Pat Herbert has 10 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 3★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is The Bockhampton Road Murders.
The Bockhampton Road Murders
Summary
Sometimes we’re not alone.... What is the secret behind the brutal murders that have taken place sporadically over the last century in a small, insignificant South London terraced house? The Reverend Bernard Paltoquet is determined to find out when two of his favorite parishioners are found with their heads caved in in front of the ornate Victorian fireplace by their five-year-old son, Henry Freeman. This fireplace seems to be the key to the puzzle. Despite years of neglect, the living room hearth is always spotlessly clean, like the day it was installed. Why? This novel centers around the Reverend Paltoquet and his search for the truth. The other chief protagonist is Edith Lomax, an unhappily married doctor’s wife, who resides in 57 Bockhampton Road, where the first murders take place back in 1896. This triple murder of a man and two children sets in train the series of murders that are to follow. The search for the truth, which involves another six murders by the same fireplace in the same room in the same house following on from the first murders, culminates in the present day with an exorcism that doesn’t work. We discover that there are many restless spirits trapped in the house, forced to remain by the violence of their deaths, and unable to communicate with the living world until a medium helps to set them free. Reverend Paltoquet’s close friend, Dorothy Plunkett, is that medium. He calls on her to help these spirits to their final rest, and this is when we learn the truth behind the murders and the real perpetrator of the crimes. Titles in the Reverend Paltoquet Mystery Series include: The Bockhampton Road Murders Haunted Christmas The Possession of November Jones The Witches of Wandsworth So Long at the Fair The Man Who Was Death The Dark Side of the Mirror
©2014 Pat Herbert (P)2016 Pat Herbert
The Man Who Was Death
Summary
Sometimes, the only enemy a man has is his own.... Jed Parks, Bernard Paltoquet’s new gardener, has an unusual psychic gift: He can see people’s auras. A black aura is a death sentence. He also has a guilty secret. Having helped to cover up two murders, he lives in fear his past will come back to haunt him. Thus, when Lady Mountjoy, his former employer and lover, turns up telling him he is the father of her son, he is torn between his old life and his new. Bernard and his friend Robbie become involved in Jed’s plight, but they are powerless to prevent the tragedy which follows....
©2020 Pat Herbert (P)2020 Pat Herbert
The Possession of November Jones
Summary
The Reverend Bernard Paltoquet and Dr. Robbie MacTavish, together with their mutual friend, medium and clairvoyant Dorothy Plunkett, are drawn into the lives of a family whose tragic story is traced back to violent events that took place back in the London of 1887. November (Nova) Jones, a pretty but troubled 20-year-old, enters the lives of Robbie and Bernard in the winter of 1962 when she seeks medical advice from the former and spiritual guidance from the latter. An unlikely bond develops between Bernard and Nova, which sees the meek vicar of the parish of St Stephen's the unlikely object of desire by two females, the other being his old friend Dorothy. Against this backdrop enters an old lady looking for her roots, a quest that unites her with a cousin she never knew she had and a close friend she only meets a few months before that friend dies. Another important player in this story is a rather unsavory character called Ted who is also searching for his roots, as well as for a grandchild he has never met. The story begins back in late Victorian London with the fortunes of two young prostitutes who share the house of a well-to-do toff, Edward Moreland, who goes around saving fallen women. The trouble is both these women have babies - one by his brother Charles, and the other by Edward himself. These complications unravel in a dramatic way which leads, eventually, to the denouement of the story in 1962. November Jones eventually learns why she is being possessed by a spirit in the big house in Wandsworth she shares with her boyfriend and two other couples, and how this links to the past history of the house and the eventual uncovering of events that took place there nearly 100 years ago. Meanwhile Bernard Paltoquet dithers between the two women who wish to become part of his life and finally gets what he deserves.
©2014 Pat Herbert (P)2016 Pat Herbert
The Dark Side of the Mirror
Summary
Twins run in families, or so it has been known. The Fentiman family have their fair share of twins, past and present. Robespierre and Danton Fentiman, identical in appearance, but not in personality, were hanged for two different murders back in 1937. Their ghosts appear to Robespierre's twin sons, Carl and Basil, nearly 20 years later, asserting that their convictions were wrong and asking them to rectify two miscarriages of justice. Carl asks his local vicar, Bernard Paltoquet of St Stephen's Church, Wandsworth, for help and he in turn seeks the help of an experienced clairvoyant. His close friend, Dorothy Plunkett, is still away in Exeter looking after her ailing father, so she sends him Anbolin Amery-Judge in her stead. What follows is the unravelling of two 20-year-old mysteries, culminating in wrongs being righted, with many a misunderstanding along the way. Bernard's friend, Dr Robbie MacTavish, is along for the ride, although he is distracted by a romantic entanglement with a much younger woman, much to the disapproval of the Reverend Paltoquet. Meanwhile Mrs Harper, Bernard's faithful housekeeper, keeps her beady eye on both men, ever ready with a caustic comment or a fondant fancy, as occasion demands. Listeners who have heard and enjoyed other novels in this series will easily recognise the characters and their foibles as they take the journey with them through the twists and turns of a plot that moves backwards and forwards from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s.
