Jacey Bedford's Journal

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 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.