Audio - Crime 2001
New Audio - Crime Titles
2001
Jake Arnott
The Long Firm
Published May 2001 by Hodder Headline Audio at £8.99
ISBN: 1-84032-408-2
Read by Jake Arnott, Jeremy Bulloch, Sandra Duncan etc.
London. The 1960s. The capital is swinging, but beneath the boomtown there's a dark underbelly...
Harry Starks is a man of many talents - club owner, racketeer, porn king and keen Judy Garland fan, to name but a few. His business is fronting violence with rough charm, putting on the frighteners while trying to jump the counter into legitimacy.
Five characters chart Harry's rise and fall in an epic testimony where high life meets lowlife as the seedy end of the swinging Sixties is brought into ruthless verisimilitude.
‘This is pulp fiction so polished as to be immaculate’ New Statesman
‘Arnott brilliantly captures the gaudy, glamorous, seedy and sordid side of the 60s underworld and showbusiness society. A must-read… makes Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels seem like Listen with Mother’ Terry O’Neill, Elle
‘Done so cannily that it virtually winks at you’ The Sunday Times
'Truly fascinating...Arnott's ability to powerfully resurrect an era...is astonishing. A great read' Guardian
'Very funny, oddly touching and unobtrusively perceptive...l enjoyed it considerably more than Hannibal' Evening Standard
'Cool, stylish and venomous...one of the smartest, funniest and original novels you will read all year' Independent on Sunday
2 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 2 hrs
About The Author
Jake Arnott was born in 1961, and lives in London. His first novel, The Long Firm, was published in 1999 to huge public and critical acclaim and is now being made into a television series by the BBC.
New Books by Jake Arnott at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Jake Arnott at Alibris.com
Robert Barnard
A Scandal in Belgravia
Published August 2001 by Soundings at £17.99
Buy direct from Soundings: order number (UK) 0191 253 4155 N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Michael Tudor Barnes
Murder pays no respect to rank . . . or the neighbourhood
Young aristocrat, Timothy Wycliffe, was bludgeoned to death in his elegantly furnished flat in Belgravia, and the murderer was never identified.
Then the dead man’s friend Peter Proctor - now a retired Member of Parliament - attempts to write his memoirs. But Peter keeps being side-tracked by speculation on Timothy’s death. The murder was allegedly accomplished by a beating from one of his boyfriends. But Peter can’t accept so simple a solution, so he begins to probe the past. In so doing, he opens a fascinating window on British society during the 1950s and its changing - and unchanging - mores since.
As with all books by Robert Barnard, A Scandal in Belgravia is brilliantly written, fast-paced, and sharply inquiring.
After reading Classics at London University Michael Tudor Barnes trained at RADA for five years was a member of the National Theatre Company. He has also worked with the RSC, has played leading roles both home and abroad and has and over 600 radio broadcasts to his credit. Television work
includes The Bill and Softly, Softly, but he is probably best known to viewers as Willy Roper in EastEnders.
8 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs 30 mins
About The Author
After reading English at Balliol College, Oxford, Robert Barnard worked for a time for the Fabian Society, and in 1961 went as a lecturer in English to the University of New England, in New South Wales. He taught in Norwegian universities for seventeen years from 1966. As well as nearly thirty mysteries, he has written books on Dickens, and Agatha Christie. He and his wife now live in Leeds.
New Books by Robert Barnard at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Robert Barnard at Alibris.com
Robert Barnard
Unholy Dying
Published May 2001 by ISIS at £16.99
Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Christopher Scott
Father Christopher Pardoe, a Catholic priest in Shipley, is suspended for sexual misconduct as the result of an anonymous letter sent to his bishop. However, this is only the stone thrown into the centre of a pond. Soon the respectable surface of suburban Leeds is ruffled by revelations of financial embezzlement, teenage criminality, parental abuse and adultery, all fed on by the worst of the gutter press. But far worse is to come when a vicious murder rocks the community.
A classic and gripping whodunnit and a waspish look at modern suburban life, tabloid journalism and the Roman Catholic Church, from a master craftsman of the genre.
