Historical Crime 2015
Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service. If it is indicated that a title is part of a series, we may have more books in the series and you may like to request them in series order.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or .
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For any further help in selecting books please contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 5333 or email .
Ackroyd, Peter. Chatterton. 2006. TB15035.
In this novel Peter Ackroyd investigates the death of Thomas Chatterton,the eighteenth-century poet-forger and genius, who died at the tender ageof eighteen under extremely strange circumstances. Fusing themes ofillusion and imagination, delusion and dreams, the author weaves strandsfrom three centuries. The cast is a motley crew of Dickensian eccentricsand rogues, from the outrageous, gin-sipping Harriet Scrope to the tragicCharles Wychwood, on a personal quest for Chatterton's deepest secrets.Read by James Wilby. 10 hours 11 minutes.TB15035.
Adair, Gilbert. The act of Roger Murgatroyd. 2006. TB14924.
Boxing Day, 1935. A snowed-in manor on the very edge of Dartmoor. A Christmas house party. And overhead, in the attic, the dead body of Raymond Gentry, gossip columnist and blackmailer, shot through the heart. But the attic door is locked from the inside, its sole window is traversed by thick iron bars and, naturally, there is no sign of a murderer or a murder weapon.
Read by Glen McCready. 8 hours. TB14924.
Akunin, Boris. The winter queen. c2003. TB13773.
Erast Fandorin series; book 1. This book features Erast Fandorin, a gentleman sleuth who solves murders and mysteries in tsarist Russia. Moscow 1876 - a young law student commits suicide in broad daylight in Moscow's AlexanderGardens. But this is no ordinary death, for the young man was the son of an influential industrialist and has left a considerable fortune. Erast Fandorin, a hotheaded new recruit to the Criminal Investigation Department, is assigned to the case. Brilliant, young, and sophisticated, Fandorin embarks on an investigation that will take him from the palatial mansions of Moscow to the seedy backstreets of London in his hunt for the conspirators behind this mysterious death. Contains strong language.
Read by Steve Hodson. 10 hours 14 minutes.TB13773.
Akunin, Boris. Murder on the Leviathan. 2004. TB13884.
Erast Fandorin series; book 2. Sequel to: The winter queen, TB13773. An English eccentric and collector is found murdered in his Paris housetogether with nine members of his staff. A gold whale in the victim's handleads Erast Fandorin to board the Leviathan, the world's largeststeamship, as the murderer is one of the 142 first class passengers.Commissioner Gauche of the French police has narrowed down the suspects to ten, and they are forced to eat together at every meal time in the ship'sWindsor Suite until 'the Crime of the Century' is solved. But is themurderer really at the table, and can Erast Fandorin discover his or heridentity before Gauche? As more passengers are murdered and the Leviathan heads towards Calcutta, Fandorin needs all his investigative skills to find the truth.
Read by Steve Hodson. 10 hours 29 minutes.TB13884.
Akunin, Boris. Turkish gambit. 2004. TB14069.
Erast Fandorin series; book 3. The Russo-Turkish war is at a critical juncture, and Erast Fandorin, broken-hearted and disillusioned has gone to the front in an attempt to forget his sorrows. Captured by the Turks, he wins his freedom in a game of backgammon, before finding himself the unlikely rescuer of Varvara Suvorova - a 'progressive' Russian woman trying to make her way to the Russian headquarters to join her fiance. Fandorin's efforts to steer clearof affairs of state are thwarted when a traitor is discovered within theRussian camp. Within days, Varvara's fiance has been accused of treason, aTurkish victory looms on the horizon, and there are rumours that one ofLady Astair's Azazel orphans may be making his own bid for power. Fandorinwill need to resurrect all of his dormant powers of detection if he is tounmask the traitor, help the Russians to victory and smooth the path ofyoung love.
Read by Steve Hodson. 9 hours 5 minutes. TB14069.
Akunin, Boris. Pelagia and the white bulldog. 2006. TB14855.
Sister Pelagia series; book 1. Sister Pelagia: bespectacled, freckled, red-haired, woefully clumsy and constantly and knitting, teaches gymnastics and literature - and in her spare time solves crimes. A prized white bulldog has been poisoned, and the Bishop of Zavolzhsk sends Pelagia to investigate the bulldog's death as a favour for his aunt.
