The Birthday Present
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Birthday Present
Buy for $21.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Ruth Sillers
-
Paul Blake
-
By:
-
Barbara Vine
About this listen
Ivor Tesham is a handsome, single, young Member of Parliament whose political star is on the rise. When he meets a woman in a chance encounter–a beautiful, married woman named Hebe–the two become lovers, obsessed with their illicit and adventurous trysts. But when Ivor plans for a surprise daring sexual adventure as a birthday present for Hebe, things take a disastrous turn it's late spring of 1990 and a love affair is flourishing: between Ivor, a rising star of the Conservative government, and Hebe, a stunning North London housewife stuck in a dull marriage. On the eve of her birthday, Ivor gives Hebe a present to remember: a mock-kidnapping in which she is to be snatched from the street, bound and gagged, and then delivered to him. It’s all intended as mock-dangerous foreplay, but then things take a disastrous turn. After an accidental death, Ivor begins to receive anonymous letters that reveal shockingly specific details about the affair and its aftermath. Somehow he must keep his role from being uncovered–and his political future from being destroyed by scandal.
©2008 Kingsmarkham Enterprises (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Minotaur
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 80
As soon as Kerstin Kvist arrives at remote, ivy-covered Lydstep Old Hall in Essex, she feels like a character in a gothic novel. A young nurse fresh out of school, Kerstin has been hired for a position with the Cosway family, residents of the Hall for generations. She is soon introduced to her "charge", John Cosway, a 39-year-old man whose strange behavior is vaguely explained by his mother and sisters as part of the madness that runs in the family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Top notch Barbara Vine
- By Susan B. on 12-12-07
By: Barbara Vine
-
No Night Is Too Long
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings, Shelley Thomson, Samuel West
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
Tim Cornish thought he'd gotten away with murder. For months after he'd killed his lover off the Alaskan coast, there hadn't been a word. But then the letters started to arrive. It seems that someone knows what Tim has done.... This compelling thriller delivers such a dark picture of romantic love that murder seems its natural mate. Frightening, suspenseful, and deeply unsettling, No Night Is Too Long is a modern crime masterpiece and will be enjoyed by readers of P. D. James and Ian Rankin.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well done
- By SB on 03-30-22
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
When literary celebrity Gerald Candless suddenly dies, the beautiful façade he has carefully created begins to crumble. Behind the vision of the happy family on the English seashore lie Candless’ inexplicable cruelty toward his wife, his manic devotion to his daughters, and the mysterious sources of his fiction. To assuage her grief, his loving daughter Sarah begins a memoir project. But it soon becomes an obsessive search for identity. As Sarah digs into her father’s secret past, the startling logic of his puzzling behavior is revealed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of my Top 20 books
- By lyl on 01-01-13
By: Barbara Vine
-
Gallowglass
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 22
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 20
Sandor is a wonderful storyteller and little Joe is ready to listen. The power of the educated over the simple is horribly clear in this disturbing and unusual relationship. As Sandor’s motivation both for rescuing little Joe and then for weaving his spell of words becomes clear, the darkness surrounding him is too much for them both, and for the beautiful ex-model sequestered in her Suffolk mansion by an obsessive husband.
