Nigel Patterson has narrated 81 audiobooks on Listento.it by 70 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 1,149 ratings. The most-rated is Frankenstein.
Something Hidden
Summary
Everyone hates Fiona Methodist. Her war veteran father shot a young couple in broad daylight before killing himself. The engaged pair witnessed a robbery and were due to give evidence, but with all three dead, no one knows the true motive. For Fiona, it's destroyed her life. It's not just those who whisper behind her back or the friends who pretend she doesn't exist; it's the landlords who spot her name and say no, the job agencies who can't find her work. But Fiona knows her dad didn't do it. He couldn't have, he's her father and he wouldn't do that...would he? Private Investigator Andrew Hunter takes pity on the girl and, even with stolen Bengal cats to find, plus an ex-wife who's not quite so ex, he can't escape the creeping feeling that Fiona might be right after all.
©2016 Pan Macmillan (P)2016 Kerry Wilkinson
War Amongst the Clouds
Summary
This is the story of a young man who trained as a pilot, and then flew with the Royal Flying Corps in France during the First World War, eventually becoming an ace. Hugh White flew F.E.2D Scout aircraft as a reconnaissance patrol pilot and later in the war was promoted to squadron leader of squadrons flying the S.E.5a, which was Britain's best fighter aircraft at the time. During the two years of flying, he experienced and survived a series of escapades including a dramatic mid-air collision with the enemy. Told by Hugh in his own words, War Amongst the Clouds gives a unique insight into war in the air. With the break-up of his squadron and being reduced to a substantive rank - simply because of his young age, Hugh's writing ends in 1919. From this point, the story is continued by his younger son Christopher. He describes Hugh's life and RAF career from flying in India during the 1920s through the Second World War until his retirement as an air vice-marshal in 1955. This book includes a foreword by Sir Frederick Sowrey (Hugh's nephew), which puts Hugh White's early wartime service into context. It is a timely reminder, following the centenary of the end of the First World War, of the difficulties that young pilots faced at the time. A must-listen for those interested in wartime exploits.
©2019 Chris Granville White (P)2020 Tantor
The Rules of the Game
Summary
When published in hardcover in 1997, this book was praised for providing an engrossing education not only in naval strategy and tactics, but in Victorian social attitudes and the influence of character on history. In juxtaposing an operational with a cultural theme, the author comes closer than any historian yet to explaining what was behind the often-described operations of this famous 1916 battle at Jutland. Although the British fleet was victorious over the Germans, the cost in ships and men was high, and debates have raged within British naval circles ever since about why the Royal Navy was unable to take advantage of the situation. In this book, Andrew Gordon focuses on what he calls a fault line between two incompatible styles of tactical leadership within the Royal Navy and different understandings of the rules of the games. Foreword by Admiral Sir John Woodward.
©1996 Andrew Gordon (P)2020 Tantor
Ravage
Summary
First people got sick. Then they got very sick… Nick Adams is just a normal guy. He loves his family, appreciates his home, and covets his car. But he absolutely hates his job. Which is what makes it so difficult when not a single customer comes by his store that day. It seems as though there's a bug going around, something that has come out of nowhere and is keeping people at home. Still, it's probably nothing to worry about. People get sick all the time. And besides, things are finally starting to look up. Nick's first customer of the day has just stumbled through the door… His day is about to get worse… It won't be long before Nick's entire life is turned upside down, sending him on a frantic journey through a ravaged world that will ultimately lead him 500 feet upwards to a hilltop amusement park. Is it the last safe place on Earth, or are the monsters at the top of the hill even worse than the ones below? Welcome to Ripley Heights. Where the fun never starts.
©2013 Iain Rob Wright (P)2014 Iain Rob Wright
Soldier of Rome: Heir to Rebellion
Summary
A year has passed since the end of the Gallic rebellion of Sacrovir and Florus. Retribution has been exacted, and the province is at peace once more. And yet, there are some who escaped Rome's justice. They are led by a man whose heart burns with hate; an heir to rebellion. Knowing that there can be no victory against the legions, his vengeance can only be wrought through terror and murder. The Gallic city of Lugdunum will be the first to taste his wrath. The city of Lugdunum flourishes; the Twentieth Legion's Third Cohort having been stationed within the city since the end of the Sacrovir Revolt. For Centurion Proculus and his legionaries, their comfortable assignment will soon come unraveled as a series of grisly murders looks to upset the order of the city. Sergeant Artorius inadvertently finds himself at the center of the search to find these mysterious killers before they undermine the city's faith in the protection of the legions - a search that will lead him on a journey into the darkest corners of what lurks in a broken man's wicked soul.
