Simon Prebble has narrated 183 audiobooks on Listento.it by 109 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 3,260 ratings. The most-rated is 1984.
Wife of the Gods
Summary
Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, a good family man and a remarkably intuitive sleuth, is sent to the village of Ketanu - the site of his mother's disappearance many years ago - to solve the murder of an accomplished young AIDS worker. While battling his own anger issues and concerns for his ailing son, Darko explores the motivations and secrets of the residents of Ketanu. It soon becomes clear that in addition to solving a recent murder, he is about to unravel the shocking truth about his mother's disappearance. Kwei Quartey's sparkling debut novel introduces readers to a rich cast of characters, including the Trokosi - young women called Wives of the Gods - who, in order to bring good fortune to their families, are sent to live with fetish priests. Set in Ghana, with the action moving back and forth between the capital city of Accra and a small village in the Volta Region, Wife of the Gods brings the culture and beauty of its setting brilliantly to life.
©2009 Kwei J. Quartey (P)2010 Tantor
The Story of the Treasure Seekers
Summary
All six Bastable children - Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel and Horace Octavius - are ambitious adventurers, digging detectives and intrepid treasure seekers by nature. Unfortunately, the Bastable family is currently facing an uncertain financial future. When father takes ill, and his business partners abandon him, the six children team up in an effort to restore their family’s wealth. Although they devise some ingenious escapades, their efforts usually end up unprofitable but fun - and sometimes their digging gets downright dangerous. But one day their adventure leads them to completely unexpected results. Author E. Nesbit’s classic children’s stories have entertained countless readers since their original publication over 100 years ago. With Simon Prebble’s exceptional narration this marvelously written tale shines as brightly as gold coins.
Public Domain (P)2001 Recorded Books
A Rake's Vow
Summary
Stephanie Laurens authors USA Today best-selling historical romance novels, such as Devil's Bride. Exciting and deeply sensuous, A Rake's Vow continues the Bar Cynster series. Unlike his brothers, Vane Cynster vows to never marry. The eligible women of London have different plans for him, however. Seeking safety at Bellamy Hall, the residence of his eccentric godmother, Vane doesn't expect to meet any new unmarried women. But upon his arrival, he encounters the voluptuous Patience Debbington in the garden. When their gazes meet for the first time, she is filled with a sensation that leaves her quivering. Thoroughly overwhelmed, Vane realizes that he has never met a woman quite like Patience Debbington. As Vane's seductions prove more and more irresistible, Patience's oath to never open herself to heartache may soon be broken. Simon Prebble narrates this tale with the intuitive boldness and sensitivity of a true master.
©1998 Savdek Management Proprietory Ltd. (P)2001 Recorded Books, LLC
Silesian Station
Summary
Summer, 1939. British journalist John Russell has just been granted American citizenship in exchange for agreeing to work for American intelligence when his girlfriend, Effi, is arrested by the Gestapo. Russell hoped his new nationality would let him safely stay in Berlin with Effi and his son, but now he's being blackmailed. To free Effi, he must agree to work for the Nazis. They know he has Soviet connections and want him to pass them false intelligence. Russell consents, but secretly offers his services to the Soviets instead - not for anything too dangerous, though, and only if they'll sneak him and Effi out of Germany if necessary. It's a good plan, but soon things become complicated. A Jewish girl has vanished, and Russell feels compelled to search for her. A woman from his past, a communist, reappears, insisting he help her reconnect with the Soviets, who turn out to demand more than Russell hoped. Meanwhile, Europe lurches toward war, and he must follow the latest stories - to places where American espionage assignments await him.
©2008 David Downing (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Corduroy Mansions
Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency comes this serialized novel—reminiscent of his acclaimed 44 Scotland Street. In London’s Pimlico neighborhood lies a tenement described in architectural guides as “a building of no interest whatsoever”. But the residents of Corduroy Mansions—including a literary agent, a wine merchant, a thoroughly unpleasant member of Parliament, and a vegetarian dog—are a rather fascinating lot. There’s the vitamin evangelist, the psychoanalyst, the art student with a puzzling boyfriend, and Freddie de la Hay, the Pimlico terrier who insists on wearing a seat belt and is almost certainly the only avowed vegetarian canine in London. Filled with the ins and outs of neighborliness in all its unexpected variations, Corduroy Mansions showcases the life, laughter, and humanity that have become the hallmarks of Alexander McCall Smith’s work.