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Blood Doctor
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
The First Lord Nanther, expert in blood diseases, particularly the royal disease of Heamophilia, and favoured physician to Queen Victoria, clearly hoped to be the subject of an admiring posthumous biography. But when his great-grandson, Martin Nanther begins to research his life for a biography, the Martin comes to suspect that his great-grandfather’s old records conceal more than they reveal.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
clever, excellent storytelling
- By connie on 07-09-11
By: Barbara Vine
-
Asta's Book
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 175
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 140
It is 1905. Asta and her husband, Rasmus, have come to East London from Denmark with their two little boys. With Rasmus constantly away on business, Asta keeps loneliness and isolation at bay by writing a diary. These diaries, published over 70 years later, reveal themselves to be more than a mere journal. For they seem to hold the key to an unsolved murder and to the mystery of a missing child. It falls to Asta's granddaughter, Ann, to unearth the buried secrets of nearly a century before.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Confusing, by it could just have been me
- By Ilana on 10-01-12
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Minotaur
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 80
As soon as Kerstin Kvist arrives at remote, ivy-covered Lydstep Old Hall in Essex, she feels like a character in a gothic novel. A young nurse fresh out of school, Kerstin has been hired for a position with the Cosway family, residents of the Hall for generations. She is soon introduced to her "charge", John Cosway, a 39-year-old man whose strange behavior is vaguely explained by his mother and sisters as part of the madness that runs in the family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Top notch Barbara Vine
- By Susan B. on 12-12-07
By: Barbara Vine
-
No Night Is Too Long
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings, Shelley Thomson, Samuel West
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
Tim Cornish thought he'd gotten away with murder. For months after he'd killed his lover off the Alaskan coast, there hadn't been a word. But then the letters started to arrive. It seems that someone knows what Tim has done.... This compelling thriller delivers such a dark picture of romantic love that murder seems its natural mate. Frightening, suspenseful, and deeply unsettling, No Night Is Too Long is a modern crime masterpiece and will be enjoyed by readers of P. D. James and Ian Rankin.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well done
- By SB on 03-30-22
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
When literary celebrity Gerald Candless suddenly dies, the beautiful façade he has carefully created begins to crumble. Behind the vision of the happy family on the English seashore lie Candless’ inexplicable cruelty toward his wife, his manic devotion to his daughters, and the mysterious sources of his fiction. To assuage her grief, his loving daughter Sarah begins a memoir project. But it soon becomes an obsessive search for identity. As Sarah digs into her father’s secret past, the startling logic of his puzzling behavior is revealed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of my Top 20 books
- By lyl on 01-01-13
By: Barbara Vine
-
Gallowglass
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 22
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 20
Sandor is a wonderful storyteller and little Joe is ready to listen. The power of the educated over the simple is horribly clear in this disturbing and unusual relationship. As Sandor’s motivation both for rescuing little Joe and then for weaving his spell of words becomes clear, the darkness surrounding him is too much for them both, and for the beautiful ex-model sequestered in her Suffolk mansion by an obsessive husband.
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Blood Doctor
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
The First Lord Nanther, expert in blood diseases, particularly the royal disease of Heamophilia, and favoured physician to Queen Victoria, clearly hoped to be the subject of an admiring posthumous biography. But when his great-grandson, Martin Nanther begins to research his life for a biography, the Martin comes to suspect that his great-grandfather’s old records conceal more than they reveal.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
clever, excellent storytelling
- By connie on 07-09-11
By: Barbara Vine
-
Asta's Book
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 175
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 140
It is 1905. Asta and her husband, Rasmus, have come to East London from Denmark with their two little boys. With Rasmus constantly away on business, Asta keeps loneliness and isolation at bay by writing a diary. These diaries, published over 70 years later, reveal themselves to be more than a mere journal. For they seem to hold the key to an unsolved murder and to the mystery of a missing child. It falls to Asta's granddaughter, Ann, to unearth the buried secrets of nearly a century before.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Confusing, by it could just have been me
- By Ilana on 10-01-12
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Brimstone Wedding
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 125
Unlike the other residents of Middleton Hall, Stella is elegant, smart and in control. Only Jenny, her care assistant, knows that she harbours a painful secret, and only she can prevent Stella from carrying it to the grave. As the women talk, Jenny pieces together the answers to many questions that arise: Why has she kept possession of a house that her family don’t know about? What happened there that holds the key to a distant tragedy?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing reader elevates book to a higher level
- By Doggy Bird on 10-04-14
By: Barbara Vine
-
King Solomon's Carpet
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Michael Pennington
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 17
Eccentric Jarvis lives in a crumbling schoolhouse overlooking the tube line, compiling his obsessive history of the Underground. A group of misfits are also drawn towards his strange house: Alice, who has run away from her husband and baby; Tom, the busker who rescues her; truant Jasper who finds his terrifying thrills on the tube; and enigmatic Axel, whose deadly secret casts a shadow over all their lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Pat on 04-04-11
By: Barbara Vine
-
A Dark-Adapted Eye
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 286
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 256
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 257
Like most families, they had their secrets...and they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that prim Vera Hillyard and her beautiful, adored younger sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the '50s was not kind to women who erred, so they had to use every means necessary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors - even murder.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Even better in audio form
- By Jennifer on 08-20-11
By: Barbara Vine
-
Thirteen Steps Down
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 39
Mix Cellini (which he pronounces with an S rather than a C) is superstitious about the number 13 and has always felt dogged by ill-luck. In the house where he lives, there are 13 steps down to the landing below his rooms. His landlady lives her life almost exclusively through her library, blind to the neglect and decay around her. However, Mix is obsessed with the life of the notorious John Christie, who lived in the same Notting Hill neighbourhood at 10 Rillington Place.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
As always, Rendell writes a very engaging yarn!
