Rita Barrington's narration creates a vivid sense of time, place, and character in MAISIE DOBBS. When Lady Rowan discovers her servant-girl, Maisie, studying in the library, she arranges for tutoring. WWI intrudes, and education is put on hold when Maisie goes to the battlefields of France as a nurse. After the war, she becomes a private investigator. Her first case seems to be a straightforward case of infidelity but soon has her dealing with her own experiences in the war. Barrington's voices help the listener keep straight the many characters as the story's threads weave events from pre-war to wartime to post-war England, making a tapestry of war's devastation.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2005
Duration: 10 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
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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