maeve_the_red

Audiobook narrated by Matt Addis.

October 1143. Hugh Bradecote and Serjeant Catchpoll along with apprentice Walkeling are sent by the Lord Sheriff of Worcestershire to investigate theft of salt wagons on the road from Wich (now Droitwich) , and the murder of all the packmen. A mysterious archer leaves no one alive, his deadly aim making sure that there are no witnesses. Unfortunately Lord FitzPayne is in the wrong place at the wrong time and is also killed, his (distinctive) horse and good quality sword stolen. Bradecote, Catchpoll and Walkelin are based at FitzPayne's hall where his angry and vengeful widow, Christina, is recovering from losing the child she was carrying. The clues are scant. The mysterious archer makes his kills and melts back into the forest. There are rumours that he's a ghost. The investigation is hindered by FitzPayne's cousin who has designs on Christina and the manor, and by the reeve of Wich who is worrird about losing his place. The is was Christina's second marriage - her first having been truly horrendous, and though she didn't love FitzPayne she liked him. Bradecote, hinself recenently widowed and left with a baby boy, is drswn to Christina and a love story develops alongside the whodunnit. Eventually, thanks to Christina, there's a breakthrough and all is resolved. Matt Addis is an excellent narratore for this series. He's unobtrusive, letting the story stand forward of the narrative, yest at the same time he voiced the characters well, especially the Worcestershire voices. I like this series a lot, though I confess to reading them out of order as they become available.

jacey

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.

jacey

Audiobook narrated by Kate Rawson.

This is the ninth instalment of the Crow Investigations series featuring Lydia Crow who - in previous books - has gone from being a lone private detective living in a flat above a greasy-spoon cafe with a resident ghost (Jason) to ousting wicked Uncle Charlie and taking his place as head of the Crow (slightly magical) crime family in their particular 'manor' in London. The family members are somewhat perturbed that her boyfriend, Fleet, is a copper. In this book. In the previous book Lydia lost some of her Crow powers and she's struggling to keep control (of herself and the family), and Fleet is also struggling at work, since his bosses are just as sceptical of his choice of girlfriend as the family is about Lydia's choice of boyfriend. Lydia's previous home burned down in the previous book and she's now living in Uncle Charlie's very nice house, but she doesn't feel comfortable there. A series of murders lands on bith Lydia's and Fleet's doorsteps. There are links to Jack the Ripper, except the victims are male. Paul Fox Lydia's one-time boyfriend and now head of the rival Fox (magical) crime family, looms quite large in this book. There is still some residual attraction, but Lydia doesn't trust him. Murders to be solved, families to be sorted. There's a lot in this book, but I'm not sure it moves the whole series story on. Kate Rawson narrates it in her usual slightly breathy little-girl-voice, which seems to work for Lydia, but I'm glad these books are fairly short.

jacey

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

jacey

Audiobook narrated by Chris Devon.

Adam Catchpole is a science fiction author whose book sales are slipping. He’s in financial difficulties and spiralling into depression. His agent suggests writing in a different genre, and the popular market trends are spicy romances and Christmas stories. Though he hates Christmas, he reluctantly starts a novel. An odd incident involving a dance and drama school, sets him off reconnecting with the world and he find that as soon as he opens himself up to new experiences and new people, he starts to rebuild himself. There’s also a childhood backstory which reveals why Adam hates Christmas. His own story is that of a Christmas novel – slightly schmaltzy and feel-good. A cosy story, if you’re in the mood. Chris Devon reads it very well. I’m not sure if his accent is Manx (which is where the book is set) but it’s definitely an accent, and the book is all the better for it.

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Reading

Booklog 24/26: Sarah Hawkswood: Marked to Die – Bradecote and Catchpoll #3 – Audiobook

Booklog 23/26: Janet Brooks: The Whisky Widow – Audiobook

Booklog 22/26: Sarah Painter: The Guilded Nest – Crow Investigations #9 – Audiobook

Booklog 21/26: Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog – Oxford Time Travel #3

Booklog 20/26: J.C. Williams: A Reluctant Christmas Novel – Audiobook

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August 2017

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