Listen free for 30 days
-
A Dark-Adapted Eye
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £19.69
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Crocodile Bird
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eve and Liza, Mother and Daughter, live a quiet life in their remote home; a rustic gatehouse of a country mansion. At first glance their lives appear quite ordinary, except that Liza has almost no knowledge of the outside world, has never played with a child her own age and has witnessed her mother commit murder, on multiple occasions.
-
-
Unexpected
- By Slubberd on 11-02-17
-
A Fatal Inversion
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the long, hot summer of 1976 Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie are camping at Wyvis Hall. They don’t ask why they are there or how they are to live; they simply scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall’s animal cemetery. But which woman? And whose child?
-
-
Very dated, and appalling narration!
- By Helen on 14-05-14
-
No Night Is Too Long
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings, Shelley Thomson, Samuel West
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Beautifully Narrated - Brought it to Life
- By Alison on 22-07-16
-
The Chimney Sweeper's Boy
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Frances Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The obituaries for Gerald Candless were respectful. He had been, after all, an admired and popular writer, and his sudden death at his home in Devon was a loss to literature as well as to his family and friends. The trouble was, as his daughter Sarah soon discovered, that it seemed that her father had taken on a different identity that he wasn't Gerald Candless at all. But if he wasn't Gerald Candless, who was he?
-
-
Lost the plot at the end but a great listen
- By S. K. Doughty on 01-02-10
-
Asta's Book
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
BRILLIANT!
- By Sussex Reader on 25-10-11
-
The Brimstone Wedding
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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?
-
-
Bored at the end.
- By MR on 16-10-15
-
The Crocodile Bird
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eve and Liza, Mother and Daughter, live a quiet life in their remote home; a rustic gatehouse of a country mansion. At first glance their lives appear quite ordinary, except that Liza has almost no knowledge of the outside world, has never played with a child her own age and has witnessed her mother commit murder, on multiple occasions.
-
-
Unexpected
- By Slubberd on 11-02-17
-
A Fatal Inversion
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the long, hot summer of 1976 Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie are camping at Wyvis Hall. They don’t ask why they are there or how they are to live; they simply scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall’s animal cemetery. But which woman? And whose child?
-
-
Very dated, and appalling narration!
- By Helen on 14-05-14
-
No Night Is Too Long
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings, Shelley Thomson, Samuel West
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Beautifully Narrated - Brought it to Life
- By Alison on 22-07-16
-
The Chimney Sweeper's Boy
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Frances Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The obituaries for Gerald Candless were respectful. He had been, after all, an admired and popular writer, and his sudden death at his home in Devon was a loss to literature as well as to his family and friends. The trouble was, as his daughter Sarah soon discovered, that it seemed that her father had taken on a different identity that he wasn't Gerald Candless at all. But if he wasn't Gerald Candless, who was he?
-
-
Lost the plot at the end but a great listen
- By S. K. Doughty on 01-02-10
-
Asta's Book
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
BRILLIANT!
- By Sussex Reader on 25-10-11
-
The Brimstone Wedding
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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?
-
-
Bored at the end.
- By MR on 16-10-15
-
Grasshopper
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clodagh was 19 when her parents packed her off to college and a relative’s house in Maida Vale, two years after the death on the pylon. They blamed her for it, everyone did....It was hardly surprising that she fell into the arms of Silver. In his flat at the top of his parents’ house, he played host to a strange crew of young drop-outs whose pleasure was to range the rooftops....
-
-
One of my favourite Rendell/Vine books
- By Ariadne on 06-09-14
-
The Minotaur
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kerstin Kvist didn't know what to expect when she took up a job with the Cosway family at their odd, almost grand, house. The family turned out to be even odder than the house: living at home with the widowed Mrs. Cosway were her four daughters and a son who haunted the house. Then, just as Kerstin was getting some inkling of what was going on, a stranger sets the family on a path to self-destruction...
