Martin Edwards has 14 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 16 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 2,090 ratings. The most-rated is Fifteen Dogs.
Fifteen Dogs
Summary
"I wonder," said Hermes, "what it would be like if animals had human intelligence." "I'll wager a year's servitude," answered Apollo, "that animals - any animal you like - would be even more unhappy than humans are if they were given human intelligence." And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old dog ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks. André Alexis' contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks.
©2015 André Alexis (P)2016 ECW Press
Skald: The Short Story Collection
Summary
Commissioned by Audible and written especially for audio format this collection brings together six crime stories through the themes of discovery, destination and arrival. Top narrators bring these gripping tales to life acknowledging the Scandinavian tradition of oral storytelling. In this collection Ben Okri and Martin Edwards explore 'discovery' in their stories; Sophie Hannah and Emma Dibdin each draw on 'destination' for their tales of painful pasts; and Elly Griffiths and Parker Bilal tackle the theme of 'arrival' in their stories. Skald is one of three short story collections written by our favourite best-selling novelists and emerging authors, and curated based on the themes of arrival, discovery and destination. Jali collates science fiction tales while Bard collates contemporary fiction. This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 6 episodes to your Library now.
©2018 Audible, Ltd. (P)2018 Audible, Ltd.
Qalea Drop
Summary
The UFS Phoenix embarks on a dangerous quest for the AI Ceephay Queen who rules at the heart of the Reeh Empire. For cover, Phoenix will use the enormous war being launched by the new rulers of the croma, Croma'Dokran, into reeh space. This war is intended in part to evacuate the corbi homeworld of Rando, thus righting a great wrong of croma history by rescuing 200 million corbi from reeh tyranny. While Lisbeth defies her parren seniors to use drysine and parren firepower in assisting the evacuation, Erik captains Phoenix, accompanied by Styx's four drysine warships, to the world of Eshir, where Styx insists the Ceephay Queen was once located. There, in the ancient, ruined city of Qalea, Trace and Styx must lead an away mission through buried layers of Reeh Empire history to uncover its long-forgotten secrets. Discovering the Ceephay Queen's present location could set them on the road to saving humanity. But Qalea's secrets have been hidden by the reeh for millennia, secrets that could rock their Empire, and they will stop at nothing to keep hidden.
©2020 Joel Shepherd (P)2020 Audible, Inc.
Howdunit!
Summary
Nominated for the 2021 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Critical/Biographical book. Ninety crime writers from the world’s oldest and most famous crime writing network give tips and insights into successful crime and thriller fiction. Howdunit! offers a fresh perspective on the craft of crime writing from leading exponents of the genre, past and present. The book offers invaluable advice to people interested in writing crime fiction, but it also provides a fascinating picture of the way that the best crime writers have honed their skills over the years. Its unique construction and content mean that it will appeal not only to would-be writers but also to crime fans. The principal contributors are current members of the legendary Detection Club, including Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Peter James, Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves, Andrew Taylor, Elly Griffiths, Sophie Hannah, Stella Duffy, Alexander McCall Smith, John Le Carré and many more. Interwoven with their contributions are shorter pieces by past Detection Club members ranging from G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr to Desmond Bagley and H. R. F. Keating. The book is dedicated to Len Deighton, who is celebrating 50 years as a Detection Club member and has also penned an essay for the book. The contributions are linked by short sections written by Martin Edwards, the current president of the Club and author of the award-winning The Golden Age of Murder.
©2020 Martin Edwards (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Mortmain Hall
Summary
'You died once...Tell me who arranged your resurrection, or before the day's out, you'll be dead and gone forever.' 1930. A chilling encounter on London's Necropolis Railway leads to murder. At the Old Bailey, a man accused of a 'blazing car' killing escapes the gallows after a surprise witness gives sensational evidence. And journalist Jacob Flint finds himself framed for murder. To save himself, Jacob needs to discover what links these strange events to a remote estate on a northern coast, Mortmain Hall. At Mortmain Hall, an eccentric female criminologist hosts a gathering of people who have narrowly escaped the consequences of miscarriages of justice. But the house party culminates in tragedy when a body is found beneath the crumbling cliffs. Is the death an accident or the result of an ingenious plot to get away with murder? An eclectic mix of suspects and victims includes a radical publisher risen from the grave, a fake medium with a sinister past and a cricketer mauled to death by an escaped lion. Jacob sets out to uncover the labyrinthine secrets of Mortmain Hall, alongside a woman whose relentless quest for the truth might just bring down the British establishment.... Who can we turn to, if justice betrays us?
©2020 Martin Edwards (P)2020 W F Howes
Gallows Court
Summary
London, 1930. A headless corpse; an apparent suicide in a locked room; a man burned alive during an illusionist's show in front of thousands of people. Scotland Yard is baffled by the sequence of ghastly murders unfolding across the city, and at the centre of it all is mysterious heiress Rachel Savernake. Daughter of a grand judge, Rachel is as glamorous as she is elusive. Jacob Flint, a tenacious young journalist eager to cover the gruesome crimes, is drawn into Rachel's glittering world of wealth and power. But as the body count continues to rise, Jacob is convinced Rachel is harbouring a dark secret, and he soon becomes part of a dangerous game that could leave him dancing at the end of the hangman's rope if he pursues the truth.
