All the Reviews

Another full version, narrated by Nigel Planer, this was 7 hours and 63 minutes of listening to how books and stuff aren't the point, it's all about real wizarding.Read review

Third in the Dan Forrester series, we're into classic thriller mode now with this series. Heaps of action, a fast moving, multi threaded plot, this one creates a partnership quickly between Forrester and ongoing series character Lucy Davies that works well. Again we have a couple of main threads, a supposed suicide and a seemingly natural death that turn out to be murder, with a very personal connection to Forrester. 

In a nutshell KNOW ME NOW is a better outing than the second, but not quite to the heights of the first novel in the series. To be fair, a lot of the ... Read review

Dan Forrester and Lucy Davies return in the second novel in this series: TELL ME A LIE. It's hard to say that these novels must or must not be read in sequence, or if there's enough leeway for readers to start anywhere. There is a bit of back story in this second outing that should help fill in the gaps for new readers, but those returning to the series may notice the obviously similar structure deployed in both novels. Again we have seemingly disparate story-lines converging, pulling the two main characters into a collaborative relationship, although in TELL ME A LIE that happens ... Read review

There's something about the accents of some narrators that just make things so easy to listen to and David Monteath is doing a terrific job with the DCI Jim Daley series. There's enough wry, dry humour here, alongside some reasonably gritty plot lines to keep the reader engaged, although the series does have a hefty dose of the personal as well if you're a fan of that sort of thing. Daley has a complicated sort of a lovelife with a wife he doesn't exactly trust, a new position in a small Scottish town (introduced in book 1 in the series: Whisky From Small Glasses) and a ... Read review

Anybody paying attention might have noticed I've been revisiting a lot of favourite series in audible format recently. Lots of time in the car = lots of listening time and local radio is now so dire it's been the perfect kick in the pants to go back and re-listen to many favourite series. A lot of the enjoyment depends on the narrator and Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs doing the full-form novels, and Tony Robinson doing some of the abridged versions are firm favourites. If you've never listened to the Discworld series (or even read them) then in audible format they are perfect ... Read review

I'm going to start this review in an odd way, by declaring that I didn't like Jane Harper's second book FORCE OF NATURE as much as I had been expecting to. Initially I thought this was because it read like an idea that Aaron Falk had been hammered into it later on, weakening the plot, motivations and sense of place to the point where they seemed to sort of float along to an inevitable ending. Having now finished Harper's third (non-Falk book) THE LOST MAN, the reasons are clearer.

Harper is at her best when she's writing about people at the absolute and utter edge and THE ... Read review

Plan for the best, expect the worst, note the exit points.

Good bit of general life advice this, although at the time Wyatt is standing, motionless, waiting for any signs his entry into the house he's about to rob has been noticed. Perhaps not a recommended scenario for the rest of us. Mind you, Wyatt doesn't get noticed that often, and even when people think they know who he is, pinning him down will always prove more difficult than they could possibly imagine. Even going home is an exercise in watching for Wyatt:

... Read review

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’

Winston Churchill

There are some writers who you’d like to read but just never seem to get around to. Until I’d read Transcription, in my case Kate Atkinson was one of those authors. For crime/mystery fans Kate Atkinson wrote the Jackson Brodie novels which were adapted for television as Case Histories with Jason Issacs in the lead role. Having enjoyed Case Histories, I’d planned to read the Jackson Brodie novels but just never did. Even with ... Read review

Following on from Terry Smythe's Denny Day Mark Tedeschi QC picks up the story of the aftermath of the Myall Creek Massacre, concentrating on events and the participants around the trial of the perpetrators of the massacre of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children in 1838 in northern New South Wales.

The cover of the book refers to it as the "trial that defined a nation" and it's hard not to agree 100% with that statement. Whilst it could be said that the book concentrates considerably more on the outcomes and surrounding civil changes that occurred at the time of the trial ... Read review