-
-
Slow burn story that never flags
- By Kirstine on 02-09-21
-
The Child's Child
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Finty Williams
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What sort of betrayal would drive a brother and sister apart? When Grace and her brother Andrew inherit their grandmother's house, they surprise few people by deciding to move in together. But they've always got on well and the London house is large enough to split down the middle. There's just one thing they've not taken into account though: what if one of them wants to bring a lover to the house?
-
-
Disjointed and disappointing
- By Jayne on 25-04-13
-
The Blood Doctor
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Complex and Convincing
- By Carrie on 11-11-10
-
Innocent Blood
- By: P. D. James
- Narrated by: Kaite Scarfe
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innocent Blood is a standalone thriller and chilling mystery from P.D. James, the best-selling author of Death Comes to Pemberley and Children of Men. Philippa Palfrey, adopted as a child, believes herself to be the motherless, illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic father. At eighteen she exercises her right to find out the truth. What she discovers will change her life forever.
-
-
Innocent Blood
- By Gerald on 16-08-17
-
A Judgement in Stone
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Carole Hayman
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four members of the Coverdale family - George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles - died in the space of fifteen minutes on the 14th February, St Valentine's Day. Eunice Parchman, the housekeeper, shot them down on a Sunday evening while they were watching opera on television. Two weeks later she was arrested for the crime. But the tragedy neither began nor ended there...
-
-
I wonder if there's anyone she likes
- By Barbara on 25-05-19
-
The Black Tower
- By: P. D. James
- Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Commander Adam Dalgliesh is recuperating from a life-threatening illness when he receives a call for advice from an elderly friend who works as a chaplain in a home for the disabled on the Dorset coast. Dalgliesh arrives to discover that Father Baddeley has recently and mysteriously died, as has one of the patients at Toynton Grange. Evidently the home is not quite the caring community it purports to be. Dalgliesh is determined to discover the truth of his friend's death.
-
-
Bleak and unsettling
- By catsatcastle on 15-05-17
-
The Keys to the Street
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Jago had donated her own bone marrow to save the life of someone she didn’t know. And this generous act led directly to the bitter break-up of her affair with Alistair. For him, it was as though her beauty had been plundered. But the man whose life she had saved would change Mary’s life in a way she could never have imagined.
-
-
A Perfect Match
- By Olga the Owl on 15-11-12
-
From Doon with Death
- A Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery, Book 1 (Unabridged)
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Terrence Hardiman
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first case for DCI Reg Wexford. When Margaret Parsons disappears, it's assumed that she's run off with another man. But then the missing woman's body is found and a startling discovery is made when Mr. Parsons lets the police into his home....
-
-
Convention-breaking period piece
- By T on 04-05-15
-
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
- By: P. D. James
- Narrated by: Katie Scarfe
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Cordelia Gray: 22, tough, intelligent, and now sole inheritor of the Pryde Detective Agency. Her first assignment finds her hired by Sir Ronald Callender to investigate the death of his son Mark, a young Cambridge student found hanged in mysterious circumstances. Required to delve into the hidden secrets of the Callender family, Cordelia soon realizes it is not a case of suicide, and that the truth is entirely more sinister.
-
-
A More than Suitable Job for a Woman
- By Mrs on 03-09-19
-
The Blessing
- By: Nancy Mitford
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It isn't just Nanny who finds it difficult in France when Grace and her young son Sigi are finally able to join her dashing aristocratic husband Charles-Edouard after the war. For Grace is out of her depth among the fashionably dressed and immaculately coiffured French women and shocked by their relentless gossiping and bedhopping. When she discovers her husband's tendency to lust after every pretty girl he sees, it looks like trouble. And things get even more complicated when little Sigi steps in.
