Thriller and Spy Stories 2

Thriller and Spy Stories 2

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.

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 Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or email

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Thriller playhouse. 1999. Read by various narrators, 1 hour 30 minutes. TB 11967.

The best of the popular Radio 4 series Thriller Playhouse, introducing Simon Callow as Max Carrodos, the famous blind detective and Christopher Cazenove as Norman Conquest (alias 1066), the dashing desperado with a complete disregard for danger. Also starring Lionel Jeffries and Bonnie Langford. TB 11967.

Ablow, Keith

Psychopath. 2005. Read by Jeff Harding, 10 hours 8 minutes. TB 14118.

Forensic psychiatrist Frank Clevenger is tapped by the FBI to catch an elusive murderer known as the 'Highway Killer', who has left twelve bodies strewn across twelve states. Clevenger reluctantly accepts the case, but what he and the authorities cannot know is that the Highway Killer isn't just a serial killer - he is also a psychiatrist, whose brilliance as a doctor is matched only by his precision as a murderer. Contains strong language. TB 14118.

Adams, Will

The Alexander Cipher. 2008. Read by Nigel Carrington, 10 hours 43 minutes. TB 16085.

It's 318 BC in the deserts of Libya, and Alexander the Great is buried as only a God should be, placed in a golden Sarcophagus in a catacomb of chambers, each packed with diamonds, rubies and gold. This was how he should have remained, but time waits for no-one. 2007 and underwater archaeologist Daniel Knox has been on the trail of Alexander's Gold ever since he can remember. When a tomb is uncovered on the construction site of a new hotel, Daniel believes he has found the clue to what he has been working towards for years. But the discovery has alerted two of the most dangerous men in the world, and Daniel is now a marked man. TB 16085.

Allbeury, Ted

Deep purple. 1989. Read by George Hagan, 8 hours 33 minutes. TB 7620.

Two MI6 investigators who are interrogating Russian defectors, find themselves unravelling a web of conspiracy and treachery. A maze of deception surrounds the possibility of a serious threat to British security. The hero Hoggart increasingly probes and questions until he learns the awful truth. TB 7620.

Allbeury, Ted

Shadow of shadows. 1982. Read by Andrew Timothy, 8 hours 6 minutes. TB 4286.

As an ex-member of the Intelligence Corps, working on counter-intelligence duties during and after World War 2, Ted Allbeury is probably unsurpassed in bringing the shadowy world of counter-intelligence to life. Petrov is a KGB defector and he holds the secrets which link him to George Blake – the arch-spy who did more for the Russians than any other traitor. TB 4286.

Ambler, Eric

The Levanter. 1972. Read by Robert Gladwell, 9 hours 5 minutes. TB 2263.

An engineer of mixed parentage running a family business in the Middle East stumbles unexpectedly into one of the splinter Palestine guerrilla movements. Pitchforked into a terrifying jungle of extremists, he fights for survival against the terrorists' weapons of violence and intimidation. TB 2263.

Ambler, Eric

The light of day. 1953. Read by Anthony Parker, 9 hours 15 minutes. TB 568.

An Englishman making a living racketeering in Athens, is caught up in a dangerous network extending through Turkey and Italy. TB 568.

Anderson, Patrick

Sinister forces. 1987. Read by Ray Jones, 9 hours 49 minutes. TB 7358.

The Royal Marines taught Charlie to kill. Then the politicians sent him to fight a war on a freezing rock in the South Atlantic, and he vowed never again to risk his life for £40 per month. He went to America, and now, instead of killing for Madame Thatcher, he kills for Madame Masters. The USA elects an anti-nuclear president, and sinister forces are massing already to shackle him. They are led by Serena Masters. TB 7358.

Anthony, Evelyn

Bloodstones. 1994. Read by Sian Thomas, 12 hours 3 minutes. TB 10751.

The world's diamond industry is about to explode into anarchy. A new mine is yielding the most beautiful and rare stone in the world - the red diamond. Karakov, the greatest and wiliest jeweller the industry has ever seen, is about to sign an exclusive agreement with Moscow, thus destabilising the diamond trade. From all over the world, the directors of Diamond Enterprises try to stop him, but there is deceit and betrayal even within their own group... TB 10751.

