the right direction. These are a cosy series of mysteries, beautifully read by Samantha Bond who gets the queen's voice perfectly. It's interspersed with real happenings such as the Brexit vote and the inauguration of the 45th American president - yes, that one.
I read this when it first came out, so this is a re-revisit via Audible, decently read by Gerri Halligan. Jilly Cooper is one of those writers I class as a guilty pleasure. This stuff might have been OK in the 1980s, but it contains a lot of casual misogyny, sexism and racism, which gives pause today. But there are parts of this book (previous notwithstanding) that I simply lap up. It’s like Josephine Pullein-Thompson* but for grownups. Cooper is light and frothy and includes a lot of gratuitous sex, which was quite racy for the time these books were written. For all that there are plenty of females in this book it’s the men who have the agency. Set against the background of the world of international show-jumping in the 1970s this is essentially the story of heated rivalry between the rich and sophisticated Rupert Campbell-Black and half-Romany Jake Lovell, who marries for money in order to set himself up on the show-jumping circuit. Jake is something of a horse-whisperer, while Rupert, through brave and talented has a cruel streak a mile wide. There are interesting side-characters: Fen, Jake’s sister in law, whom he trains to world-class standard (though even she needs validating by a man eventually); Malise Gordon, Chef d’equippe of the British show-jumping team; Billy Lloyd-Foxe and his somewhat unsuitable wife, Janey. And then there are the two main wives. Rupert’s mistreated (physically and mentally) and neurotic wife, Helen, and Jake’s efficient and hard-working wife, Tory, who believes herself to be little more than a convenience, though she loves Jake with all her heart. It’s hard to review this without being spoilerish, but all the way through, Jake comes good and Rupert is an utter bastard, then close to the end something happens that puts Rupert in a new light and causes Jake to act completely out of character. I think it’s supposed to be a redemption for Rupert (because he becomes the reformed hero in some of the future books) but we already know he's physically courageous, so what he does doesn’t constitute redemption for me. I still enjoyed revisiting this book, but this time around I saw more flaws.
*Josephine Pullein-Thompson was a writer in the 1940s/50 who wrote about gymkhanas for pony mad girls along with her sisters Diana and Christine
This is certainly not the type of book I would normally read, but it caught my attention on an Audible two for one sale and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It's lightweight and cosy, a whodunit in which the investigator is Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 89, going on ninety. After a do at Windsor Castle a young Russian pianist is found dead in a cupboard in his bedroom, supposedly hanged. Is it suicide, or might it be murder? Desperately trying to keep the news out of the tabloids, MI5 and the Met leap to an incorrect conclusion, that there must be a Russian sleeper agent on the Queen's staff. Annoyed, the Queen begins to investigate the matter herself with the help of her Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, a British Nigerian, and recently an officer in the Royal Horse Artillery. She's a young lady with considerable talents, and the Queen makes good use of them. The reading, by Samantha Bond, is superb, she captures the Queen beautifully, as indeed does the author.
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