‘Barnard specialises in literate, beautifully crafted, civilised entertainments’ The Times
‘Robert Barnard has the habit of delighting his readers’ Sunday Times
Since leaving Drama School, Christopher Scott has worked in theatre throughout the British Isles.
It is perhaps for his radio work that he is best known, having been involved in such classics as The Lord of the Rings, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Forsythe Chronicles, as well as numerous Afternoon and Saturday Night Theatre, plays for BBC Radio Drama.
He was also heavily involved with the recording of the complete authorised King James version of the Bible.
6 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 7 hrs 30 mins
About The Author
After reading English at Balliol College, Oxford, Robert Barnard worked for a time for the Fabian Society, and in 1961 went as a lecturer in English to the University of New England, in New South Wales. He taught in Norwegian universities for seventeen years from 1966. As well as nearly thirty mysteries, he has written books on Dickens, and Agatha Christie. He and his wife now live in Leeds.
New Books by Robert Barnard at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Robert Barnard at Alibris.com
Hilary Bonner
A Kind of Wild Justice
Published November 2001 by ISIS at £18.99
Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Julia Franklyn
He’s a barbaric killer, guilty of the most terrible crime. He abducted and tortured an innocent 17-year-old girl, brutally raped her, then left her to die. Yet when James Martin O’Donnell stood trial at Exeter Crown Court he was acquitted.
Twenty years later a chance DNA test makes it tragically clear that there has been a shocking miscarriage of justice. But the law of double jeopardy means that O’Donnell cannot be tried again - with haunting consequences for all those determined that this evil monster will pay for his depravity.
And when Joanna Bartlett, the once brilliant but now jaded crime correspondent who covered the case two decades ago, starts to delve into the past, she is forced to revisit not only the crime she can’t bear to remember, but also the maverick police detective she has forced herself to forget . . .
Julia Franklin
Julia Franklyn has a real passion for talking books and has been reading them for the last fifteen years. She has combined this with a busy career in radio and television both as a presenter and also as a voice-over with thousands of commercials to her credit. For the last eight years she's been a presenter on ITV's Gardener's Diary.
10 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 13 hrs 30 mins
About The Author
Hilary Bonner is a former showbusiness editor of the Mail on Sunday and The Daily Mirror. She now lives in Somerset and continues to work as a freelance journalist, covering film, television and theatre. She is the author of five previous novels, The Cruelty of Morning, A Fancy to Kill For, A Passion So Deadly, For Death Comes Softly and A Deep Deceit.
New Books by Hilary Bonner at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Hilary Bonner at Alibris.com
Simon Brett
The Torso in the Town
Published December 2001 by ISIS at £17.99
Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Simon Brett
Amateur sleuths Jude and Carole take on their third case when a terrible discovery is made in the cellar of a grand old house.
Grant and Kim Roxby had hoped that their first dinner party at Pelling House would make a favourable impression on their new neighbours. And the next day it’s certainly the talk of Fedborough. Their guests -which included the couple’s old friend Jude - had been enjoying a pleasant meal before they were rudely interrupted by a gruesome discovery: a human torso hidden in the cellar.
Jude races home to Fethering and her friend Carole with the news. And soon the pair are back in Fedborough, questioning the locals. But why is a town so notoriously distrustful of outsiders so amenable to their enquiries?
Simon Brett was born in 1945 and educated at Dulwich and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first class degree in English.
Apart from a Christmas job as Father Christmas in a department store, he worked for ten years for BBC Radio as a Light Entertainment producer, and then for two years for London Weekend Television, also as a Light Entertainment producer. Since 1979 he has been a full-time writer. He is the author of many highly acclaimed crime novels, has edited several anthologies, written children's and humorous books as well as writing prolifically for radio and television.
Simon Brett is married, with three children, and lives in Sussex. His work has been translated into fourteen languages.