Read by Jilly Bond. 10 hours 56 minutes. TB14855.
Anderson, James. The affair of the bloodstained egg cosy. 2008. TB16975.
Inspector Wilkins; book 1. The theft of the diamond necklace and the antique pistols might all be explained, but the body in the lake was a puzzle. Inspector Wilkins is called in but it's going to take some intricate sleuthing to uncover who killed whom and why.
Read by Cornelius Garrett. 8 hours 15 minutes.TB16975.
Anderson, James. The affair of the mutilated mink. 2008. TB17232.
Inspector Wilkins; book 2. The Earl of Burford throws a party in his stately home. Guests include a fading movie star, his producer, an Italian actress, a writer, a painter and an athlete. A murder takes place in the night, and Inspector Wilkins is called in to investigate. Read by Cornelius Garret., 9 hours 40 minutes. TB17232.
Ashton, David. Shadow of the serpent. 2011. TB22038.
Inspector McLevy mystery;book 1.It's 1880 and thecity is gripped by election fever. Butwhile the rich and educated argueabout politics, in the dank wynds ofthe city it's a struggle just to stayalive, especially when a murderousmadman seems to have resurfaced after30 years. Inspector McLevy is luredinto a world of politics, perversion,deception and mystery and into theshadow of the serpent.
Read by Crawford Logan.8hours 40 minutes. TB22038.
Ashton, David. Fall from grace. 2008. TB22039.
Inspector McLevy mystery;book 2.Revolving around the Tay BridgeDisaster, this story begins with abreak-in and murder at the Edinburghhome of Sir Thomas Bouch, theenigmatic, egotistical builder of theTay Bridge. McLevy is brought in toinvestigate. With the help of brothelmadam Jean Brash, McLevy finds themurderer, but there is much, much moreto unfold.
Read by Crawford Logan.10hours 10 minutes. TB22039.
Ashton, David. A trick of the light. 2011. TB22251.
Inspector McLevy mystery;book 3.A Trick of the Light sees InspectorMcLevy team up with Arthur Conan Doyleto pursue a ruthless killer. It is1860 and a Confederate officer,Jonathan Sinclair, arrives inEdinburgh with a sheaf of money topurchase a blockade-runner fromClydeside shipbuilders. He is betrayedto the Union forces and is shot deadby their secret agents. Who are theyand where is Sinclair's money?Meanwhile, a beautiful young Americanspiritualist, Sophia Adler, is thetoast of upper-class Edinburgh withher dramatic seances. However, shecould yet prove to be the deadliestwoman McLevy and Conan Doyle will everencounter.
Read by Crawford Logan. 11hours 31 minutes. TB22251.
Ashton, David. Nor will he sleep. 2013. TB22252.
Inspector McLevy mystery;book 4.1887. The streets of Edinburgh seethewith youthful anarchy as two rivalgangs of students, Scarlet Runners andWhite Devils, try to outdo each otherin wild exploits. After a pitchedbattle between them, an old woman isfound savagely battered to death inLeith Harbour. Enter Inspector JamesMcLevy, a little more grizzled, butunchanging in his fierce desire tomete out justice. As the inspectordelves further he meets up with oneRobert Louis Stevenson, in the city tobury his recently deceased father.
Read by Crawford Logan.10hours 25 minutes. TB22252.
Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. 1996. TB11011.
Sixteen years have passed since Grace was locked up, at the age ofsixteen, for the cold-blooded murders of her employer Mr Thomas Kinnearand his housekeeper/lover Nancy Montgomery. Her alleged accomplice in thecrimes, James McDermot, paid the extreme sentence of the law and washanged on November 21, 1843. But some thought Grace was innocent, and hersentence has been commuted to life imprisonment. After a spell in theLunatic Asylum, it has been decided that she is neither mad nor dangerous,although she now claims to have no memory of the murders.
Read by Anne White. 19 hours 9 minutes.TB11011.
Bennett, Ronan. Havoc, in its third year. 2005. TB14326.