Archer, Jeffrey

A prisoner of birth. 2008. Read by David Thorpe, 17 hours 27 minutes. TB 15907.

Danny Cartwright and Spencer Craig were born on different sides of the track. Danny, an East End Cockney, leaves Clement Attlee Comprehensive School at the age of 15 to take up a job at a local garage. He falls in love with Beth, the boss' daughter, and asks her to marry him. Spencer Craig resides in the West End. A graduate of an English public school and Cambridge University. After leaving university he becomes a criminal barrister and is soon tipped to be the youngest Queen's Counsel of his generation. Danny and Beth travel up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. They end the evening in a wine bar where Spencer Craig is also celebrating his 30th birthday, along with a select group of university chums. Their lives will never be the same again. For, an hour later, one of them is arrested for murder, while the other ends up as the Prosecution's chief witness in an Old Bailey trial. Contains strong language. TB 15907.

Bagley, Desmond

High citadel. 1965. Read by Anthony Parker, 12 hours 45 minutes. TB 1338.

Among the towering peaks of the Andes, a non-scheduled passenger plane is hijacked and forced down. The surviving passengers, stranded at 16,000 feet, embark on a perilous descent, only to find that they are trapped by a formidably-armed Communist force. The enemy is obviously intent on wiping them all out, and as the ill-assorted party realise the odds against them, two breath-taking stories unfold. TB 1338.

Bagley, Desmond

Landslide. 1967. Read by Alistair Maydon, 9 hours 55 minutes. TB 6897.

Bob Boyd has come to Fort Farrell, British Columbia, to carry out a geological survey for the powerful Matterson Corporation, engaged in building a dam. It is a short stay, just long enough for him to get a grubstake together and return to the North-West Territories. Then, like a bolt from an electric shock, he sees the name of the square – Triavant Park. In the ensuing manhunt, his warning that the entire community, as well as the dam, is in danger is ignored - to their peril. TB 6897.

Bailey, Paul

Old soldiers. 1980. Read by George Hagan, 3 hours 15 minutes. TB 3689.

Victor Harker, haunted by sixty-year-old nightmares of the Somme, finds a new friend in another old soldier, Captain Hal Standish. When Standish disappears, there appear, in turn, Tommy a toothless tramp, and a poet called Julian Borrow. But what connects them.....? TB 3689.

Baker, Keith

Reckoning. 2004. Read by Gerry O'Brien, 11 hours 52 minutes. TB 14699.

Ex-FBI agent Tom Gallagher is a man weighed down by the past - first a disastrous marriage, then the guilt of innocent deaths from a botched sting operation. Now he is hoping for a fresh start back in his native Ireland, where his estranged daughter Emma is an ambitious young politician. But a vengeful ghost is about to make an unexpected appearance, plunging him back into his worst nightmare. Contains violence. TB 14699.

Baldacci, David

Split second. 2003. Read by Merv Smith, 11 hours 4 minutes. TB 15206.

Sean King & Michelle Maxwell series; book 1. When something distracts Secret Agent Sean King for a split second, it costs him the life of a presidential candidate and his career. Eight years later, Secret Service member Michelle Maxwell receives a blow to her career. The two join forces, determined to uncover what has happened to them. TB 15206.

Baldacci, David

The camel club. 2006. Read by John Chancer, 16 hours 33 minutes. TB 15365.

Camel club series; book 1. Oliver Stone has no official past. His goal is to keep watch on Washington politics and expose corruption. But the stakes are raised when he and his friends, a group of conspiracy theory misfits known as the Camel Club, accidentally witness the murder of an intelligence analyst. TB 15365.

Banks, Carla

The forest of souls. 2005. Read by Jilly Bond, 13 hours 3 minutes. TB 14700.

A passion for history cost Helen Kovacs her life. Helen had told no one of her research; even her closest friend, Faith Lange, had no idea – until she began retracing the dead woman's steps. She is troubled, too, by the presence of Jake Denbigh, a journalist investigating her grandfather, a refugee from the Eastern front. Helen's murder, and its consequences, will take Jake and Faith on terrifying journeys: from the mass graves of the Kurapaty Forest to the heart of Faith's own family, where a tragic secret lies hidden. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 14700.