- By nina on 05-06-16
By: Ruth Rendell
-
Make Death Love Me
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Alan Groombridge had a fantasy. Husband to a woman he didn't like, father of two children he had never wanted,and manager of the second smallest branch of the Anglian-Victoria bank in the country, Alan was doomed to a life of domestic boredom and tedious routine.All that saved him was that one fantasy: stealing enough of the bank's money to allow him just one year of freedom -one year in which to live a different sort of life. But one day there was no more dreaming and no more games.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Missing the last chapter!
- By JC on 01-26-12
By: Ruth Rendell
-
Talking to Strange Men
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 31
Safe houses and secret message drops, double crosses and defections - it sounds like the stuff of sophisticated espionage, but these agents are only schoolboys engaged in harmless play. Not that John Creevey knows this. To him, the messages he decodes with painstaking care are the communications of dangerous and evil men, and as he comes face to face with the fact of his beloved wife Jennifer's defection, he begins to see a way to get back at the man she left him for.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful narrator Wonderful writing
- By Shirlie M. Slater on 08-28-19
By: Ruth Rendell
-
The Best Man to Die
- An Inspector Wexford Mystery
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 180
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 151
Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be the prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? And Charlie's death was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women. Now Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant join forces with the groom to track down a killer....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Classic who-dunnit
- By Kathi on 02-24-13
By: Ruth Rendell
-
The Word Is Murder
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Rory Kinnear
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,652
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,052
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,021
The New York Times best-selling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty brilliantly reinvents the classic crime novel once again with this clever and inventive mystery starring a fictional version of the author himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes, investigating a case involving buried secrets, murder, and a trail of bloody clues.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Something New
- By Alice on 06-26-18
By: Anthony Horowitz
-
The Rottweiler
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Nigel Anthony
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 161
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 138
The first girl had a bite mark on her neck, but they traced the DNA to her boyfriend. But the tabloids got hold of the story and called the killer 'The Rottweiler' and the name stuck. The latest murder takes place very near Inez Ferry's antique shop in Marylebone. When the Rottweiler’s trinkets start showing up in the shop, suddenly, everyone Inez knows is a suspect, and the killer feels all too close.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lots of atmosphere, and a Freudian mystery.
- By Sparkly on 11-03-12
By: Ruth Rendell
-
The Secret House of Death
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Louise North doesn't care what the neighbors think. She lets her lover leave his car just outside her house in broad daylight, telling everyone he is a central heating salesman. Still, it's a shock when she's found shot dead, covered by the equally dead body of the "salesman." It was his third visit to the gloomy house on Orchard Drive. Each time, he parked in the same place. Each time, he carried a briefcase. And each time, Louise North greeted him at the door.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book!
