Listen to Best Sellers Audiobooks in Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

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Title: Dark Music

Author: Janis Susan May

Narrator: Karen Savage

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-13

Publisher: Vinspire Publishing

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A blizzard, romance writers and murder. Elizabeth MacAllister thought she had more to deal with than she could handle. Then Jared Granville showed up and Elizabeth knew her past had returned to haunt her. She couldn't run away any longer. Not even to save her own life.

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

a good read!

Interesting Read

Going to a writers' conference shouldn't turn out like a mystery novel. But sometimes, life is far more interesting than fiction. That's the case for Elizabeth MacAllister. As one of the big selling authors for her publisher, much to her protests, Elizabeth has been signed up to lead a workshop at the conference. Who knew that only being there could land her into so much trouble and mayhem?

With the author's vivid description, the first few pages played like a movie scene in my mind. However, there were a few confusing parts as the story jumped from the present to the heroine's flashbacks. While on the way to her destination, the reader is pulled from the current scene into bits and pieces of how and why the heroine was going to the conference. And that took away from the current scene in the story. But things got better once inside the hotel.

I liked Elizabeth. Janis Susan May wrote this in the first person point of view, which had its good points and not so good points. First person provided an opportunity to be in depth into Elizabeth's thoughts. But I would have liked to have read the story from another point of view, as well. In the beginning, Ms. May portrayed Elizabeth to be a bit of a follower. She seemed to be pulled in many directions in her life, meaning she wasn't entirely sure of what she wants, and too many people in her life pressured her to do such and such. But by the end of the book, she comes to terms with her past, and makes up her mind. And while the story's main focus is not the romance, there was a romantic interest involved. A man from Elizabeth's past, Jared.

The mystery in this book was full force. Each secondary character were both quirky and mysterious and, when the deaths began, each person became a suspect. I never figured out who the killer was and what a shock at the end when that answer was finally revealed. It was a typical old-fashioned who-done-it mystery where the leading character always managed to find herself in the midst of trouble. The ending wrapped up the conflict and I didn't feel as if any questions were left unanswered. Overall I found it to be a very enjoyable story.

If you like a cozy mystery setup, then settle under a warm blanket with Dark Music.

ORiginally posted at the Long and Short of It Romance Reviews

An enjoyable read

Can romance be found at Romance Writers Conference? Or is murder the order for the day?

Elizabeth McAllister shows up to a remote Canadian hotel where the Romance Writers' Conference is being held. She didn't really want to be part of the conference but her publisher talked her into by signing her up as one of the guest speakers. Then the unthinkable happens: a freak blizzard in late April. Luckily for the writers not many conference attendees have signed in since the first day or so is reserved for each group to have meetings as luncheons and to discuss business tactics.

Most of the conference speakers and guest writers have already checked in. The first night an author is murdered. Liz is the one to discover the body. Paranoia sets in and everyone is trying to get in on whodunit.

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Title: Double Crossing

Author: Meg Mims

Narrator: Samuel Fleming

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-19-13

Publisher: Stephanie Griffin

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

WINNER of the 2012 BEST FIRST NOVEL Spur Award from Western Writers of America!!

A murder arranged as a suicide...a missing deed...and a bereft daughter whose sheltered world is shattered.

August, 1869: Lily Granville is stunned by her father's murder. Only one other person knows about a valuable California gold mine deed - both are now missing. Lily heads west on the newly opened transcontinental railroad, determined to track the killer. She soon realizes she is no longer the hunter but the prey.

As things progress from bad to worse, Lily is uncertain who to trust - the China-bound missionary who wants to marry her, or the wandering Texan who offers to protect her...for a price. Will Lily survive the journey and unexpected betrayal?