-
The Franchise Affair
- By: Josephine Tey
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marion Sharpe and her mother seem an unlikely duo to be found on the wrong side of the law. Quiet and ordinary, they have led a peaceful and unremarkable life at their country home, The Franchise. Unremarkable that is, until the police turn up with a demure young woman on their doorstep.Not only does Betty Kane accuse them of kidnap and abuse, she can back up her claim with a detailed description of the attic room in which she was kept, right down to the crack in its round window.
-
-
Well-paced and intriguing
- By Knucklebones on 23-07-11
Summary
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.
More from the same
What listeners say about A Dark-Adapted Eye
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kirstine
- 06-07-15
Compelling exposure of a family’s secrets
The author’s forte is in her depiction of human relationships whether writing detective fiction as Ruth Rendell or in her more psychological novels as Barbara Vine. This book is not a detective story and from the beginning we know that Vera has killed her sister Eden. The whole book is a detailed unravelling of why this occurred through the voice of Faith: the niece of the victim and perpetrator. Most of the characters are flawed and not particularly likeable but the narrative is utterly compelling and I was drawn into a hot-house of emotions among family members and their their dysfunctional relationships.
This is justifiably rated as one of the author’s best books and made a great listen.
Harriet Walter is an accomplished narrator and skilfully portrayed both young and old, male and female.
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jack Curran
- 03-12-15
Brilliant story, with dark and complex characters
A brilliant, dark, thought-provoking story with some of the most well-realised and complex characters I’ve ever come across. Whatever ‘crime’ novels or ‘detective fiction’ or ‘thrillers’ are usually supposed to be, for me this utterly transcended those genres. As the narrator comments, we know from the start who the killer is and how the murder was done. Instead of focussing on that, Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) unfolds the psychology of the Hillyard family with a perceptiveness that sometimes takes your breath away. It made me think that other books I’ve read with supposedly ‘deep’ or ‘complex’ characters are quite flat and obvious by comparison. There are lots of twists in the plot, but they never felt like contrivances or clever tricks. They come about as Faith, the character who narrates the story, grows gradually wiser and more perceptive about the secretive ways of her two aunts – as her ‘eye’ adapts to understand their dark behaviour, to paraphrase the title. Harriet Walter was an excellent reader, appropriately understated in her delivery but giving distinctive, memorable voices to the characters, many of whom are painfully repressed and reserved. This is the first Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell I’ve read or listened to, and I’ll certainly read more now.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris WRIGHT
- 19-10-16
Horribly plausible - beautifully written
This densely plotted tale shows how family jealousies, snobbish attitudes and social taboos create a toxic brew. murder becomes the plausible, almost banal outcome. Beautifullly written and sensitively natrated.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J
- 10-08-14
Brilliant!
If you could sum up A Dark-Adapted Eye in three words, what would they be?
This book is often rated as Ruth Rendell's best, and I agree. It's so much more than a crime novel; and Ruth Rendell is so much more than a crime writer. It's not for nothing Jeanette Winterson calls her mother.
Having read the preview, I did hesitate, as I wondered whether it would be too unsettling at night going to sleep listening to the 'voice' of a victim/ criminal without Inspector Wexford as a sane, down-to-earth intermediary, but it wasn't the case at all. The narrator of the story is an ingenue, and it was performed wonderfully by Harriet Walter.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marion G.
- 26-07-21
Oh dear - so old fashioned
So sorry folks, but I have to disagree with the reviews (and I read a lot before purchasing). Perhaps I have become a listener/reader who likes more action than this novel had in store. It did not take long before I was bored although I really did try to stay with the story and hope my interest would be sparked into life. Alas, it just didn't happen and I will sadly return unfinished and unloved. Honestly, I have enjoyed (and will hopefully continue to do so) slow burners from the past but found this novel to be truly old fashioned and tedious and will stick with our authors other identity and stick to Ruth Rendell.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- dimp
- 14-01-21
too complicated 😪
too much backwards, too many characters. not a good run this morning trying to get into this. put me off my stride
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E. Simpson
- 01-06-19
A well adapted tale
10+ hours of beautifully narrated, taut mystery
An all round triumph and to date my favourite Audible
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ORed
- 12-05-17
Well...absorbing and intriguing
Extremely well read. It kept my interest and it had so many intricate twists and turns that it was tricky to keep all the characters and timelines in perspective.