- By writer reviewer on 05-18-19
By: Ruth Rendell
-
The Woman in My Home
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 711
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 622
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 620
Finally, Cath has met someone: a man she loves, Robin, and who adores her in return. And after years of managing fine on her own, running a successful business, raising her son and caring for her elderly mother, she feels she deserves some happiness. She expected everyone to be delighted for her. But her friends and family are suspicious of Robin. And Rebecca, a desperate single mother whom Cath has hired as a live-in housekeeper, doesn’t trust him either.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Intelligent and relevant
- By Lennylou on 06-21-22
By: Kerry Fisher
-
Heartstones
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Alexandra O’Karma
- Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 12
Few mystery writers can match Ruth Rendell’s ability to get inside the dark, tangled psyches of everyday criminals. Rendell takes a single emotion - in this case a sister’s all-consuming jealousy - and shows how even the most unsuspicious people are capable of the worst kind of horrors.
By: Ruth Rendell
Related to this topic
-
Maeve's Times
- In Her Own Words
- By: Maeve Binchy
- Narrated by: Kate Binchy
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
From the royal wedding to boring airplane companions, Samuel Beckett to Margaret Thatcher, "senior moments" to life as a waitress, Maeve's Times gives us wonderful insight into a changing Ireland as it celebrates the work of one of our best-loved writers in all its diversity - revealing her characteristic directness, laugh-out-loud humor, and unswerving gaze into the true heart of a matter.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A GLIMPSE THROUGH MAEVE'S LOOKING GLASS
- By jstrfic on 08-08-17
By: Maeve Binchy
-
The Brimstone Wedding
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 125
Unlike the other residents of Middleton Hall, Stella is elegant, smart and in control. Only Jenny, her care assistant, knows that she harbours a painful secret, and only she can prevent Stella from carrying it to the grave. As the women talk, Jenny pieces together the answers to many questions that arise: Why has she kept possession of a house that her family don’t know about? What happened there that holds the key to a distant tragedy?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing reader elevates book to a higher level
- By Doggy Bird on 10-04-14
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Best Man to Die
- An Inspector Wexford Mystery
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 180
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 151
Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be the prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? And Charlie's death was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women. Now Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant join forces with the groom to track down a killer....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Classic who-dunnit
- By Kathi on 02-24-13
By: Ruth Rendell
-
More Than You Know
- By: Penny Vincenzi
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 23 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 58
A privileged girl from a privileged class, Eliza has a dazzling career in the magazine world of the 1960s. But when she falls deeply in love with Matt, an edgy working-class boy, she gives up her ritzy, fast-paced lifestyle to get married. By the end of the decade, however, their marriage has suffered a harrowing breakdown, culminating in divorce and a dramatic courtroom custody battle over their little girl. Also at risk is Eliza's gorgeous family home, a pawn in the game, which she can't bear to give up.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Like a box of chocolates...
- By Paul Hersh on 08-06-12
By: Penny Vincenzi
-
At Home with the Templetons
- By: Monica McInerney
- Narrated by: Ulli Birve
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
When the Templeton family from England takes up residence in a stately home in country Australia, they set the locals talking – and with good reason. From the outside, the seven Templetons seem so bohemian, peculiar even. No one is more intrigued by the family than their neighbours, single mother Nina Donovan and her young son Tom. Before long, the two families' lives become entwined in unexpected ways.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A dreadful mistake
- By Julie on 11-14-10
By: Monica McInerney
-
The Blood Doctor
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
The First Lord Nanther, expert in blood diseases, particularly the royal disease of Heamophilia, and favoured physician to Queen Victoria, clearly hoped to be the subject of an admiring posthumous biography. But when his great-grandson, Martin Nanther begins to research his life for a biography, the Martin comes to suspect that his great-grandfather’s old records conceal more than they reveal.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
clever, excellent storytelling
- By connie on 07-09-11
By: Barbara Vine
-
Maeve's Times
- In Her Own Words
- By: Maeve Binchy
- Narrated by: Kate Binchy
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
From the royal wedding to boring airplane companions, Samuel Beckett to Margaret Thatcher, "senior moments" to life as a waitress, Maeve's Times gives us wonderful insight into a changing Ireland as it celebrates the work of one of our best-loved writers in all its diversity - revealing her characteristic directness, laugh-out-loud humor, and unswerving gaze into the true heart of a matter.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A GLIMPSE THROUGH MAEVE'S LOOKING GLASS