©2017 Pat Herbert (P)2017 Pat Herbert
The Corpse Wore Red
Summary
The ninth novel in the Reverend Bernard Paltoquet series finds the doughty Wandsworth vicar involved in another psychic mystery, along with his close friend and associate, Dr. Robbie MacTavish and his old medium friend, Anbolin Amery-Judge. This time, it concerns the murder of a young, pregnant woman, Alice Troy, and the subsequent conviction of Howard Drake, one of Bernard's parishioners, for the crime. All the ingredients in the other novels in the series are here: haunted graves, quirky characters, dark deeds, misunderstandings, and cozy cups of tea by roaring firesides. The action of the story takes place within a two-year period in the late 1950s, alternating between the events during a long, hot summer leading up to the murder and subsequent trial of the accused and the dark winter days before he is due to be hanged. Will there be a reprieve before it is too late?
©2016 Pat Herbert (P)2017 Pat Herbert
Sleeping with the Dead
Summary
Just what happened to two young women who disappeared from a small Blackpool guest house just after the First World War? Their fate has remained a mystery for many years, despite attempts by the husband of the first woman and the prospective husband of the second to find out. Fast forward to the 1950s. Reverend Bernard Paltoquet and his friend Dr. Robbie MacTavish arrive at the same guest house for a fortnight's holiday. Their summer break, however, proves very far from restful - Robbie is spooked in the night and Bernard is perpetually bombarded by letters from his redoubtable housekeeper, Mrs. Harper.
©2017 Pat Herbert (P)2017 Pat Herbert
Seeing Double
Summary
A story of murder and ghostly hauntings in a cozy 1950s England that is no more. When a mysterious middle-aged woman moves in next door to St. Stephen's vicarage, she is immediately taken under the wing of Nancy Harper, the Reverend Bernard Paltoquet's redoubtable housekeeper. As the relationship between the two women develops, however, "Mrs. Aitch" begins to entertain suspicions that her new neighbor is not all she seems. Bernard and his friend Dr. Robbie MacTavish also begin to think she has a dark secret. Another stranger to the world of the St. Stephen's vicar comes in the shape of a freakish little man with strange powers which he uses to help Bernard and his friends with their various problems. Other complications ensue, culminating in the brutal slaying of a man on the eve of his wedding and an Old Bailey murder trial. But is the verdict safe?
©2016 Pat Herbert (P)2017 Pat Herbert
The Man Who Was Death
Summary
Dave Allison is a man with a secret, several secrets, none of them pleasant. The year is 1968. The Reverend Paltoquet takes on the handsome Dave as his gardener to tend the graveyard as well as the vicarage gardens, and very soon he has the female population in a tizzy, not least among them the vicar's usually imperturbable housekeeper, Mrs. Harper. To outward appearances, he has everything going for him, but there is a dark side to his character. He has the ability to see people's auras, and whenever he sees a black one around a person's head, he knows that person will die. Four years prior to working for the vicar of St. Stephen's in the borough of Wandsworth, he was employed as gardener to Lord and Lady Mountjoy at Mountjoy Court in a small Kent village. Following the demise of the lord of the manor in suspicious circumstances and the equally suspicious death of Lady Mountjoy's lover, Paul Brierley, Dave is forced to leave and pick up any odd jobs he can to survive. So, with his new family, he sets up home in Tooting and is soon working in and around the area, and this is when he comes to the attention of Bernard Paltoquet who is looking to replace his old gardener who is well past retirement age. Dave is popular everywhere he goes, especially with the women, but he is a married man now with a little boy on whom he dotes. But back into his life comes Lady Mountjoy and with her his sordid past rears its ugly head. Dr. Robbie MacTavish, Bernard's close friend, falls for the charms of Lady Mountjoy when she appears on the scene, unaware that she is a cold-blooded killer. Slowly the story of Dave and Lady Mountjoy unravels, culminating in both getting their just desserts.
©2017 Pat Herbert (P)2017 Pat Herbert
The Dark Side of the Mirror
Summary
Twins sometimes run in families; in the Fentimans’ case, they positively stampede. In 1937, Robert Fentiman is hanged for the murder of a barmaid. Twenty years later his ghost claims his innocence, and Rev Bernard Paltoquet is called on to help clear his name by the dead man’s son, Carl. As Bernard and his pal Robbie begin their investigations, by a cruel twist of fate, another barmaid is murdered, who turns out to be the daughter of the first barmaid. And, by another twist of fate, Carl Fentiman is the main suspect. A professional medium, with an unconventional use for a crystal ball, is called in to help solve both crimes, but she is as baffled as Bernard and Robbie. Meanwhile Bernard’s housekeeper, Mrs Aitch, has deserted the vicarage for a mysterious suitor...
©2020 Pat Herbert (P)2021 Pat Herbert
The Witches of Wandsworth
Summary
What links the murder of 17-year-old Helen Carstairs in 1954 to the murder, over 30 years earlier, of Private Rodney Purbright? The tragic story of two sisters, one pretty, one plain, is key to both murders. The Rowan sisters are bound together by a secret they must keep, and their reclusive behavior plants suspicion in the minds of their neighbors, who regard them as "witches". Dispensing herbal remedies and keeping a mangy black cat add to their air of mystery and seem to bear out the rumors. It doesn’t take the police long to arrest and charge Helen’s father of her murder. Henry Carstairs is also accused of incest by her best friend and of being the father of his daughter’s unborn baby. According to Inspector Craddock, it is an open-and-shut case, specially when the murder weapon turns out to have Carstairs’ fingerprints on it. But things are never as simple as they seem in the world of Reverend Bernard Paltoquet and his friend Dr. Robbie MacTavish who, although taking a backseat in this novel, are watching events unfold with interest and have theories of their own.
©2018 Pat Herbert (P)2019 Pat Herbert