7 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 8 hrs 30 mins
About The Author
Simon Brett worked as a light entertainment producer in radio and TV before taking up writing full time in 1979. As well as the Charles Paris and Mrs Pargeter detective series, he is also the author of the radio and television series After Henry, the radio series No Commitments and the best-selling How to be a Little Sod . His novel A Shock to the System was filmed starring Michael Caine. Married with three children, he lives in an Agatha Christie-style village on the South Downs. Two television companies are currently considering the novels for adaptation.
New Books by Simon Brett at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Simon Brett at Alibris.com
Simon Brett
Death on the Downs
Published June 2001 by ISIS at £16.99
Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Simon Brett
A Feathering Mystery
The second novel in Simon Brett’s sparkling new series of crime whodunnits, starring the redoubtable Carole Seddon and her worldly-wise accomplice, Jude
It wasn’t the rain that upset Carole Seddon during her walk on the West Sussex Downs. No, it was her discovery of a human skeleton . . .
So begins the second investigation for Carole and her unconventional neighbour Jude. The focus for their enquiries this time is the small downland hamlet of Weldisham, where the locals rather too readily identify the corpse . . .
Simon Brett was born in 1945 and educated at Dulwich and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first class degree in English.
Apart from a Christmas job as Father Christmas in a department store, he worked for ten years for BBC Radio as a Light Entertainment producer, and then for two years for London Weekend Television, also as a Light Entertainment producer. Since 1979 he has been a full-time writer. He is the author of many highly acclaimed crime novels, has edited several anthologies, written children's and humorous books as well as writing prolifically for radio and television.
Simon Brett is married, with three children, and lives in Sussex. His work has been translated into fourteen languages.
6 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 7 hrs 25 mins
About The Author
Simon Brett worked as a light entertainment producer in radio and TV before taking up writing full time in 1979. As well as the Charles Paris and Mrs Pargeter detective series, he is also the author of the radio and television series After Henry, the radio series No Commitments and the best-selling How to be a Little Sod . His novel A Shock to the System was filmed starring Michael Caine. Married with three children, he lives in an Agatha Christie-style village on the South Downs. Two television companies are currently considering the novels for adaptation.
New Books by Simon Brett at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Simon Brett at Alibris.com
Gwendoline Butler
A Cold Coffin
Published August 2001 by ISIS at £17.99
Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Michael Tudor Barnes
Two students from the Second City of London’s university go missing, and one is later found dead. Coffin’s investigation of the situation probes deep into the past, laying bare a series of deaths.
For Coffin, the official investigation triggers a more personal examination of his own career, painful reflection on ambition, lovers, and betrayals in his past, and the recognition of a threat to violence in his own character. By the end, with the killer still spitting bitter defiance, Coffin has been forced to confront his own nature and his love for Stella.
‘Should crime novels provide relaxation or bedtime escapism for you, then you could do no better than be introduced to Gwendoline Butler’ Surrey County Magazine
‘Butler has the light touch of a master and a beguiling soul in the somberly monikered Coffin’ US Booklist
After reading Classics at London University Michael Tudor Barnes trained at RADA for five years was a member of the National Theatre Company. He has also worked with the RSC, has played leading roles both home and abroad and has and over 600 radio broadcasts to his credit. Television work
includes The Bill and Softly, Softly, but he is probably best known to viewers as Willy Roper in EastEnders.
8 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 9 hrs
About The Author
Gwendoline Butler is one of the most universally praised of English mystery authors, under both her own name and that of Jennie Melville, and has written over fifty novels under both names. Educated at Haberdashers she read history at Oxford, later marrying Dr Lionel Butler, Principal of Royal Holloway College. She has one daughter.
Gwendoline Butler's crime novels are hugely popular in both Britain and the United States, and her many awards include the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger. She was selected as being one of the top two hundred crime writers in the world by The Times and her Coffin series has now been optioned for television. There are twenty-four John Coffin mysteries, eighteen Charmian Daniels mysteries and ten non-series thrillers in print in over twenty countries world wide. Only in her native England are so few of her books available in paperback!