Members Reviews:

A trip to remember

Lily's father dies by bad man's hand that starts a journey cross country to meet up with her uncle. Her Aunt sweeps in for the funeral and lily overhears her planning to send her to a sanitarium as she is so depressed about her father. A title for her fathers and uncles mine is missing and everyone is looking for it. Lily jumps on a train to see her uncle in California where the mine is and her aunt and uncle end up on the same train. You need to read this book to learn of all the things that are put in Lily's way to meet her Uncle. This story kept me up late in the night to reach the conclusion of this tale

Murder and mystery on the transcontinental railroad

The authorities are convinced Lily Granville's wealthy father committed suicide; she's equally convinced he was murdered as part of a scheme to obtain control of a California gold mine. Accompanied by a missionary who intends to overcome her misgivings and marry her, the strong-willed socialite embarks on a cross-country quest to find her uncle and the mine's missing deed. Deceitful relatives, the late tycoon's attorney, and a rowdy Texan drifter -- along with nearly everyone else Lily meets as she wends her way westward on the new transcontinental railroad -- could be friend or foe. Dare she trust anyone?

Double Crossing won the 2012 Spur Award for best first novel, and with good reason. The level of historical detail is astonishing, but author Meg Mims establishes such a seamless atmosphere that the tale never bogs down under the weight of what must have been mountains of research. If for no other reason, the story is entrancing for the virtual experience of riding the rails in 1869.

But there are plenty of other reasons to enjoy Double Crossing. With very few stumbles, Mims creates believable suspense by constantly shifting suspicion from one character to another, until everyone in sight looks guilty. In fact, almost everyone is guilty of something, though perhaps not what readers might suspect at first glance. Agatha Christie, eat your heart out: Double Crossing is Murder on the Orient Express with western-genre sensibilities and without Hercule Poirot's pompous interference.

Read this book. The history lesson is enjoyable, the characters are mesmerizing, and the twists and turns in the plot are more than worth the price of a Pullman ticket.

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Title: Jitterbug

Subtitle: Detroit Crime, Book 6

Author: Loren D. Estleman

Narrator: Garrick Hagon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-01-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A tough town in a tough time: Detroit, during World War II, where the U.S. furiously tried to out-manufacture the Germans and Japanese. Industry imported workers to replace men gone to war - Southern whites and blacks working side by side for the first time. Through this tense, troubled world cuts a killer, a self-appointed soldier savaging ordinary people, the defenseless.

Lieutenant Zagrebs most important job is to keep the city from exploding, but his job doesnt stop there. He must catch a mad killer with a cop roster of 4-Fs and near-retirees and he has to save his own soul. But, he cant succeed at all three.

Members Reviews:

Grim, gritty story of crime in wartime Detroit

Chapter One puts us in the head of a unnamed serial killer. Opening line:

"When he stood outside himself - as he did most of the time, being an authentic objective - he compared himself to a housecat: ordinary, invisible, the most efficient hunter in civilization."

It's 1943 and World War II is in full swing. The "hunter" is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic by an army psychiatrist who stamps his file 4-F. The rejected young man promptly makes up his own war service story and wears an Army Air Corps uniform "left in the closet of his last furnished room by the former tenant."

We follow the hunter as he stalks his victim after seeing her in the butcher shop with a fistful of ration coupons. To get inside her house, he convinces her he's selling magazines, with half of the $2 subscription price going to the war effort. So far, so good.

In Chapter Two, we meet Sgt. Canal and Lt. Zagreb who are in a festering part of town to roust a pimp. Part of a cop force made up of 4-Fs and near-retirees, Canal and Zagreb are half of Detroit's Racket Squad. Zagreb's mother is from Bulgaria. Canal is Ukrainian. Estleman writes: "He could lift a good-size man six inches off the floor by the throat one-handed and turn an experienced defense attorney into a sputtering maniac during cross-examination."

Canal and Zagreb show up in the midst of interrogation of a man accused of selling black market tires. He's brutalized for two hours, with a couple of cops wanting to throw him out a window, until Zagreb, a practical man, says: "I've been with the department since I got out of knickers. I haven't killed anyone yet. I'm not going to do it over a ... set of tires." While the suspect is being put into a cab for delivery to his home, Canal and Zagreb get a call from another detail wanting help with the killing of a woman for her ration stamps.

Advisory: Chapter Two gave me pause, even though I grew up during those years. Estleman is true to the time and place, but this chapter is profane, brutal and racist. I was glad to see it end. If you're apt to be bothered by it, you might want to skip this book. However, you'll miss a different kind of war story and a chilling crime story, expertly told.

In 1943 police departments are dealing with a daily call-up of cops. At the murder scene of the woman killed for ration stamps, one cop says to Lt. Zagreb, "All of Stationary Traffic shipped out last week.

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Title: Seattle Sleuth

Author: Alexandra MacKenzie

Narrator: John Hourigan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-16-13

Publisher: Rhemalda Publishing

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

1921: A war lies behind him...a new battle lies ahead.

Philip Shaw is a Great War veteran and widower struggling to put his life back together. He grasps at a chance to make a difference by investigating the death of a newspaper editor - did the man die in an accidental fire? Or was it murder?

Shaw joins forces with fiery crime reporter Ray Taylor to dig into police corruption, a rivalry between a powerful shipbuilder and a sly politician, and the seedy world of Seattle's wide-open red-light district. Will they find the answers in the speakeasies, among the rum-runners on the waterfront, or at the mansions of the rich? Before they can solve the mystery, level-headed Phil Shaw and hot-tempered Ray Taylor will have to learn to work together - without killing each other first!

Members Reviews:

UHHHGGG!!

Would you be willing to try another one of John Hourigans performances?

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Any additional comments?

I haven't the slightest idea if this book is any good or not. I just know the narration was the worst I've ever heard.

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Title: A Christmas Visitor

Author: Anne Perry

Narrator: Terrence Hardiman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

It is mid-December and Henry Rathbone travels to the Dreghorn family manor house near Ullswater. But despite the festive season and the beautiful surroundings, this is not a happy occasion; he is going to comfort the family following the death of his friend, the master of the house. It seems that Judah Dreghorn slipped while crossing a stream in the grounds of the estate in the middle of the night, and drowned. And, when Henry arrives, he finds that there is more than a widow's grief to contend with....

Members Reviews:

Disappointing

I have read a lot of Anne Perry books and I've enjoyed most of them, but I was disappointed by this book. The story was unsatisfactory, too much character and not much plot. The ending was ridiculous, it was so contrived that it was totally unbelievable.

Terrence Hardiman is a good narrator and the story was well read.

excellent

Excellent in every way.this was first class in every, a story of feeling, tops excellent srory well told, worth being late to bed. thanks.

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Title: Streets of Fire

Author: Thomas H. Cook

Narrator: Mel Foster

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-17-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The grave on the football field is shallow, and easy to spot from a distance. It would have been found sooner, had most of the residents in the black half of Birmingham not been downtown, marching, singing, and being arrested alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. Police detective Ben Wellman is among them when he gets the call about the fresh grave.

Under the loosely packed dirt, he finds a young black girl, her innocence taken and her life along with it. His sergeant orders Wellman to investigate, but instructs him not to try too hard. In the summer of 1963, Birmingham is tense enough without a manhunt for the killers of a black child. Wellman digs for the truth in spite of skepticism from the black community and scorn from his fellow officers. What he finds is a secret that men from both sides of town would prefer stayed buried.

Members Reviews:

A dramatic new look behind a moment in history

What did you love best about Streets of Fire?

It's fast-paced, complex, and imaginative: a vivid look at people from many backgrounds caught up in the events of civil-rights-era Birmingham.

What did you like best about this story?

Each character has a specific point of view - intensely three-dimensional, unpredictable. The way all events draw to an unexpected conclusion kept me focused on the story from start to finish.

What about Mel Fosters performance did you like?

Very intense and compelling. Fosters explores nuances of personality, accent, attitude and background that give most of the characters a sense of dimension.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Nobody cared why a little girl was murdered. Now one man will discover the truth... a truth that could change history.

Any additional comments?

Well done, Mr. Cook and Mr. Foster.