- By jstrfic on 08-08-17
By: Maeve Binchy
-
The Brimstone Wedding
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 125
Unlike the other residents of Middleton Hall, Stella is elegant, smart and in control. Only Jenny, her care assistant, knows that she harbours a painful secret, and only she can prevent Stella from carrying it to the grave. As the women talk, Jenny pieces together the answers to many questions that arise: Why has she kept possession of a house that her family don’t know about? What happened there that holds the key to a distant tragedy?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing reader elevates book to a higher level
- By Doggy Bird on 10-04-14
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Best Man to Die
- An Inspector Wexford Mystery
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 180
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 151
Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be the prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? And Charlie's death was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women. Now Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant join forces with the groom to track down a killer....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Classic who-dunnit
- By Kathi on 02-24-13
By: Ruth Rendell
-
More Than You Know
- By: Penny Vincenzi
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 23 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 58
A privileged girl from a privileged class, Eliza has a dazzling career in the magazine world of the 1960s. But when she falls deeply in love with Matt, an edgy working-class boy, she gives up her ritzy, fast-paced lifestyle to get married. By the end of the decade, however, their marriage has suffered a harrowing breakdown, culminating in divorce and a dramatic courtroom custody battle over their little girl. Also at risk is Eliza's gorgeous family home, a pawn in the game, which she can't bear to give up.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Like a box of chocolates...
- By Paul Hersh on 08-06-12
By: Penny Vincenzi
-
At Home with the Templetons
- By: Monica McInerney
- Narrated by: Ulli Birve
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
When the Templeton family from England takes up residence in a stately home in country Australia, they set the locals talking – and with good reason. From the outside, the seven Templetons seem so bohemian, peculiar even. No one is more intrigued by the family than their neighbours, single mother Nina Donovan and her young son Tom. Before long, the two families' lives become entwined in unexpected ways.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A dreadful mistake
- By Julie on 11-14-10
By: Monica McInerney
-
The Blood Doctor
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
The First Lord Nanther, expert in blood diseases, particularly the royal disease of Heamophilia, and favoured physician to Queen Victoria, clearly hoped to be the subject of an admiring posthumous biography. But when his great-grandson, Martin Nanther begins to research his life for a biography, the Martin comes to suspect that his great-grandfather’s old records conceal more than they reveal.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
clever, excellent storytelling
- By connie on 07-09-11
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Heart's Invisible Furies
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
- Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,056
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,416
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,385
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery - or at least that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding. A Must listen.
- By Keith G on 09-04-17
By: John Boyne
-
Corduroy Mansions
- A Novel
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 650
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 508
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 510
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Oedipus Snark, MP
- By connie on 04-25-12
-
Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story
- By: Susan Hill
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 129
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
When Simon Serrailler was a rookie constable with the Met, he did something reckless in the course of a night's work which caused a man's death. But his act was praised by his colleagues, and he was called a hero. Years later, now a detective chief superintendent who has been badly injured in the course of duty, he receives a medal for bravery at Buckingham Palace while recollecting that fateful night of his early career, when chance disguised itself as bravery.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
This 'story' makes no sense to me
- By Pamela Donaldson on 05-10-17
By: Susan Hill
-
Hello from the Gillespies
- By: Monica McInerney
- Narrated by: Ulli Birvé
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 156
For the past 33 years, Angela Gillespie has sent to friends and family around the world an end-of-the-year letter titled ‘Hello from the Gillespies’. It’s always been cheery and full of good news. This year, Angela surprises herself - she tells the truth....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Engaging
- By mgn on 08-18-15
By: Monica McInerney
-
Watermelon
- By: Marian Keyes
- Narrated by: Gerri Halligan
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 113
