A Commonplace Killing
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Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
A Commonplace Killing
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Robert Peston
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Daniel Weyman
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By:
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Sian Busby
About this listen
On a damp July morning in 1946, two schoolboys find a woman’s body in a bomb site in north London. The woman is identified as Lillian Frobisher, a wife and mother who lived in a war-damaged terrace a few streets away. The police assume that Lil must have been the victim of a vicious sexual assault; but the autopsy finds no evidence of rape, and Divisional Detective Inspector Jim Cooper turns his attention to her private life. How did Lil come to be in the bomb site – a well-known lovers’ haunt? If she had consensual sex, why was she strangled? Why was her husband seemingly unaware that she had failed to come home on the night she was killed?
In this gripping murder story, Siân Busby gradually peels away the veneer of stoicism and respectability to reveal the dark truths at the heart of postwar austerity Britain. Siân Busby was an award-winning writer, broadcaster and film maker. She published four books, including The Cruel Mother, a memoir of her great-grandmother which won the MIND Book Award in 2004; and a novel, McNaughten, which was published to critical acclaim in 2009. She was married to the BBC Business editor, Robert Peston, and had two sons. She died in September 2012 after a long illness and will be much missed.
©2013 Siân Busby (P)2014 Audible StudiosListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A writer with a rare and singular dedication to authenticity...the atmosphere Busby evokes is as melancholic as Graham Greene The End of the Affair." (Valerie Grove, The Times)
"Siân Busby's final novel is a classic whodunit at its very best." (The Express)
"Elegant, spell-binding and unbearably sad...This deeply heartfelt crime novel brings a tear to the eye, for it shows what a fine novelist we have lost." (Daily Mail)
"A writer of rare subtlety." (Mail on Sunday)
"The dinginess of London in 1946 is brilliantly evoked...in this distinctive and engaging novel." (The Sunday Times)
"Illuminating...A Commonplace Killing by Sian Busby is rich in detail and peopled with beautifully drawn characters." (The Telegraph)
"A cracking book." (Lorraine Kelly)
"Extraordinarily atmospheric...a superbly accomplished and gripping piece of postwar noir" (The Times
This is a terrible shame because of the brilliance of this work, not just because of the author's passing.
The story is told in two time lines, before the murder from the victim's point of view, and after from the detective's point of view.
These characters can not be labeled good or bad. Like real characters, they have elements of both; being very human characters, with failings like all of us.
Tightly plotted, wonderfully written, you will love and grieve for the brilliance of its author and the loss of her and her incredible talent.
As good as, or better, than Laura Wilson
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A woman is found strangled in a bombed house - the book is set just after the war in London. So it’s a who dun it though we find out who it was quite early on.
A bit slow.
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A melancholy view of post war London
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If you could sum up A Commonplace Killing in three words, what would they be?
Historically accurate depictionWhat did you like best about this story?
I very much enjoyed the depiction of post war Britain, and the total lack of bad language nowadays used for effect. The story grabs the listener straight away.Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Brought memories of my childhood in the fifties, thankfully, without the murder!Any additional comments?
I would like to read any other books by this author.A very atmospheric book
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Very evocative
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