©2008, 2012 James M. Mace (P)2018 James M. Mace
The Picture Frame: A Horror Novel
Summary
Blake Price is the most celebrated mystery writer since Agatha Christie, but a violent tragedy from his past sends him running from his life and into a secluded cottage in the countryside. Selfishly, he drags his family with him. Trying to connect with his melancholy son and grieving wife is difficult, but Blake tries his best to hold the strands of his life together while kidding himself that everything is okay. One day, while out looking for treasure in the field outside their new home, Blake and his 10-year old son, Ricky, find something buried in the dirt - an antique picture frame. It changes everything. What Blake first considers a lucky find, soon reveals itself to be something far more sinister. An ancient evil has been released, and it will stop at nothing to complete its mission.
©2014 Iain Rob Wright (P)2015 Nigel Patterson
The Annals
Summary
Here is a lively new translation of Cornelius Tacitus's timeless history of three of Rome's most memorable emperors. Tacitus, who condemns the depravity of these rulers, which he saw as proof of the corrupting force of absolute power, writes caustically of the brutal and lecherous Tiberius, the weak and cuckolded Claudius, and "the artist" Nero. In particular, his gripping account of the bloody reigns of Tiberius and Nero brims with plots, murder, poisoning, suicide, uprisings, death, and destruction. The Annals also provides a vivid account of the violent suppression of the revolt led by Boudicca in Britain, the great fire of Rome under Nero, and the subsequent bloody persecution of the Christians.
©2008 J. C. Yardley (translation); Introduction copyright 2008 by Anthony A. Barrett (P)2020 Tantor
The Closing of the Western Mind
Summary
A radical and powerful reappraisal of the impact of Constantine's adoption of Christianity on the later Roman world, and on the subsequent development both of Christianity and of Western civilization. When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, he turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant, and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority, whether that of the Bible, or the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine. Only a thousand years later, with the advent of the Renaissance and the emergence of modern science, did Europe begin to free itself from the effects of Constantine's decision, yet the effects of his establishment of Christianity as a state religion remain with us, in many respects, today. Brilliantly wide-ranging and ambitious, this is a major work of history.
©2002 Charles Freeman (P)2021 Tantor
Soldier of Rome
Summary
Rome's Vengeance. In the year A.D. 9, three Roman Legions under Quintilius Varus were betrayed by the Germanic war chief, Arminius, and destroyed in the forest known as Teutoburger Wald. Six years later, Rome is finally ready to unleash her vengeance on the barbarians. The Emperor Tiberius has sent his adopted son, Germanicus Caesar, into Germania with an army of 40,000 legionaries. They come not on a mission of conquest, but one of annihilation. With them is a young legionary named Artorius. For him the war is a personal vendetta; a chance to avenge his brother, who was killed in Teutoburger Wald. In Germania Arminius knows the Romans are coming. He realizes that the only way to fight the legions is through deceit, cunning, and plenty of well-placed brute force. In truth he is leery of Germanicus, knowing that he was trained to be a master of war by the Emperor himself. The entire Roman Empire held its collective breath as Germanicus and Arminius faced each other in what would become the most brutal and savage campaign the world had seen in a generation; a campaign that could only end in a holocaust of fire and blood.
©2006, 2012 James Mace (P)2014 James Mace
The Coronation: A Fandorin Mystery
Summary
Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich arrives in Moscow with three of his children for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, who is fated to become the last Emperor of Russia. During an afternoon stroll in the park, Georgii's daughter Xenia is dragged away by bandits, only to be rescued by an elegant gentleman and his Japanese sidekick. The passing heroes introduce themselves as Erast Petrovich Fandorin and Masa, but panic ensues when the party realizes that four-year-old Mikhail has been snatched in the confusion. A ransom letter arrives from an international criminal demanding the handover of the Count Orlov, an enormous diamond on the royal scepter which is due to play a part in the coronation. Can the gentleman detective find Mikhail in time? The Coronation is a fantastically entertaining and deftly plotted take on the hostage novel, not to be missed.