©2018 Martin Edwards (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd
The Golden Age of Murder
Summary
A real-life detective story, investigating how Agatha Christie and colleagues in a mysterious literary club transformed crime fiction, writing books casting new light on unsolved murders whilst hiding clues to their authors' darkest secrets. This is the first book about the Detection Club, the world's most famous and most mysterious social network of crime writers. Drawing on years of in-depth research, it reveals the astonishing story of how members such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers reinvented detective fiction. Detective stories from the so-called "Golden Age" between the wars are often dismissed as cosily conventional. Nothing could be further from the truth: some explore forensic pathology and shocking serial murders, others delve into police brutality and miscarriages of justice; occasionally the innocent are hanged, or murderers get away scot-free. Their authors faced up to the Slump and the rise of Hitler during years of economic misery and political upheaval, and wrote books agonising over guilt and innocence, good and evil, and explored whether killing a fellow human being was ever justified. Though the stories included no graphic sex scenes, sexual passions of all kinds seethed just beneath the surface. Attracting feminists, gay and lesbian writers, Socialists and Marxist sympathisers, the Detection Club authors were young, ambitious, and at the cutting edge of popular culture - some had sex lives as bizarre as their mystery plots. Fascinated by real life crimes, they cracked unsolved cases and threw down challenges to Scotland Yard, using their fiction to take revenge on people who hurt them, to conduct covert relationships, and even as an outlet for homicidal fantasy. Their books anticipated not only CSI, Jack Reacher, and Gone Girl, but also Lord of the Flies.
©2015 Martin Edwards (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
The Serpent Pool
Summary
The Lake District's cold case specialist, DCI Hannah Scarlett, is determined to uncover the truth behind Bethany Friend's apparent suicide in the Serpent Pool. Why would Bethany, so afraid of water, drown herself? Hannah fears that her partner, bookseller Marc Amos, is keeping dark secrets. Does he hold the key to Bethany's past - and why was his best customer burnt to death in an Ullswater boathouse? Hannah still carries a torch for Daniel Kind, who is researching Thomas De Quincey and the history of murder. Once Daniel and Hannah suspect connections between Bethany's drowning and a current sequence of killings, death comes dangerously close to home.
©2010 Martin Edwards (P)2010 Soundings
The Arsenic Labyrinth
Summary
Historian Daniel Kind is finding winter at Brackdale tough, especially as his relationship with Miranda is also going through a dark time. Far from the bright lights of London, and with renovations behind schedule, Miranda has itchy feet. The fear that she may just get up and leave isn't far from Daniel's thoughts. She wouldn't be the first: years ago, the solitary Emma Beswick left her cottage and never came back, her disappearance never resolved. But someone keeps calling the local newspaper and dropping hints about her death. With the case re-opened, DCI Hannah Scarlett and Daniel discover that one person will preserve the secrets of the past, whatever the cost.
©2007 Martin Edwards (P)2007 Soundings
Deep Waters
Summary
The stories in this collection will dredge up delight in crime fiction fans, as watery graves claim unsuspecting victims on the sands of an estuary and disembodied whispers penetrate the sleeping quarters of a ship's captain. This British Library anthology collects the best mysteries set on choppy seas, along snaking rivers and even in the supposed safety of a swimming pool, including stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, C. S. Forester, Phyllis Bentley and R. Austin Freeman.
©2019 Martin Edwards (P)2020 Soundings
The Christmas Card Crime
Summary
A Christmas party is punctuated by a gunshot under a policeman’s watchful eye. A jewel heist is planned amidst the glitz and glamour of Oxford Street’s Christmas shopping. And lost in a snowstorm, a man finds a motive for murder....
This collection of mysteries explores the darker side of the festive season, from unexplained disturbances in the fresh snow to the darkness that lurks beneath the sparkling decorations. With neglected stories by John Bude and E. C. R. Lorac, as well as tales by little-known writers of crime fiction, Martin Edwards blends the cosy atmosphere of the fireside story with a chill to match the temperature outside. This is a gripping seasonal collection sure to delight mystery fans.
©2018 Martin Edwards (P)2018 Soundings
The Frozen Shroud
Summary
Death has come twice to Ravenbank, a remote community in England’s Lake District, each time on Halloween. Just before the First World War, a young woman’s corpse was found, with a makeshift shroud frozen to her battered face. Her ghost - the Faceless Woman - is said to walk through Ravenbank on Halloween. Five years ago, another woman, Shenagh Moss, was murdered, and again her face was covered to hide her injuries. Daniel Kind, a specialist in the history of murder, becomes fascinated by the old cases and wonders whether the obvious suspects really did commit the crimes. He spends Halloween at a party in Ravenbank - only to find death returning to this beautiful but isolated spot. Once more, the victim is a woman; once more her damaged face is shrouded from view.
©2013 Martin Edwards (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Hanging Wood
Summary
When Orla Payne was seven years old, her brother, Callum, mysteriously vanished from the Hanging Wood in the Lake District. Shrouded in complicated family matters and with no clear leads, the case was eventually dismissed. His body was never found. Twenty years of frustration and depression later, Orla is desperate to find out the truth. On historian Daniel Kind's recommendation, she contacts Cold Case Review detective Hannah Scarlett, who sets about seeking justice for brother and sister.
©2011 Martin Edwards (P)2011 Soundings
The Dungeon House
Summary
Twenty years ago, Malcolm Whiteley discovers his attractive wife, Lysette, is having an affair. The Whiteleys are wealthy and live with their 16-year-old daughter, Amber, in the magnificent Dungeon House. When Lysette tells Malcolm their marriage is over, he snaps and takes out the old rifle he has been hiding.... Back to the present day, and Hannah Scarlett's cold case team are looking into the disappearance of Lily Elstone, whose father was Malcolm Whiteley's accountant. Their investigation coincides with the disappearance of another teenage girl, Shona Whiteley, daughter of Malcolm's nephew, Nigel. As Hannah's team dig down into the past, doubts arise about what exactly happened at the Dungeon House 20 years ago....
©2015 Martin Edwards (P)2015 Soundings