Gwendoline Butler is a Londoner, and was born in a part of South London for which she still has a tremendous affection, and which, under the guise of the Second City of London, is the setting for her Coffin novels, its policing being in the capable hands of Commander John Coffin whose cases now span more than fifteen titles. John Coffin made his first appearance in Death Lives Next Door, first published in 1960 and reissued as a title in The Crime Club Diamond Jubilee Collection in 1990. Other Coffin titles include Coffin on the Water, his baptismal case on demob in 1946; Coffin in Fashion, set in the swinging 'sixties with a lively rag trade background; Coffin Underground, which takes place in 1978 when the South London area is in transition and subject to some very dangerous games; and Coffin in the Black Museum and Coffin and the Paper Man with Coffin established in the heart of the old Docklands where crime is one of the few things to resist the process of gentrification.
Gwendoline Butler also writes as Jennie Melville
New Books by Gwendoline Butler at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Gwendoline Butler at Alibris.com
John Le Carre
The Tailor of Panama
Published April 2001 by Hodder Headline Audio at £14.99
ISBN: 1-84032-450-3
Read by John Le Carré
Now a major film from Columbia Pictures starring Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush
Harry Pendel is the charismatic proprietor of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada of Panama, through whose doors everyone who is anyone in Central America passes; Andrew Osnard, mysterious and fleshly, is a spy. His secret mission is two-pronged: to keep a watchful eye on the political manoeuvrings surrounding the American handover of the Panama Canal and to secure for himself the immense private fortune that until now churlishly eluded him.
‘A work of rare brilliance’ The Times
‘A romantic delirium for troubled times’ Observer
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs
Abridged by Wandor & Wallis
New Books by John Le Carre at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by John Le Carre at Alibris.com
John Le Carre
The Constant Gardener
Published February 2001 by Hodder Headline Audio at £14.99
ISBN: 1-84032-447-3
Read by John Le Carré
Frightening, heartbreaking and exquisitely calibrated, John le Carré’s new novel opens with the gruesome murder of the young and beautiful Tessa Quayle near Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya, the birthplace of mankind. Her putative African lover and travelling companion, a doctor with one of the aid agencies, has vanished from the scene of the crime.
Tessa’s husband, Justin, a career diplomat and amateur gardener at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a personal odyssey in pursuit of the killers and their motive. His quest takes him to the Foreign Office in London, across Europe and Canada and back to Africa, to the depths of South Sudan, and finally to the very spot where Tessa died. On his way he meets terror, violence, laughter, conspiracy and knowledge. But his greatest discovery is the woman he barely had time to love.
The Constant Gardener is a profoundly moving story of a man ennobled by tragedy, and a magnificent exploration of the dark side of unbridled capitalism by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. It takes its place effortlessly among the very best of le Carré‘s work.
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs
Abridged by Peter Mackie
Produced by Heavy Entertainment
New Books by John Le Carre at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by John Le Carre at Alibris.com
Kate Charles
Cruel Habitations
Published August 2001 by ISIS at £19.99
ISBN: 0-7531-095
Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Jilly Bond
An unplanned pregnancy. A wife desperate to conceive. A young girl’s suicide. A body unidentified . . .
April 1989, and sisters Alison and Jacquie Barnett take a holiday to Greece neither of them will ever forget. For Jacquie, soon to be married, the holiday represents her last opportunity for fun, and she is determined to make the most of it. Alison, naive and sheltered, disapproves, but it is her meeting and falling in love with Mike that is to define both their lives…
Eleven years later. Sophie and Chris Lilburn are leaving London for a new life in Westmead. It seems ideal - a job for Chris at the cathedral school and a rent-free house in Quire Close. But Chris’s delight is tempered by Sophie’s longing for a child, by the sinister gossips who control the community, and by the unsolved murder of a young woman a decade earlier . . .
Jilly Bond has worked extensively in theatre and radio for the past twelve years.
Her credits on stage include Miranda (and Antonio!) in The Tempest, Fiona, the ‘girl’, in When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout and Anita in Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business.
