A Matter of Time cover art

A Matter of Time

DI Birch, Book 4

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

A Matter of Time

By: Claire Askew
Narrated by: Sarah Barron, Simon Slater
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

At 8 a.m., the first shots are fired.

At 1 p.m., the police establish the gunman has a hostage.

By 5 p.m., a siege is underway.

At 9 p.m., DI Helen Birch walks, alone and unarmed, into an abandoned Borders farmhouse to negotiate with the killer.

One day. One woman. One chance to get everyone out alive.

The outstanding new novel from the highly acclaimed author of All the Hidden Truths and What You Pay For - both shortlisted for the CWA Golden Dagger.

A beautifully written and plotted police procedural from a rising star in the genre who has delivered a game-changing fourth book.

©2022 Claire Askew (P)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Crime Crime Thrillers Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Thriller Thriller & Suspense

Listeners also enjoyed...

 All the Hidden Truths cover art
The Bonnie Dead cover art
A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller cover art
A Long Time Dead cover art
Return to Evil cover art
No Man's Land cover art
The Turning of Our Bones cover art
The Missing Ones cover art
The Hope That Kills cover art
First Blood cover art
Blood Red Roses cover art
The Fallen cover art
The Brief cover art
Silent Tide cover art
Dead Man’s Grave cover art
Starvation Lake cover art

Critic reviews

"Claire Askew takes us away from the obvious plot and asks us tantalising questions...an absorbing, thought-provoking entry into crime fiction." (The Times)
All stars
Most relevant
I swear I just wish there were more in the series already, fabulous work as always from Claire!

Fantastic as always

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I live really local to this area! It had me hooked because it was so accurate it was easy to get lost in the story!!

Accurate!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really struggled to last to the end. Enjoyed the previous ones but didn’t like this one. Heroin Helen came across as a real wimp and by the end I didn’t really care what happened to her. Don’t think I’ll bother with any more of this series. It really dragged with nothing happening for much of the book. The situation that should have been gripping wasn’t there. Sorry, I don’t often leave reviews, but this was very disappointing.

Struggled

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.