©2010 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
Echoes
Summary
For the Wittgenstein family, the summer of 1915 was a time of both prosperity and unease, as the guns of war sound in the distance. But for eldest daughter Beata, it was also a summer of awakening. By glimmering Lake Geneva, the quiet Jewish beauty met a young French officer and fell in love. Knowing that her parents would never accept her marriage to a Catholic, Beata followed her heart anyway. As the two built a new life together, Beata's past would stay with her, and when Europe faces war once again, Beata must watch in horror as Hitler's terror threatens her family, even her daughter Amadea, who has taken on the vows of a Carmelite nun. As family and friends are swept away without a trace, Amadea is forced into hiding. Thus begins a harrowing journey of survival, first in the Nazi death camps and then as she escapes into the heart of the French resistance and finds a renewed sense of purpose. In the darkest moments of fear, Amadea will feel her mother's loving strength as the voices of lost loved ones echo powerfully in her heart. Amadea will meet an extraordinary man, British secret agent Rupert Montgomery, who will help her discover her place in an unbreakable chain between generations...between her lost family and her future. From the elegant rituals of Europe's prewar aristocracy to the brutal desperation of Germany's death camps, Danielle Steel draws us into a vanished world, weaving an intricate tapestry of a mother's love, a daughter's courage, and the unwavering faith that sustained them, even in history's darkest hour. Bonus Feature: Fine Things by Danielle Steel, narrated by Richard Thomas When Bernie Fine met 5-year-old Jane O'Reilly and her mother, Liz, he thought he had found love to last a lifetime. But when Liz is stricken with cancer shortly after the birth of their first child, time becomes painfully short. Bernie meets his fate with courage and humor, and learns some of life's hard but precious lessons as he does.
©2004 Danielle Steel (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
The Promise in a Kiss
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Stephanie Laurens delights her many fans with steamy tales of Regency-era seduction and intrigue. In a quiet moonlit courtyard, Helena encounters a handsome and mysterious Englishman. Before parting, he rewards her with a special kiss - a delicious, enticing, unforgettable kiss that makes her whole body shiver with desire. Helena doesn't yet know that she has met her destiny - and he is Sebastian Cynster, Duke of St. Ives. This luxurious tale of passion features a potent reading by narrator Simon Prebble.
©2001 Savdek Management Proprietory Ltd. (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC
The Ice House
Summary
Best-selling author Minette Walters writes thrillers that wed classic mystery conventions with contemporary sophistication. In The Ice House—winner of Britain’s John Creasey Award for best first crime novel—she serves up a chilling story of love, loyalty, and deadly intrigue. A small British village has long suspected that the three women living in a local manor house are witches—or even worse. So when an unidentifiable body is found in the home’s ice house, everyone is set to believe their guilt, especially police inspector Walsh. Ten years ago, Walsh suspected one of the women of murder, but was unable to make a case. Now, he plans to do whatever it takes to untangle the women’s secrets. With one unexpected plot twist after another, Minette Walters delivers a mystery which surprises right through to the very end. Narrator Simon Prebble gives voice to Walters’ many wonderful characters and the dark web of secrets hidden deep beneath life’s surface.
©1992 Minette Walters (P)2000 Recorded Books
Much Ado about Magic
Summary
Patricia Rice, a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, has won numerous awards, including the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards. Much Ado About Magic is the delightful tale of a painting that takes on a life of its own. Because Lady Lucinda Pembroke’s paintings have a reputation for being prophetic, her picture of a handsome man laughing as a ship sinks causes widespread gossip. Londoners are sure it must be Sir Trevelyan Rochester, gloating as his wealthy cousin drowns. As Lucinda tries to repair his reputation, she creates a mutual desire as colorful as her brushstrokes.
©2005 Rice Enterprises, Inc. (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC
The Crown Jewel Mystery
Summary
A young American actress arrives in London hoping to learn her identity, just as Sherlock Holmes is closing in on a master criminal. Their worlds collide, and not even Holmes could have foreseen the impact! This audiobook is the prequel to The Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mystery series. It takes place three days before the opening of The Last Moriarty.