England, 1630s: an unsettled country in turbulent times. John Brigge is the local coroner, a respected man who wants nothing more than to work hisfarm and be with his wife, now expecting their first child. But when he iscalled to investigate Katherine Shay, suspected of killing her baby,Brigge finds himself caught up in a vicious power struggle as the Puritanfaction demand her execution. Contains violence.
Read by Nick Rawlinson. 9 hours 12 minutes.TB14326.
Bradby, Tom. Blood money. 2009. TB17241.
It was New York, 1929. Joe Quinn's first case is one that could put his name up in lights; a banker takes a dive from a tall building onto Wall Street. All the signs point to murder. Pretty soon, the dead man has company; a group of old buddies is being eliminated, in a particularly gruesome manner. For the young detective a case that starts as an opportunity swiftly becomes a nightmare from which he cannot escape. Joe Quinn is about to discover just how tough being an honest cop in a dishonest world can be.Contains strong language.
Read by William Roberts. 11 hours 55 minutes.TB17241.
Bradby, Tom. The master of rain. 2007. TB16281.
The brutal murder of a Russian woman drags English policeman Richard Fielddeep into tumultuous, corruption-ridden Shanghai in 1926 as heinvestigates the expatriate community. Contains violence.
Read by Steven Pacey. 15 hours 40 minutes.TB16281.
Bradley, Alan. The sweetness at the bottom of the pie: a Flavia de Lucemystery. 2009. TB17054.
Flavia de Luce; book 1. 1950. For nearly eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on the doorstep of Buckshaw was a marvellous mystery - especially since this particular snipe had a rather rare stamp neatly impaled on its beak. Soon Flavia discovers something even more shocking in the cucumber patch and it's clear that the snipe was a bird of very ill omen indeed. As the police descend on Buckshaw, Flavia decides it is up to her to piece together the clues and solve the puzzle. Who was the man she heard her father arguing with? What was the snipe doing in England at all? Who or what is the Ulster Avenger?
Read by Annabel Bates. 11 hours 7 minutes. TB17054.
Bradley, Alan. The weed that strings the hangman's bag. 2011. TB20351.
Flavia de Luce mystery; Book 2. Aboard her trusty bicycle "Gladys" the young sleuth/aspiring chemist is off on another adventure but this time it gets very dark and dangerous after a famous puppeteer puts on a show in the village hall and a murder ensues. TB20351.
Read by Olivia Mace. 10 hours 31 minutes.TB20351.
Bramah, Ernest. 12 cases for Max Carrados. 2010. TB22291.
The twelve earliest Max Carradosmystery stories (first published inthe UK in 1913) are collected here. Carrados, a blind detective, was intelligent, resourceful,and used his highly-developed sensesto track down criminals, often in aidof his friend, the private detectiveMr. Carlyle.
Read by Christopher Oxford.12hours 57 minutes.TB22291.
Brandreth, Gyles Daubeney. Oscar Wilde and the candlelight murders. 2008. TB16977.
The Oscar Wilde mysteries; book 1. London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conan Doyle he sets out to solve the crime - but it is Wilde's unparalleled access to all degrees of late Victorian life, from society drawing rooms and the bohemian demi-monde to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in their investigation of what turns out to be a series of brutal killings.
Read by Bill Wallis. 10 hours 27 minutes.TB16977.
Bretherick, Diana. City of devils. 2013.TB20882.
1887. James Murray, a Scottish scientist fascinated by the developingresearch into the study of criminal behaviour, travels to Turin to beapprenticed to Cesare Lombroso, the world-renowned criminologist. But justhours after his introduction to his new mentor, the discovery of amutilated body in a public square and a note that appears to implicateLombroso throws his visit in a whole new direction.
Read by Jonathan Oliver. 15 hours 16 minutes.TB20882.
Brown, Molly. Invitation to a funeral: a tale of Restoration intrigue. 1995. TB11682.
In 17th Century London, spy turned playwright Aphra Behn must turn a no-hoper into a successful leading actress. This is not her only problem,however, and the deaths of two brothers, one in her privy, turn out to belinked to the discovery of a secret document which could result in civilwar.
Read by Patricia Jones. 9 hours 40 minutes.TB11682.