Barker, Pat

Border crossing. 2001. Read by James Wilby, 6 hours 54 minutes. TB 13498.

Tom Seymour is a child psychiatrist who has worked in the north of England for many years. One day, while walking by the river, he rescues a young man from drowning, and realises it's a child murderer at whose trial he gave flawed evidence.

TB 13498.

Barling, Tom

Terminate with prejudice. 1982. Read by David Sinclair, 6 hours 5 minutes. TB 4474.

The slippery labyrinths of British Intelligence, a Russian diversionary plot and a cabinet 'sleeper' from the background for and exploration into the psychological motivation of the professional assassin. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 4474.

Barlow, James

The patriots. 1960. Read by Robert Gladwell, 15 hours 59 minutes. TB 2074.

A manhunt and unforeseen consequences, follows a wages hold-up, planned by ex-paratroopers with all the skill learned during the war. TB 2074.

Beaty, David

Eagles. 1990. Read by William Roberts, 7 hours. TB 8840.

A North African dictatorship committed an act of aggression against the U.S. air base at Haddington. Rod Ryan, newly drafted ace pilot, attractive and confident of himself, is obsessed with emulating his father who died in Vietnam and was awarded for bravery. His obsession brings dangers to others and himself. TB 8840.

Beevor, Antony

The Faustian pact. 1983. Read by George Hagan, 7 hours 26 minutes. TB 4759.

The Prime Minister is kidnapped by Red Vanguard who demands the release of all political detainees in Northern Ireland. David Rayner, failed diplomat and now confined to a desk job, discovers that the West German intelligence computer has been sabotaged, but the politicians in Bonn and London have not been informed. Meanwhile inter-service rivalries are emerging and Rayner fears that the PM may be doomed through procrastination. TB 4759.

Bentley, Nicolas

The events of that week. 1972. Read by Robert Gladwell, 6 hours 26 minutes. TB 2108.

When a young English writer plans a quiet Sicilian holiday, the events of his week include an encounter with the Mafia, a kidnapping, drug-trafficking, and an unscheduled trip to Malta and Naples. TB 2108.

Bradby, Tom

The white Russian. 2003. Read by David Weatherly, 16 hours 27 minutes. TB 15266.

This thriller starts in St Petersburg in 1917 as the glittering Empire of the Tsars is on the brink of revolution. For investigator Sandro Ruzsky of the city police, this decaying world is his life. He finds himself investigating the murders of a young couple found frozen into a river and embroiled in a deadly conspiracy. Contains violence. TB 15266.

Bradley, James

The resurrectionist. 2008. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 9 hours 44 minutes. TB 16014.

This book is set in London, 1826. Leaving behind his father's tragic failures, Gabriel Swift arrives to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city's anatomists. It is his chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds himself drawn to his master's nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city's resurrectionists and ruler of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by Mr Poll, Gabriel descends into the violence and corruption of London's underworld, a place where everything and everyone is for sale, and where - as Gabriel discovers - the taking of a life is easier than it might seem. Contains violence. TB 16014.

Brady, Joan

Bleedout. 2005. Read by Stuart Milligan, 15 hours 8 minutes. TB 14378.

Hugh Freyl is a blind lawyer, scion of Illinois' most influential family. He recounts this story from the grave. David Marion is Freyl's protege and a young convicted killer whose release from prison Freyl has orchestrated. He now stands accused of Hugh Freyl's murder. None from Freyl's powerful inner circle will stand up for David's innocence. The perfect scapegoat for their misdoings, he alone bears the burden of proof. Contains strong language. TB 14378.

Braine, John

The pious agent. 1975. Read by Robert Gladwell, 10 hours 15 minutes. TB 2921.

Xavier Flynn, ruthless British secret agent, is a Catholic with an eye on his record in heaven, a keen eye for a woman, and a born survivor and hero for our times. TB 2921.

Bramah, Ernest

The mysteries of Max Carrados. Read by Simon Callow and Lionel Jeffries, 1 hour 28 minutes. TB 12044.