Jane McDowell has narrated 50 audiobooks on Listento.it by 25 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 3,158 ratings. The most-rated is City of Girls.
City of Girls
Summary
An Instant New York Times Best Seller! From the number-one best-selling author of Eat Pray Love and The Signature of All Things, a delicious novel of glamour, sex, and adventure, about a young woman discovering that you don't have to be a good girl to be a good person. "A spellbinding novel about love, freedom, and finding your own happiness." (PopSugar) "Intimate and richly sensual, razzle-dazzle with a hint of danger." (USA Today) "Pairs well with a cocktail...or two." (TheSkimm) "Life is both fleeting and dangerous, and there is no point in denying yourself pleasure, or being anything other than what you are." Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, 19-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves - and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it. It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest. Now 89 years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life - and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it. "At some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time", she muses. "After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is." Written with a powerful wisdom about human desire and connection, City of Girls is a love story like no other.
©2019 Elizabeth Gilbert (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Out of Your Mind
Summary
In order to come to your senses, Alan Watts often said, you sometimes need to go out of your mind. Perhaps more than any other teacher in the West, this celebrated author, former Anglican priest, and self-described spiritual entertainer was responsible for igniting the passion of countless wisdom seekers to the spiritual and philosophical delights of Asia and India. Now, with Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives, you are invited to immerse yourself in 12 of this legendary thinker's pinnacle teaching sessions about how to break through the limits of the rational mind and begin expanding your awareness and appreciation for the Great Game unfolding all around us. Whether you're completely new to Alan Watts or familiar with his work, here is a rare opportunity to experience him at his best, improvising brilliantly before a live audience on Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives.
©2005 Alan Watts (P)2005 Alan Watts
The Crossing Places
Summary
When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, Ruth Galloway lectures at the University of North Norfolk. She lives happily alone in a remote place called Saltmarsh overlooking the North Sea and, for company; she has her cats Flint and Sparky, and Radio 4. When a child's bones are found in the marshes near an ancient site that Ruth worked on ten years earlier, Ruth is asked to date them. The bones turn out to be two thousand years old, and DCI Harry Nelson, who called on Ruth for help, is disappointed. He'd hoped they would be the bones of a child called Lucy who's been missing for ten years; he's been getting letters about her ever since. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives more letters. Soon it becomes clear that Ruth is in grave danger from a killer who knows that her expert knowledge is being used to help the police with their enquiries.
©2009 Elly Griffiths (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Girl in the Letter
Summary
Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Kathryn Hughes, this gripping novel of long-buried secrets will stay with you for ever. A heartbreaking letter. A girl locked away. A mystery to be solved. 1956. When Ivy Jenkins falls pregnant she is sent in disgrace to St Margaret's, a dark, brooding house for unmarried mothers. Her baby is adopted against her will. Ivy will never leave. Present day. Samantha Harper is a journalist desperate for a break. When she stumbles on a letter from the past, the contents shock and move her. The letter is from a young mother, begging to be rescued from St Margaret's. Before it is too late. Sam is pulled into the tragic story and discovers a spate of unexplained deaths surrounding the woman and her child. With St Margaret's set for demolition, Sam has only hours to piece together a 60-year-old mystery before the truth, which lies disturbingly close to home, is lost for ever.... Read her letter. Remember her story....
©2018 Emily Gunnis (P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
The Janus Stone
Summary
Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway is called in to investigate when builders, demolishing a large old house in Norwich to make way for a housing development, uncover the bones of a child beneath a doorway - minus the skull. Is it some ritual sacrifice or just plain straightforward murder? DCI Harry Nelson would like to find out - and fast.
©2010 Elly Griffiths (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Dark Angel
Summary
It’s not every day that you’re summoned to the Italian countryside on business, so when archaeologist Angelo Morelli asks for Ruth Galloway’s help identifying bones found in the tiny hilltop town of Fontana Liri, she jumps at the chance to go, bringing her daughter along with her for a working vacation. Upon arriving, she begins to hear murmurs of Fontana Liri’s strong resistance movement during World War II and senses the townspeople are dancing around a deeply buried secret. But how could that be connected to the ancient remains she’s been studying? Ruth is just beginning to get her footing in the dig when she’s thrown off-guard by the appearance of DCI Nelson. And when Ruth’s findings lead them to a modern-day murder, their holidays are both turned upside down, and they race to find out what darkness is lurking in this seemingly picturesque town.
©2018 Elly Griffiths (P)2018 Recorded Books
A Room Full of Bones
Summary
It is Halloween night, and the local museum in King's Lynn is preparing for an unusual event - the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But when Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the museum's curator lying dead beside the coffin. It is only a matter of time before she and DI Nelson cross paths once more, as he is called in to investigate. Soon the museum's wealthy owner lies dead in his stables, too. These two deaths could be from natural causes - but Nelson isn't convinced.
©2012 Elly Griffiths (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The House at Sea's End
Summary
A team of archaeologists, investigating coastal erosion on the north Norfolk coast, unearth six bodies buried at the foot of a cliff. How long have they been there? What could have happened to them? Forensics expert Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are drawn together again to unravel the past. Tests reveal that the bodies have lain, preserved in the sand, for sixty years. The mystery of their deaths stretches back to the Second World War, a time when Great Britain was threatened by invasion. But someone wants the truth of the past to stay buried, and will go to any lengths to keep it that way... even murder.
©2011 Elly Griffiths (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Her Closest Friend: An absolutely gripping and heart-pounding psychological thriller
Summary
Pop music blares from the radio. She sings drunkenly from the backseat. The thrash of windscreen wipers against the driving rain. The screech of tires. A thud. Naomi and I are best friends. School runs, dog walks, a shoulder to cry on over a glass of wine - we’re inseparable. But now my husband has walked out, I need her more than ever. I know she will help me pick up the pieces. Because she knows about the lie I told to protect her. She knows how much I’ve sacrificed for this friendship. And she’d never let anyone hurt me. Would she? This extraordinary novel will suck you in from the very first moment and keep you gripped until the breathtaking finale. Fans of The Wife Between Us, The Girl Before, and Gone Girl will adore this twisted tale of toxic female friendship. What readers are saying about Clare Boyd: "OMG this book was amazing... I literally couldn't put it down in had to keep reading to see what was going to happen next...well deserving of 5 stars." (Bonnie’s Book Talk, 5 stars) "Absolutely LOVED...the best-of-the-best of psychological thriller authors!...a very fast paced read...twists like a rollercoaster out of control!...the climax was crazy awesome! If you enjoy a plot twist that jumps out at you...yep, this is the book for you." (Two Girls and a Book Obsession, 5 stars)
©2019 Clare Boyd (P)2019 Bookouture
The Stone Circle
Summary
Dr. Ruth Galloway returns to North Norfolk in her latest chilling adventure. DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters. They are anonymous yet somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of the Crossing Places and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they? The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.
©2019 Elly Griffiths (P)2019 Recorded Books
The Lantern Men
Summary
Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway changed her life - until a convicted killer tells her that four of his victims were never found, drawing her back to the place she left behind. Everything has changed for Ruth Galloway. She has a new job, home, and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried - but only if Ruth will do the digging. Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees. March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths. Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over?
©2020 Elly Griffiths (P)2020 Quercus Editions Limited
The Chalk Pit
Summary
In the ninth Ruth Galloway mystery, Ruth and Nelson investigate a string of murders and disappearances deep within the abandoned tunnels hidden far beneath the streets of Norwich. Norwich is riddled with old chalk-mining tunnels, but no one's sure exactly how many. When Ruth is called in to investigate a set of human remains found in one of them, she notices the bones are almost translucent - a sign they were boiled soon after death. Once more she finds herself at the helm of a murder investigation. Meanwhile, DCI Nelson is hunting for a missing homeless woman, Barbara, who he hears has gone "underground". Could she have disappeared into the labyrinth? And if so, is she connected to the body Ruth found? As Ruth, Nelson, and the rest of their team investigate the tunnels, they hear rumors of secret societies, cannibalism, and ritual killings. When a dead body is found with a map that appears to be of The Underground, they realize their quest to find the killer has only just begun - and that there may be more bodies underfoot.
©2017 Elly Griffiths (P)2017 Quercus Editions Limited
Gaudy Night
Summary
The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. The twelfth book featuring Lord Peter (the third novel to feature Harriet Vane) is set in an Oxford women's college. Harriet Vane has never dared to return to her old Oxford college. Now, despite her scandalous life, she has been summoned back.... At first she thinks her worst fears have been fulfilled, as she encounters obscene graffiti, poison pen letters, and a disgusting effigy when she arrives at sedate Shrewsbury College for the Gaudy celebrations. But soon Harriet realises she is not the only target of this murderous malice - and asks Lord Peter Wimsey to help.
©1935 The Trustees of Anthony Fleming (deceased) (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
The Nine Tailors
Summary
The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. The 11th book featuring Lord Peter, set in a country church, is often named as the best detective story ever written. When his sexton finds a corpse in the wrong grave, the rector of Fenchurch St Paul asks Lord Peter Wimsey to find out who the dead man was and how he came to be there. The lore of bell ringing and a brilliantly evoked village in the remote fens of East Anglia are the unforgettable background to a story of an old unsolved crime and its violent unravelling 20 years later.
©1934 The Trustees of anthony Fleming (deceased) (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
Lord Peter Wimsey: The Complete Short Stories
Summary
Discover Dorothy L. Sayers' inimitable Golden Age detective in this complete collection of the complete Lord Peter Wimsey stories, together in one volume for the first time.