©2017 Charles Veley and Anna Elliott (P)2017 Charles Veley and Anna Elliott
World War One
Summary
In 1914, a new kind of war came about, bringing with it a new kind of world. World War One began on horseback, with generals employing bayonet charges to gain ground, and ended with attacks resembling the Nazi blitzkriegs. The scale of devastation was unlike anything the world had seen before: 14 million combatants died, a further 20 million were wounded, and four empires were destroyed. Even the victors' empires were fatally damaged. An overwhelming disaster from which the world is still recovering, World War One can seem baffling in its complexity. But now Norman Stone, one of world's greatest military historians, has composed a dazzlingly lucid and succinct history of the conflict. Stone has distilled a lifetime of teaching, arguing, and thinking into this brisk and opinionated account of the fundamental tragedy of the 20th century.
©2009 Norman Stone (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
Summary
New York Times best seller Thirteen extraordinary essays shed new light on the mystery of the universe - and on one of the most brilliant thinkers of our time. In his phenomenal best seller A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking literally transformed the way we think about physics, the universe, reality itself. In these 13 essays and one remarkable extended interview, the man widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein returns to reveal an amazing array of possibilities for understanding our universe. Building on his earlier work, Hawking discusses imaginary time, how black holes can give birth to baby universes, and scientists’ efforts to find a complete unified theory that would predict everything in the universe. With his characteristic mastery of language, his sense of humor and commitment to plain speaking, Stephen Hawking invites us to know him better - and to share his passion for the voyage of intellect and imagination that has opened new ways to understanding the very nature of the cosmos.
©1993 Stephen Hawking and Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing (P)1993 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House Inc.
The Irregulars
Summary
Prior to the U.S. entering WWII, a small coterie of British spies in Washington, D.C., was formed. They called themselves the Baker Street Irregulars after the band of street urchins who were the eyes and ears of Sherlock Holmes in some Arthur Conan Doyle stories. This group constituted the very beginning of what would become M16, the British version of the CIA, and they helped support the fledgling American intelligence service, known at the time as the OSS. Among them were writers Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming, and the flamboyant Canadian industrialist turned professional saboteur William Stephenson, known by the code name "Intrepid", upon whom Fleming would later base his fictional M16 agent James Bond. Richly detailed and carefully researched, Conant's narrative uses never-before-seen wartime letters, diaries and interviews to create a fascinating, lively account of deceit, double dealing and moral ambiguity - all in the name of victory.
©2008 Jennet Conant (P)2008 HighBridge Company.
Killing with Confetti
Summary
Peter Diamond is tasked to run security for a wedding. Seems a bit beneath his extraordinary detective talents, as well as his title as head of Bath's CID, but this isn't your run-of-the-mill ceremony: the bride and groom belong to families on opposite ends of the law - and someone is trying to sabotage the nuptials by taking out a hit on the father of the bride. As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline, the daughter of notorious crime baron, Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. The problem is that Ben's father, George, is the Deputy Chief Constable. A more uncomfortable set of in-laws would be hard to imagine. But mothers and sons are a formidable force: a wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are arranged before the career-obsessed DCC can step in. Peter Diamond, Bath's head of CID, is appalled to be put in charge of security on the day. Ordered to be discreet, he packs a gun and a guest list in his best suit and must somehow cope with potential killers, gang rivals, warring parents, bossy photographers and straying bridesmaids. The laid-back Joe Irving seems oblivious to the danger he is in from rival gang leaders while Brace can't wait for the day to end. Will the photo session be a literal shoot? Will Joe Irving's speech as father of the bride be his last words? Can Diamond pull off a miracle, avert a tragedy and send the happy couple on their honeymoon?
©2019 Peter Lovesey (P)2019 Recorded Books
English Passengers
Summary
It is 1857, and Reverend Geoffrey Wilson has departed England to prove the literal truth of the Bible. The expedition heads towards Tasmania, where he is convinced he will find the real Garden of Eden. But the other passengers have their own agendas. Dr Potter is developing a sinister thesis, and the ship is crewed by smugglers of contraband brandy and tobacco. As the English passengers near Peevay's land, their bizarre notions become painfully at odds with reality. Their destination is no Eden but a world of hunting parties and colonial ethnic cleansing. A mighty collision is approaching....
©2000 Matthew Kneale (P)2001 W.F. Howes Ltd.
