Both Sherlockians and fans of Carr’s Alienist series will enjoy this re-creation, commissioned by Conan Doyle’s estate and a strong addition to the Holmes oeuvres. Simon Prebble delivers the sweetness and native intelligence of Holmes’s documentarian, Dr. Watson, and the laser-like genius of the Great Detective himself as the two travel to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh to investigate a grisly murder and the possibility of a ghost. In a precise narration, Prebble paints all the atmospherics of the Scots settings and lends credibility to Carr’s climax, which, while putting to good use his expertise in military history, is a bit over the top. Prebble’s crisp narration helps integrate the historical murder of the Italian secretary and the further adventures of Holmes and Watson.
Pub Date: 2005
Duration: 7 hrs
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
American colleges are favorable locales for ghastly event and hair-tearing circumstance. There is, for instance, a good deal of pleasure to be had out of professor and past-prodigy Grady Tripp's awful life, as portrayed by Michael Chabon in WONDER BOYS. There is a certain amount of slapstick here, but it's balanced by Chabon's superb portrait of a gale-force mid-life crisis, a soul-destroying albatross of an unfinished novel and the mind-numbing inconsequence of writers' conferences. David Colacci sounds a little starved for oxygen in his reading, but that's not exactly out of keeping with Grady Tripp's personal gestalt.
Pub Date:
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As a group of men bring their own emotional baggage to their football-obsessed reunion, R.C. Bray delivers his usual solid narration. He shifts his tones slightly but enough to put the listener in the motel with the men, revealing their foibles as the story progresses. The narrator's role in this book is a descriptive one, and Bray is a good guide. His narration becomes extra important because this is a rare instance when there almost isn't a protagonist. The author's well-written story--which alternates between serious and laugh-out-loud funny--uses quarterback Joe Theismann's 1985 injury, a broken leg, as a McGuffin.
Pub Date:
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781681680057
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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