At 29, Claire is full of the joys of life - that is, until her husband leaves her on the day she gives birth to her baby. With a broken heart, a beautiful newly born and an expanding mirror image, she decides to visit her eccentric family in Dublin. There she starts to feel better. So much better, in fact, that James is in for a surprise when he decides to slither back into her life....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A fun read, every time
- By Audrey Smith on 01-06-23
By: Marian Keyes
-
Shadow of a Century
- By: Jean Grainger
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 264
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 231
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 228
Mary Doyle arrives in Dublin in 1913, doomed, she fears, to a life of domestic service. Instead, however, she finds herself deeply affected by the social and political turmoil of a fledgling nation struggling for independence. Suddenly, all that was once inevitable is no longer a certainty as she is embroiled in the very heart of the Easter Rising.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-20
By: Jean Grainger
-
Talking It Over
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey, Alex Jennings, Clare Higgins
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 96
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 85
Introducing Stuart, Gillian and Oliver. One by one they take their turn to speak straight out to the camera - and give their side of a contemporary love triangle. What begins as a comedy of misunderstanding slowly darkens and deepens into a compelling exploration of the quagmires of the heart.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Narrative Gimmick Works
- By Alan on 11-22-11
By: Julian Barnes
-
How It All Began
- By: Penelope Lively
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 459
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 392
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 390
When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful and beautifully written
- By Molly-o on 02-15-12
By: Penelope Lively
-
The Good Friday Murder
- A Christine Bennett Mystery, Book 1
- By: Lee Harris
- Narrated by: Dee Macaluso
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
Christine Bennett has left the cloistered world of nuns for the profane world of New York State, where murder and madness are often linked. At a town meeting, Christine volunteers to investigate a 40-year-old murder case long since closed. Now she'll move heaven and earth to exonerate a pair of retarded savant twins, now senior citizens, of their mother's murder on Good Friday in 1950.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Polite procedural cozy
- By connie on 12-29-12
By: Lee Harris
-
Mrs Queen Takes the Train
- By: William Kuhn
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,125
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,914
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,907
An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn - author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books - Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Can't believe how much I loved this story
- By analyzethis on 03-10-13
By: William Kuhn
-
Past Imperfect
- By: Julian Fellowes
- Narrated by: Richard Morant
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,181
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,024
Damian Baxter is hugely wealthy and dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, England, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern--his fortune in excess of 500 million and who should inherit it on his death.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Read Snobs instead
- By cristina on 02-14-13
By: Julian Fellowes
-
Cold Hand in Mine
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ("Pages from a Young Girl's Journal") but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Aickman is unique
- By Stark on 08-19-23
By: Robert Aickman
What listeners say about The Birthday Present
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Yennta
- 08-04-09
Love This Writer Always, But...
This was so terrific, so far above most other thriller/novel writers, and in fact this is a novel rather than a thriller. You can tell because Ruth Rendell is being Barbara Vine here, in one of her -- what my cousin calls -- sociopath novels. BUT I just reread (re-listened to) The Minotaur also by B.Vine. I was blown away by how absolutely riveting it was the second time around. It may be her best. READ THE MINOTAUR. It's such a stunner.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Lesley
- 05-02-09
Social Crime
A very British theme ... a gentleman must do what a gentleman must do. A landed gentry politician with 'out of the norm' sexual preferences is plagued throughout his career by an 'accident' which would expose him if it were ever examined closely. We follow his anxiety through the eyes of his brother-in-law and through the eyes of his dead lover's bridesmaid. The brother-in-law is super conservative and unexceptional. The bridesmaid is ... unstable. Crime plays a very small part in the whole story. Insinuation and assumption play very large parts. Different, but absorbing and told by a master story teller. The narrators are to be applauded.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Quahog
- 03-13-10
Atypical Vine
I have always read or listened to any new book by Barbara Vine that appears. Her best books can make me shiver in recollection even years later. This is the first that I've found boring. There are two narrators, neither of them likable, and I found it hard to suspend my disbelief in the plot, which seemed to drag on. Nor could I care about the off-putting central character. A disappointment.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful