Narrator Steven Crossley delivers a compelling performance in this fourth mystery featuring lawyer and detective Matthew Shardlake. Despite his own doubts, listeners find him once again pursuing justice for those in trouble amid the religious upheaval of Henry VIII’s reign. When Shardlake is asked by the woman he once hoped to marry to investigate the death of her husband, Crossley subtly conveys the romantic feelings the lawyer still has for her. As the dead multiply, Crossley builds the tension, narrowing listeners’ focus to the perils that threaten the hero when not only is there a murderer on the loose but the government may decide to accuse him of heresy at the slightest provocation. D.G. 2010 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2009
Duration: 21 hrs, 15 mins
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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