Audio Books « Tales From the Landing Book Shelves

I have previously written about my audio crime habit that livens up my rather tedious bus journeys into work. Well, I am here to tell you that both the audio and the crime bit are still going strong as part of my travel routine (that’s just as well as bus travel has been more than woeful in the last couple of weeks). Lately, I have been listening to a mixture of new-to-me authors as well as an old timer. And of course, I continue in my time-honoured habit of beginning any new series in the wrong place (in other words anywhere but at the beginning). My excuse is that I tend to pick up whatever catches my eye in the library, so that I often fail to get the titles in chronological order. Or at least, I don’t often have the patience to make a reservation from an author’s backlist so that I can ‘begin at the very beginning’ as Julie Andrews once so cheerfully sang.

I was particularly pleased finally to get around to Ray Celestin and his City Blues Quartet. Naturally, I inadvertently began at the end; but hey, at least I know who does and who does not end up dead by the final episode (never fear, I won’t plot spoil). The last in the series is called Sunset Swing (2021) and is set in Los Angeles, Christmas 1967. The story features three recuring characters, retired private eye Ida Young; mafia fixer Dante Sanfelippo and the one and only Louis Armstrong. The city itself is a stunning character in its own right. Now I have to go back to the beginning at some point and see how it all began (Chicago, 1919 was the time and place) as I enjoyed this book so much. As always with an audio book, the narration is very important and can make or break an audio version of a novel; Christopher Ragland did a really good job.

Again, true to tradition I picked up Peter May’s The Lewis Man (2011) which is the second in the trilogy set on the Isle of Lewis (though I have spotted that a fourth book came out in 2024, so surely this is now actually a quartet whether originally intended or not). This is a murder mystery which begins with the discovery of a body in a bog where seasonal peat cutting is taking place. For me, the bog body was the hook, having long been fascinated by the discoveries explored in the National Museum of Ireland. Perhaps not surprisingly, in this story the body turns out to be much more modern than that; an Elvis tattoo was a dead giveaway on that score. Reading the (well, listening to) descriptions of the landscape of the Outer Hebridean islands made me really want to visit, despite, or perhaps because of the bleakness. At some point I will probably read the rest of the series, especially as I became quite invested into two of the main characters, Fin Macleod and Marsaili MacDonald.

Then for something completely different, I listened to Why Shoot a Butler? By Georgette Heyer (1933) a blast from my reading past as It has been quite a while since I last read any of GH’s novels, whether historical or detective. I started with her Regency romances as a teenager and then found my way to her contemporary crime novels later. In this novel the butler is the murder victim as opposed to the trope of ‘the butler did it.’ But of course, there had to be a motive for killing an apparently harmless servant. What is it? This is one of those Golden Age of crime plots where gifted amateur detective, barrister Frank Amberley runs rings around the rural police force. This probably isn’t my favourite GH crime novel, but still an entertaining listen with some very funny lines. If you have read her Regency novels you will be able to spot the character types that she has transposed to the contemporary setting.

Sadly, not everything that I want to listen to is available in the Playaway MP3 unit format (see picture) which Is the audio version I favour for being out and about (or should I say, for being confined to public transport on wet mornings). Which, in a way is handy as I am likely to pick up something that I might not otherwise choose, if I find in a catalogue search that my first choice isn’t available in that edition. What I would love is if some of the British Library crime reprints were produced in the MP3 format. Now that woould make me a very happy bus traveller!

It is probably time to browse the library shelves again…

Cover of Anthony Horow.itz novel The Word is Murder — *Crime on the commute*

I noted in the last blog post that I was listening to The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (ably read by Rory Kinnear) on my commute. My daily dose of audio book listening has become a travel fixture since December, after I followed a colleague’s suggestion to give them a try. As I said before, I have been using the handy little mp3 editions from the library. The audio book listening has been a useful tool in adapting to an unaccustomed bus/train commute; one that started in the unforgiving winter months, which certainly didn’t add a cheer factor to the tedious bus wrangling. I may have mentioned once or twice here, my penchant for crime fiction, so I keep an eye out for new (or indeed, old) ideas that appear in audio format. It is entirely possible, that having discovered the joys of audio books, I will increase my intake of crime novels considerably. Would that be such a bad thing? Don’t answer that one.

Crime has certainly become the genre of choice for my travelling books over the last couple of months. I have however, tried a couple of other ideas. For instance, I have long taken an interest in Bertie Pollock’s daily trials in Alexander McCall Smith’s Scotland Street books, so I tried one out as a commuting book. Alas, it was too easy going, calm and philosphical to suit my journey to work. Maybe it would have suited my homeward trip better? Perhaps I should try a touch of crime in the morning and catch up on Scotland Street on the homeward ride. Having said that, the rush hour frustrations of the evening commute might be better suited to the distractions of a juicy crime novel… It’s a work in progress, as they say. I also ventured to listen to Helen MacDonald’s Vesper Flights a few weeks ago, but for me it didn’t work as a bus book. That is a book that I will return to in print form as I think it is really one to be savoured at leisure, making notes of anything I want to follow up on.

Cover of the Christopher Fowler Bryant & May story, The Burning Man. — *London crime*

Of course, maybe the detective audio fiction urge will prove to be just a winter thing. Fragrant spring mornings and sultry summer evenings may well encourage quite different listening habits. Let’s wait and see, shall we? For now, I am generally pursuing a criminal course each morning and evening, which has led to my introduction to some new crime writers. One of those is the above-mentioned Anthony Horowitz, who has long been a name that I passed while shelving adult fiction A-M. I always meant at some point to give his adult fiction a go but I never got around to him. I’m not that sure that he’d appreciate that my impetus for doing so was that I needed something lively to distract me from interminable road works.

I have also discovered Christopher Fowler’s detectives Arthur Bryant and John May from The Peculiar Crimes Unit in the adventure, The Burning Man (read by Tim Goodman). Not for the first time in lighting on a new discovery, I have begun well into the series so at some point I need to back track to the earlier books. I really enjoyed this story, both the main characters being agreeably quirky in the chalk and cheese vein. The wealth of historical detail about London’s layers of history is woven into the detective action in a way that brings London vividly to life, as Bryant is a veritable fount of information about the city he loves. I will certainly read more of this series (not necessarily in order of course!)

Now all I need is a steady supply of AAA batteries to fuel my travelling crime fest. And maybe I should treat myself to some decent headphones. Does anyone else relish a good audio book on the bus?