Carr, Caleb. The Italian secretary: a further adventure of Sherlock Holmes. 2005. TB14377.
Mycroft Holmes, charged with ensuring the personal safety of Queen Victoria, calls on his brother for help when a number of attempts have been made on her life and when two unexplained deaths occur amongst thestaff at her Scottish residencies. Accompanied by Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes goes north by train, examining the few facts Mycroft has been able to cryptically supply. To Watson's bafflement he is sure there is a linkbetween these deaths and the murder in the old royal apartments at Holyrood of the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots: a killing which left a bloodstain that daily refreshes itself and in a room where voices can be heard in the darkest hours of the night. Can Holmes's extraordinarydeductive powers solve the historical crime as well as the contemporary one?
Read by Robbie McNab. 7 hours. TB14377.
Carr, Carol K. India Black. 2014. TB22010.
Madam of espionage mystery;book 1.In the winter of 1876, the beautifulyoung madam India Black is busy asusual: keeping her tarts in line andavoiding the police. But when SirArchibald Latham of the War Officedies of a heart attack while visitingher brothel, India is thrust into adeadly game between Russian andBritish agents who are seeking themilitary secrets Latham carried. India finds herselfdodging Russian agents, seducing spiesand embarking on midnight sleigh rides, not to mention ignoring theattraction she starts to feel for herhandsome and exasperating British co-conspirator.
Read by Julie Stark.9hours 45 minutes. TB22010.
Clark, Cassandra. Hangman blind. 2009. TB17238.
Abbess of Meaux mystery; book 1. Set in Yorkshire in 1382, a time of unease and turmoil following the failed Peasants Revolt and the killing of Wat Tyler and John Ball. Hildegard is a rich widow who has taken the veil in the Cistercian priory of Swyne and is seeking a suitable grange for her new institution. Hoping to obtain a gift of such premises, she goes to Castle Hutton. Roger, the lord of Hutton, and his fifth wife Melisen make her welcome, but there are numerous family problems. It is Christmas and the revelries are disrupted by various incidents involving a death. Contains strong language.
Read by Julia Barrie. 13 hours 3 minutes.TB17238.
Clark, Cassandra. The law of angels. 2011. TB19956.
Abbess of Meaux mystery; book 3. Summer, 1384: John of Gaunt refuses to step aside for his ward, the boy king Richard II, and heretics roam the land. In addition portents show that the end of days is imminent. Can Hildegard save the day?
Read by Maggie Mash. 16 hours 29 minutes. TB19956.
Clark, Cassandra. A parliament of spies. 2012. TB20310.
Abbess of Meaux series; book 4. Hildegard of Meaux is accompanying the Archbishop of York to London for the opening of parliament, but while packing to leave, the Archbishop's saucier is found brutally murdered. The journey from York to London is fraught with more deadly surprises.
Read by Andrew Cullum. 11 hours 7 minutes. TB20310.
Clark, Cassandra. The dragon of Handale. 2015. TB21943.
Abbess of Meaux mystery;book 5.Set in the 14th century, Hildegard, nolonger a member of the Cistercianorder of nuns, struggles to decide whether to rejoin the Order and the Prioresssuggests that a visit to HandalePriory might help provide some clarity. While walking about the grounds,Hildegard discovers the corpse of ayoung man in the morgue. His woundsappear to be the ravages of claws, butlarger than any animal Hildegard knowsof. Despite being warned against it,she goes for a walk in the woods. There she discovers a secret tower,locked and barred, with armed men onguard. Hildegard risks all dangers toseek out the truth.
Read by Katie Pattinson.9hours 54 minutes. TB21943.
Colitto, Alfredo. Inquisition. 2011. TB21867.
In 14th-centuryItaly, Mondino is a universityanatomist, a man of science in a landgoverned by the brutal Inquisition.But the corpse brought to Mondino'slaboratory one stormy night defiesnatural law: The victim is a Templarknight, and his heart has beentransformed into a block of iron. Isit alchemy? Or the diabolical work ofan ingenious killer? Mondino must outwit bothruthless Inquisitors and vengefulTemplars if he's to stop a murdererwho threatens to shake the veryfoundations of Christendom.