She is regularly heard in dramas for Radio Four and the BBC World Service. Among her roles is Susan Grantly in The Barchester Chronicles. She has read numerous Afternoon Stories for Radio Four and is also a director and writer. She lives in London with her husband and two children
12 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 15 hrs
About The Author
Now it can be revealed: Kate Charles, who was described by Oxford Times as 'a most English writer', is in fact an expatriate American, though an unashamedly Anglophilic one. The insights she gained while working as parish administrator of her local church have been put to good use in her books, all of which are grounded in the Church of England. She has a special interest and expertise in clerical mysteries, and presents frequent lectures on crime novels with church backgrounds. Kate lives in Bedford with her husband and two dogs, one white and one black. A former Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association, she is currently
Chairman of the Barbara Pym Society. Her favourite hobby is visiting churches, and this interest is reflected in her membership in the Ecclesiological Society, the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, the Kempe Society, and her enthusiastic support of Music in Country Churches.
A Few Words from Kate Charles …
I grew up in the U.S.A. with that most valuable of influences, a mother
who read to me. She has always loved detective novels, so Nancy Drew and
Agatha Christie were a part of my early reading, and it was only natural
that one day I should write in that genre. I was 'transplanted' to the
U.K. in 1986, finding in the Church of England the fertile ground of
inspiration for writing the books I'd always wanted to write. I think it
has something to do with the gap between the ideal of the institution and
the all-too-human foibles of the people who constitute that institution;
that gap is at the heart of my writing.
My first book, 'A Drink of Deadly Wine', grew out of a fascination with a
group of characters, David Middleton-Brown and his circle of friends. It
was meant to be a one-off, but developed into a series. Each of those
books explores some issue in the Church of England: 'A Drink of Deadly
Wine' is about 'outing', before that term hit the news; 'The Snares of
Death' deals with the High Church/Low Church divide, and related issues
of extremism and fundamentalism; the problems of a cathedral and its
battling personnel are detailed in 'Appointed to Die'; 'A Dead Man out of
Mind' focuses on the ordination of women; and 'Evil Angels Among Them'
explores the consequences of the Church's financial crisis. But it is the
characters that are important, and in this my books are very much in the
tradition of Barbara Pym. 'A bloodstained version of the world of Barbara
Pym' is the review quote I most treasure. She has been and remains the
most profound literary influence on my work.*
A life-changing experience (open-heart surgery) in 1996 triggered a
change of direction in my writing, as an idea came to me for a one-off suspense novel. That novel is Unruly Passions, still set within the background of the Church, and containing recognisably Kate Charles characters, but with a different sort of emphasis and form. Unruly Passions has now been followed by Strange Children and Cruel Habitations, and the next book, False Tongues, is in progress.
New Books by Kate Charles at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Kate Charles at Alibris.com
Lee Child
Echo Burning
Published October 2001 by ISIS at £19.99
Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P £2.50 or £3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Jeff Harding
Hitching rides is an unreliable mode of transport, but Jack Reacher’s adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and the last thing he’s worried about is exactly who picks him up.
He never expected it to be somebody like Carmen. She’s alone, driving a Cadillac. She’s beautiful, young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen observers. And a husband who is in jail.
Reacher is no stranger to trouble. And at Carmen’s remote ranch in Echo County there is plenty of it: lies and prejudice, hatred and murder. Reacher can never resist a lady in distress. Her family is hostile. The cops can’t be trusted. The lawyers won’t help. If Reacher can’t set things straight, who can?
Lee Child writes edgy American thrillers to rival the likes of Thomas Harris and John Grisham Mirror
Jeff Harding was born in Massachusetts, U.S.A.
He has worked extensively in television, with recent roles in The Fast Show and Trail of Guilt. Jeff also played Father Buzz Cagney in Father Ted. Jeff has appeared in feature films including Tomorrow Never Dies.
12 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 15 hrs 30 mins
About The Author
Lee Child was born in the industrial Midlands. He studied law, and worked for many years in commercial television. He has recently moved with his wife and daughter from Cumbria to New York State. His first two Reacher novels, Killing Floor and Die Trying, were both published by Bantam Press. Killing Floor was recently awarded the Anthony Award in America for the best first novel.
New Books by Lee Child at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Lee Child at Alibris.com