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Title: The Candle Man

Author: Alex Scarrow

Narrator: Robert G. Slade

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-12

Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

1912: Locked in an eerily quiet dining room on the Titanic, a mysterious man tells a young girl his life story as the ship begins to sink. It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888....

In the small hours of the night in a darkened Whitechapel alley, young Mary Kelly stumbles upon a seriously injured man almost unconscious in the gutter. Two days later, an American gentleman wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of who he is or how he got there.

Back in 1912, as the Titanic begins its final shuddering descent, the truth behind a series of murders that have hung like a dark fog over London for more than two decades is about to be revealed....

Members Reviews:

Unputdownable

Where does The Candle Man rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

This is one of the most absorbing novels I have heard in a long time. I would rank this very highly.

What other book might you compare The Candle Man to, and why?

Any books with stories revolving around London circa 1888 & Jack the Ripper.

What does Robert G. Slade bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you had only read the book?

Extraordinary way of combining the historical events of 1888 & 1912.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The narration between the two characters on the Titanic especially at the end.

Any additional comments?

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fantasy written around true facts from history, particularly if you are into Jack the Ripper or the Titanic disaster. Just bear in mind this is a fiction novel which enfolds the true facts that are known about both events but is a fascinating listen. Very highly rated 5 stars all round.

Excellent!

I loved this book! The story is gripping (especially towards the end) and I was very keen to listen to it for hours on end!

I do not want to spoil the story for you, so I will be brief. It's a Jack the Ripper tale. Well it's a kind of Jack the Ripper tale - and once you have listened to it you will understand that statement :-)

You will not be disappointed with this book at all - or if you are, just get audible customer services to re-credit you, but something tells me that you wont need too!

I will be seeking more from this author!

Excellent,dark and well paced. A must read!

It's not often I'm blown away and scared by a novel and this book does both. Set mostly during Jack the Rippers murderous reign and seen from a purely fictitious angle - well from who Jack is anyway - the story moves along at a fair pace.

It's dark and gory as it should be as it's set in a dark and gory time and the author managed to scare me on many occasions. I usually read/listen before bed but not with this one. My imagination took me to those dark, unlit, blood soaked Victorian streets.

The narrator gives the characters a voice although, and this is nit picking, Marys voice did grate once or twice but that aside I would listen to him again.

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Title: The Baghdad Railway Club

Subtitle: Jim Stringer, Steam Detective, Book 8

Author: Andrew Martin

Narrator: Richard Burnip

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-12

Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Baghdad, 1917: Captain Jim Stringer has been dispatched to investigate what looks like a case of treason. He arrives to find his cover blown - his contact dead. The Baghdad heat alone threatens the lives of the British soldiers who occupy the city. But the recently ejected Turks are still a danger - and the local Arabs are none too friendly, either. Aside from his investigation, Jim is working on the railways around the city. His boss, Lieutenant-Colonel Shepherd, presides over the dining society called The Baghdad Railway Club. Jim's search for the truth brings him up against murderous violence as enemies wait around every corner.

Members Reviews:

Great Series Continues

Jim Stringer goes overseas again, this time to the Middle East, and winds up in the middle of the Mesopotamian Campaign. As a (mostly) non-reader of crime fiction, I've made an exception for Andrew Martin, and once again, this latest offering is replete with appealing characters, vivid atmosphere, and unusually literary writing. The historical context, while interesting, is more than a little confusing (Arabs vs. Turks vs. Germans vs. British) but that really does not distract from the main story. I wonder: where is Jim going next?

(Unfortunately, published only in the UK. I ordered a 'new' copy from a UK reseller on amazon).

Spy novel fans beware

Andrew Martin is known in the U.K. for his novels about a railway detective in the heyday of Britain's railway age. With the 'Baghdad Railway Club' he expands this genre to foreign parts--namely the Mideast (Iraq) during the First World war (incidentally, I was disappointed that Lawrence of Arabia didn't feature in a cameo).