©2000 Boris Akunin; Translation copyright 2009 by Andrew Bromfield (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
The Bad Popes
Summary
A dramatic account of some of the most notorious figures of medieval and Renaissance history who ruled from the Eternal City. It is sure to grip fans of John Julius Norwich, Tom Holland, and Peter Ackroyd. The papal tiara has been worn by a number of infamous men through the course of its history. Some have been accused of murder, many have had mistresses, while others sold positions in the church to their followers or gave land and wealth to their illegitimate children. E. R. Chamberlin examines the lives of eight of the most controversial popes to have ruled over the Holy See, from the reign of Pope Stephen VI, who had his predecessor exhumed, put on trial and thrown in the Tiber, in the ninth century, through to Pope Clement VII, the second Medici pope, whose failed international policy led to the Sack of Rome in 1527. The Bad Popes explains how during these six centuries the papal monarchy rose to its greatest heights, as popes attempted to assert not only their spiritual authority but also their temporal power, only for it to come crashing down.
©1969 The Estate of E.R. Chamberlin (P)2020 Tantor
Something Buried: An Absolutely Gripping Mystery Thriller
Summary
Your daughter drowned. You know it wasn’t an accident.
Anna Applegate’s daughter, Michelle, drowned after a night out with a friend. Anna’s convinced Michelle’s death was deliberate, and that her boyfriend, sports star Jack Marsh, killed her.
As Investigator Andrew Hunter begins to dig into the case, he quickly discovers Jack has a history of violence. And, with only his teammate for an alibi, Andrew is convinced Jack’s lying about where he was the night Michelle died.
But Andrew has more to worry about than just finding out the truth about Michelle’s death because a former case is back to haunt him - someone willing to put Andrew’s loved ones in terrible danger to get what he wants...
©2019 Kerry WIlkinson (P)2019 Kerry Wilkinson
ASBO
Summary
Your fear is their entertainment... Andrew's life is one of bored contentedness: a teenage daughter, a faithful wife, and a middle-class job. He even has a Mercedes. His life is without drama, and the comfort of middle-age is setting in. That all changes when he refuses to buy a pack of cigarettes for the local gang of youths. Led by the emotionally unstable, and sadistic, Frankie, the gang target Andrew and his family in an escalating campaign of terror and violence that threatens their very lives. It isn't long before Andrew starts to wish that he'd just brought those damn cigarettes.
©2012 Iain Rob Wright (P)2014 Iain Rob Wright
Anti-System Politics
Summary
Recent elections in the advanced Western democracies have undermined the basic foundations of political systems that had previously beaten back all challenges - from both the left and the right. The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, only months after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, signaled a dramatic shift in the politics of the rich democracies. In Anti-System Politics, Jonathan Hopkin traces the evolution of this shift and argues that it is a long-term result of abandoning the post-war model of egalitarian capitalism in the 1970s. That shift entailed weakening the democratic process in favor of an opaque, technocratic form of governance that allows voters little opportunity to influence policy. With the financial crisis of the late 2000s these arrangements became unsustainable, as incumbent politicians were unable to provide solutions to economic hardship. Electorates demanded change, and it had to come from outside the system. Using a comparative approach, Hopkin explains why different kinds of anti-system politics emerge in different countries and how political and economic factors impact the degree of electoral instability that emerges.
©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Tantor
The Tomb of the Gods
Summary
From the destruction of an L.A. skyscraper to a desperate battle on board a Swiss train, from a crazy car chase through Hollywood to a covert assault on a secret SAS base, Matt Drake and his team ignite a blazing trail of destruction as they chase madmen and traitors across the globe. On a furious, action-packed battlefield, alongside soldiers ready to fight and die for their cause, Drake and his entire team stand as one and charge fearlessly into the jaws of death.
©2013 David Leadbeater (P)2017 Tantor
An Occupied Grave
Summary
A village of secrets finds its past lies waiting. When mourners gather in the village of Lower Gladdock, the grave is found to be already occupied. The victim is soon linked to a tragedy that tore the village apart five years ago and is handed over to the Bexford police to solve. Detective Sergeant Guy Poole is hoping to put his traumatic past behind him and settle into his new station at Bexford. Now history is threatening to raise its head again, and he has a murder case to contend with. Detective Inspector Sam Brock has a new recruit to take under his wing, and he's determined this one isn't going to die. As if that wasn't enough of a headache, his wife is coming home and may be on the verge of discovering the lie he's been telling her. Newly paired duo Brock and Poole must track down the killer before more lives are lost.