However, the main thread was clearer and I really struggled to feel sorry for either of the snobbish sisters.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maryb
- 02-10-16
Typical Barbara Vine excellent!
Harriet Walter reads beautifully. Look forward to another one. As always Vine never disappoints. I have been reading her books for years.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-03-21
Intriguing story
A well written and well read piece of fiction. Intriguing story full of twists and turns, definitely a must read.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Bonny
- 08-02-15
Well-written, absorbing psychological mystery
I bought this on the basis of audible reviews and was not disappointed. This is not an edge-of-your-seat mystery. It unfolds slowly and moves deeper and deeper into the characters, their histories and their motivations. It is beautifully narrated by Harriet Walter. If you're looking for something to lose yourself in and spend some time with, I recommend it.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jennifer
- 20-08-11
Even better in audio form
This has long been one of my favorite books. I've read it many times and recommended it to many other people. But it has been a few years since I last read it, and the narration, which I listened to while driving to and from NYC is wonderfully excellent.
This book requires a lot of thought, and is a perfect match for the audio format. Having the extra time to really appreciate the subtleties, mysteries, and deep character development is the strength of this format. You'd miss much of this when only reading. The narrator is top knotch, nailing the nuances and exploring the maturation of the main character over time. I can't recommend this one enough.
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kate
- 30-10-15
Family secrets and lies
And shocking revelations! Really, what more could you want? This book was fantastic, the story twisty and gripping, and the narration lively. Absolutely recommended!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Nanny
- 21-05-15
Performance Outshines the Story
Story is drawn out and the mystery or twist is easy to surmise. Overly detailed at times, especially when describing clothes or interior design elements. If Jane Austen had written a politely "shocking" novel, it would be this one.
However, it is well read and performed. The performance was the only thing that kept me listening.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- J
- 07-07-15
Great story, fabulous narration!
I wasn't sure about this story for the first couple of chapters but any book narrated by Harriet Walter's is worth a listen so I carried on and I'm so glad I did. This mystery is so cleverly written and the characters are brought to life so perfectly by the narrator. This is my first Barbara Vine novel but it certainly won't be my last.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Yankee Bookworm
- 02-02-17
Top drawer psychological novel
One of my favorite novels of all time. The writing is superb and the chosen narrator is as well. Chills and shivers are no better delivered by situations such as those that can be imagined as real, that are in a sense no more than everyday tragedies. The author also imparts a wonderful sense of time and place. Just read it!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- John
- 30-08-16
A Few
A few mispronounced words in the performance, but otherwise a nice job at giving each character a voice that fit. The story had a lot of interesting characters, but did very little with them in either growth, or action. I like the language very much.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Calliope
- 21-05-15
fascinating family intrigue
This is more an interesting and complicated look at the psychological workings of a family divided than it is a mystery.......though there are and remain several mysterious parts to the whole. It takes a while to get into the story, but as it continually unrolls it is more and more intriguing, drawing the listener deeper and deeper into the family machinations. The continuing family revelations experienced by the protagonist make sense of the title....A "Dark Adapted Eye" can see things that were formerly hidden in the darkness.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- MarciaB
- 30-11-18
I finished it
I enjoyed it and the narrator was great.
I was surprised that the plot did not go in the direction I had anticipated. It seemed to give so many a hints of crimes to be uncovered that the ending was a bit of a let down for me.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- William
- 30-03-16
A psychological can study of a maladaptive
This novel started out slow, but stick with it - you will be glad you did. The pace isn't fast, but you'll be deeply drawn into the story of a dysfunctional English family during the Second World War and their very unique history, relationships and secrets. A highly satisfying case study of human psychology and what motivates us all.
1 person found this helpful