Presented in chronological order, these short stories see Lord Peter Wimsey bringing his trademark wit and unique detection skills to all manner of mysteries. From poisoned port to murder in fancy dress, Wimsey draws on his many skills - including his expertise in fine wine and appreciation of fine art - to solve cases far and wide, some even taking him to foreign countries and unexpected hiding places in pursuit of miscreants and murderers.
Containing 21 stories taken from Lord Peter Views the Body, Hangman's Holiday, In the Teeth of the Evidence and Striding Folly, now published together for the first time in one volume, this is the ultimate collection for fans of classic detective fiction and Dorothy L. Sayers.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1928 Dorothy L Sayers (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Three Secrets
Summary
A terrible secret killed your husband.... But which one? Robert kisses his wife on the head before heading out to the shop for more wine; he walks up the hill, takes a left across the footbridge, and jumps to his death on the busy motorway below. Two years later, Francesca and her young daughter are leaving London for a fresh start. Money is tight, and Robert’s mother has found them a little cottage in her village. Francesca is grateful for the help, but why does Robert’s mother want to keep them so close? Does she know about what Francesca did in the hour before Robert’s death? Soon Francesca begins to suspect there was more to her husband’s death than she realised, that there might be even darker secrets hiding in his past than her own.... The closer she gets to uncovering the truth, the more she asks: Is her own life in danger now, too? If you couldn’t put down The Girl on the Train or The Couple Next Door, then you will absolutely love this gripping and twisty psychological thriller.
©2018 Clare Boyd (P)2018 Bookouture
Murder Must Advertise
Summary
The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. In his tenth appearance, he takes a job as an advertising copywriter to expose a ruthless killer. Victor Dean fell to his death on the stairs of Pym's Advertising Agency, but no one seems to be sorry. Until an inquisitive new copywriter joins the firm and asks some awkward questions.... Disguised as his disreputable cousin, Death Bredon, Lord Peter Wimsey takes a job - one that soon draws him into a vicious network of blackmailers and drug pedlars. Five people will die before Wimsey unravels a sinister and deadly plot....
©1933 The Trustees of Anthony Fleming (deceased) (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
Summary
Lord Peter Wimsey bent down over General Fentiman and drew the Morning Post gently away from the gnarled old hands. Then, with a quick jerk, he lifted the quiet figure. It came up all of a piece, stiff as a wooden doll... But how did the general die? Who was the mysterious Mr X who fled when he was wanted for questioning? And which of the general's heirs, both members of the Bellona Club, is lying? This is a book about phobias and obsessions, isolation and dark corners. It's about families, friendships, and carefully preserved secrets. But above everything else it's about love. Finding love - in any of its forms - and nurturing it.
©1928 The Trustees of Anthony Fleming (deceased) (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
A Body in the Village Hall: An Utterly Gripping Cozy Murder Mystery
Summary
Kate Palmer has relocated to Cornwall for a quiet life. Moving into picturesque Lavender Cottage with her sister, Angie, the little village of Lower Tinworthy should be the perfect place for their fresh new start. But within weeks of their arrival, there’s a death in the close-knit community.... A woman is found dead in the village hall, with her own kitchen knife next to the body, covered in blood. Kate, a practice nurse at the local medical center, begins to piece together the clues. Fenella was at the center of village activity, and there seem to be plenty of people who had reason to dislike her. But did any of them hate her enough to kill her? As Kate gets drawn into life in Lower Tinworthy, she begins a close friendship with Detective Inspector "Woody" Forrest, who is near to retiring - and determined to crack his last case. Together, they set about solving the mysterious crime. But when someone breaks into Kate’s home and leaves a warning note on her pillow, it becomes clear the murderer is prepared to do anything to keep their identity hidden.... Will Kate work out who’s responsible before she becomes the next victim? If you love murder mysteries by Agatha Christie, Faith Martin, or Joy Ellis, then this novel will have you listening late into the night!
©2020 Dee MacDonald (P)2020 Bookouture
Little Liar
Summary
A nail-biting, gripping psychological thriller The perfect family...or the perfect lie? When a child’s scream pierces the night, Mira does what any good neighbor would do: She calls the police. She wants to make sure that Rosie, the little girl next door, is safe. Opening her front door to the police the next morning, Gemma's picture-perfect family is forced under scrutiny of social services. As her flawless life begins to crumble around her, Gemma must fight to defend the family she loves and protect her daughter from the terrible secret she's been keeping. But who has Rosie been confiding in when Gemma’s back is turned? And why has she lied to the police? When Rosie disappears without a trace, Gemma thinks she only has herself to blame. That is, until she finds a little pink diary containing a truth even more devastating than the lie.... If you loved The Couple Next Door and Big Little Lies, you’ll adore this razor-sharp, tense, and utterly engrossing page turner about the people we choose to trust and the secrets we keep behind closed doors.
©2017 Clare Boyd (P)2018 Bookouture