Historically, this is a fascinating and credible story. But an espionage thriller it is not--even though the protagonist is sent to Baghdad by an embryonic outfit that later became MI6. Billed as a spy novel is a bit of publisher's hype. Also, the story is told in the first person--and by a relatively unschooled narrator. The prose sometimes jars because of this. But this is a niggly criticism and the novel successfully evokes the climate and milieu of a stiflingly hot Baghdad occupied by the Brits and threatened with bombardment and invasion by the Ottoman Turks.

A place in the sun

Jim certainly gets in the wars: he contracts malaria this time. This story has a Gertrude Bell-esque aspect with a key character involved in the formation of Arab states after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Once again Andrew Martin has moulded a good detective story around places and characters normally out of the ken the lead character. It is in step with a region with the times in which we now live.

The Baghdad Railway Club Review

I am a Jim Stringer fan and so enjoy the quips both spoken and unspoken. Pretty good who dunnit as well.

OK read if you (like me) are interested in railways.

Despite a rather weak story line, this is a moderately enjoyable read. This is a sequel to his book, The Somme Railway, that really held my interest.

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Title: Death Trap

Subtitle: A Kate O'Donnell Mystery, Book 2

Author: Patricia Hall

Narrator: Juile Maisey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-01-12

Publisher: Soundings

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

With Beatlemania having finally reached the capital, its an exciting time to be in London. Especially for young photographer Kate ODonnell, who left her native Liverpool six months previously to share a dilapidated flat with two girlfriends in trendy Notting Hill. When a prostitute is found murdered off the Portobello Road a West Indian immigrant is arrested, inflaming the districts simmering racial tension to breaking point. The accused is Nelson Mackintosh, the father of one of Kates flatmate Tesss pupils. Convinced of Nelsons innocence, Kate determines to track down the real killer. But when her activities attract the attention of notorious West Indian gangster King Devine, not even Kates old sparring partner DS Harry Barnard can ensure her safety.

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Title: Gallows Thief

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Narrator: James Frain

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-27-12

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Britain, 1820s: After the wars with France, when unemployment was high and soldiers could be paid off, when the government was desperately afraid of social unrest, any crime was drastically punished and thousands were hung. But one could petition the King and an investigation might ensue.

The man in the dark cell in Newgate Prison was due to hang in a week. He had been found guilty of murdering the aristocrat whose portrait he was painting. He claimed to be innocent but then the hangman had never hung a guilty man, he said. But even in 1820, the Home Secretary could occasionally use his powers to grant mercy if his investigator found cause, and Captain Hawke, once of the First Foot Guards, is given the job, since justice must be seen to be done - as the accused man's mother is seamstress to the Queen.

Robert Hawke, a hero of Waterloo, has family debts to repay but when his first steps in the investigations produce a sizeable bribe to look the other way, this only arouses his smouldering anger over the condition of England, a country which he and others in Wellington's army had fought to preserve. Stepping between gentlemen's clubs and taverns, talking to aristocrats, fashionable painters, their models, and their mistresses, dodging professional cut-throats and deceptive swordsmen, Hawke uncovers a conspiracy of silence, a group whose proudest boast was that they would do anything for any one of them.

Hawke is a wonderful character, as yet undaunted by the sleazy streets, dank jails or the looming scaffold, and uncorrupted by politicians, sneering gentlemen or frightening bruisers, an investigator in the making and a brilliant, but very different, hero for all Bernard Cornwell fans.

Critic Reviews:

"What a very fine writer Mr Cornwell has become." (The Economist)

Members Reviews:

OK but could have been better

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I had read other books by Bernard Cornwell but in my opinion this is not the best.

If youve listened to books by Bernard Cornwell before, how does this one compare?

I only read other books by Bernard Cornwell, maybe it is the period of this book that made it different as I only read medieval type of story from the author and it was much better. Or maybe the problem is in the abridge version which is the first time I opt for that,

Have you listened to any of James Frains other performances? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to other books narrated by James Frain but he does a great job with this. Apart the woman's voice, it was painful to listen but the other voices he is excellent.

Could you see Gallows Thief being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

James Frain :-)