The Italian Secretary
Summary
The best-selling author of the Alienist series returns with a chilling elaboration on the Sherlock Holmes canon, as the famed detective investigates a pair of gruesome murders, which cast an otherworldly shadow as far as Queen Victoria herself. It all begins familiarly enough: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are summoned to the aid of Queen Victoria in Scotland by an encrypted telegram from Holmes' brother, Mycroft, a royal advisor. Rushed northward on a royal train they soon learn of the brutal killings of two of the Queen's servants who had been working on the renovation of the famous and forbidding Royal Palace of Holyrood. Mycroft has enlisted his brother to help solve the murders that may be key elements of a much more elaborate and pernicious plot on the Queen's life. But the circumstances of the two victims' deaths also call to Holmes' mind the terrible murder of "The Italian Secretary", David Rizzio. Only Rizzio was murdered three centuries ago. Told with his unique feel for historical detail and the architecture of human evil, Caleb Carr's brilliant new offering takes the Conan Doyle tradition to remarkable new heights.
©2005 Caleb Carr (P)2005 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Trial of Henry Kissinger
Summary
"If the courts and lawyers of this country will not do their duty, we shall watch as the victims and survivors of this man pursue justice and vindication in their own dignified and painstaking way, and at their own expense, and we shall be put to shame." Forget Pinochet, Milosevic, Hussein, Kim Jong-il, or Gaddafi: America need look no further than its own lauded leaders for a war criminal whose offenses rival those of the most heinous dictators in recent history-Henry Kissinger. Employing evidence based on firsthand testimony, unpublished documents, and new information uncovered by the Freedom of Information Act, and using only what would hold up in international courts of law, The Trial of Henry Kissinger outlines atrocities authorized by the former secretary of state in Indochina, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus, East Timor, and in the plight of the Iraqi Kurds, "including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture." With the precision and tenacity of a prosecutor, Hitchens offers an unrepentant portrait of a felonious diplomat who "maintained that laws were like cobwebs," and implores governments around the world, including our own, to bring him swiftly to justice.
©2012 Christopher Hitchens (P)2012 Audible Ltd
Skeleton Hill
Summary
On Lansdown Hill, near Bath, England, a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is annually reenacted. Two of the reenactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them, a professor who played a Cavalier, is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter Diamond butts heads with the group of vigilantes who call themselves the Lansdown Society, discovering in the process that his boss Georgina is a member. She resolves to sideline Diamond, but matters don't pan out in accordance with her plans.
©2009 Peter Lovesey. All rights reserved. (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks America
Bolt
Summary
The privileged world of horse racing, filled with sleek thoroughbreds, burnished leather, and the silken sheen of jockeys’ colors, is a wonderful place to spend a few hours. Let best-selling, internationally-popular author Dick Francis take you to the immaculate stables of the de Brescou estate, where dark forces are lurking. Someone is killing the de Brescou racehorses with a “bolt” gun, shooting them silently, leaving no clues. Before the noble family, which includes his fiancée, is torn apart, jockey Kit Fielding must find the assassin. There are higher stakes than the horses, though. The de Brescous could lose control of their family business as well. Bolt spent 13 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. From regal countesses to dapper racing officials, it puts you in the company of truly intriguing characters. The impeccable pacing of this mystery, enchanced by Simon Prebble’s assured narration, is sure to keep you on the alert each step of the way.
©1986 Dick Francis (P)1999 Recorded Books, LLC
Die Again, Mr. Holmes
Summary
A young woman begs Sherlock Holmes to help find her missing fiancé, but the great detective makes an uncharacteristic mistake. Then Sherlock’s daughter, Lucy James, takes on a missing-person case of her own, but she must also keep a vicious criminal away from Becky, Lucy’s 10-year-old sister-in-law. Little Becky soon becomes dangerously involved in both cases. No one foresees the devastating news that Sherlock Holmes has been murdered. The newest adventure in this popular mystery series takes us from the Old Bailey courthouse and the seacoast lairs of smugglers to a grand British country estate and the posh financial headquarters of Lloyd’s of London. For Watson, Sherlock, and Lucy, survival will require valor, sacrifice, and acts that go far, far outside the law.
©2019 Charles Veley (P)2019 Charles Veley