©2018 A.G. Barnett (P)2018 Tantor
Bluebirds
Summary
Fly with Bluebird squadron in the war-torn skies of Southern England in the Battle of Britain. Follow the boys who became the men who became The Few. A meticulously researched Battle of Britain novel based on the true stories of an East-Anglian war hero and the first American volunteer to fire guns against the Nazis, a man who became his friend and brother-in-arms. The Battle of Britain defined the future for Britain, Europe, and America. Bluebirds tells the story of four ordinary young men who are thrown together as Hitler plunges the European continent into its darkest hours. Andrew Francis and Gerry Donaldson were born on different sides of the Atlantic just before The Great War. Together with the mildly psychotic Bryan Hale, they fly Spitfires through the summer of 1940. Invasion is imminent, and England faces almost certain defeat after Hitler's unstoppable armies slice through France to the Channel coast. Fighter Command risks total destruction as they rise to meet the Fuhrer's Luftwaffe hordes in what would become the Battle of Britain.
©2017 Melvyn Fickling (P)2021 Tantor
The Beetle
Summary
The Beetle is the celebrated Victorian horror story by Richard Marsh, originally published in serialized form in 1897, which at first enjoyed even greater popularity than Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published in the same year. The Beetle tells the tale of an evil, ancient Egyptian spirit seeking revenge on an up-and-coming British politician, Paul Lessingham. The shape-shifting creature that pursues Lessingham is possessed of hypnotic powers and takes different forms, both male and female, as well as morphing into a beetle - a figure that induces terror in its victims. This creepy gothic tale is told by a series of protagonists, whose accounts are collected by a detective who assists in tracking the creature to its final mysterious end. “A face looked into mine, and, in front of me, were those dreadful eyes. Then, whether I was dead or living, I said to myself that this could be nothing human - nothing fashioned in God’s image - could wear such a shape as that. Fingers were pressed into my cheeks, they were thrust into my mouth, they touched my staring eyes, shut my eyelids, then opened them again, and - horror of horrors! - the blubber lips were pressed to mine. The soul of something evil entered into me in the guise of a kiss.” Warning: The Beetle has been viewed by some as a critique of British imperial attitudes in the late Victorian era. The story includes racial stereotypes which may cause offense to some listeners.
Public Domain (P)2021 Raconteurs Audio LLP
The Boundless Sea
Summary
From the author of the acclaimed The Great Sea, David Abulafia's new book guides listeners along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans - the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian - which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and, of course people - free and enslaved - across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Far more than merely another history of exploration, The Boundless Sea tells how maritime networks gradually formed a continuum of interaction and interconnection. Working chronologically, Abulafia moves from the earliest forays of peoples taking hand-hewn canoes into uncharted waters, to the routes taken daily by supertankers in the thousands. History on the grandest scale and scope, crafted with passion and precision, this is a project few could have undertaken. Abulafia, whom The Atlantic calls "superb writer with a gift for lucid compression and an eye for the telling detail", proves again why he ranks as one of the world's greatest storytellers.
©2019 David Abulafia (P)2021 Tantor
The Emperor Charlemagne
Summary
On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III. Under his guidance the Carolingian Renaissance flourished, with his capital of Aachen becoming a center of learning and artistic genius. The legacy of Charlemagne on European history and culture is monumental. Yet, within 30 years of his death, his empire had fragmented. Who was this legendary ruler? How had he managed to rule these vast domains? And why has his legacy continued to influence Europeans to this day? E. R. Chamberlin's masterful biography of Charlemagne demonstrates the sheer force of will that this charismatic leader was able to command as he created a realm to rival the Byzantines in the east. Through the course of the book Chamberlin brings to life how Charlemagne forged his empire and uncovers the people, the religious and political controversies, the social and agricultural conditions, and the changes in warfare that took place more than 1,000 years ago.
©2020 The Estate of E.R. Chamberlin (P)2021 Tantor