The Facts of Life and Death cover art

The Facts of Life and Death

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
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.

The Facts of Life and Death

By: Belinda Bauer
Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
Try Premium Plus free

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

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

'Call your mother.'
'What do I say?'
'Say goodbye.'

This is how it begins.

Lone women terrorised and their helpless families forced to watch - in a sick game where only one player knows the rules. And when those rules change, the new game is Murder.

Living with her parents in the dank beach community of Limeburn, ten-year-old Ruby Trick has her own fears. Bullies on the school bus, the forest crowding her house into the sea, and the threat of divorce.

Helping her Daddy to catch the killer might be the key to keeping him close.

As long as the killer doesn't catch her first...

 Amateur Sleuths Crime Thrillers Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting Game

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Night of the Sleepover cover art
The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill cover art
The Negligents cover art
Skin Deep cover art
Let Me In cover art
Bad Little Girl cover art
In Her Wake cover art

Critic reviews

Bauer at her best . . . the true heir to the great Ruth Rendell
A new Belinda Bauer always goes straight to the top of my to-be-read pile. She's the most interesting crime writer in England today
Belinda Bauer's thrillers are always compelling, always original, always brilliant. I will rush to read anything she writes
Belinda Bauer is one of the best British crime writers out there right now
She writes so beautifully, plots so cleverly and exhibits a razor-sharp understanding of people and places
This gripping, unsettling tale blends a murder mystery with a blackly comic look at the gradual erosion of 'normal' family life. You won't want to put it down
Lingers in the mind like an unwelcome guest, albeit one with a dark sense of humour . . . powerful, compelling reading
Our most inventive crime writer.
One of the most startling plots in contemporary crime fiction
Breathtaking. I read this and wished I’d written it
All stars
Most relevant
I can’t get enough of this author.
Whether it’s the sheer poetry of her writing, the variety of story that she weaves or the characters that seem to unexpectedly link all her tales, I don’t know.
I have to be honest and say that the final scenes of this jarred a little, but I don’t know if that’s because there was no hint in advance of the “setting” that would cause the denouement or the likelihood of it happening was hinted at but I missed it.
Either way it still provided a satisfying conclusion.
Onto the next.

Belinda Bauer does it again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The build up of of tension in a dark narrative is relieved with unexpected flashes of humour. First rate.

The author's understanding of a child's mind.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Facts of Life and Death is the first Belinda Bauer audiobook I’ve listened to, though I’ve previously read her novels Rubbernecker, Snap, and The Impossible Thing. The impossible bathing is my favourite. I LOVE Patrick Fort!!! That said, this book completely blew me away.

Bauer’s writing is so poetic—dark, beautiful, and utterly compelling. The story is told through the voice of a 10-year-old girl, and it feels both haunting and intimate. I was hooked from the very beginning.

What I love most about Bauer is her gift for creating characters with real depth and complexity. She makes them feel alive, flawed, and unforgettable. She truly is a genius with words, and this book is yet another example of her incredible talent.

I absolutely loved it, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Dark, beautiful and utterly compelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Downloaded this after hearing good things but nothing special really. Was a pretty hard slog to be honest and it took me 2 or 3 attempts to get into it and that was only because I'd had it too long to return. On the plus side the author does a good job of making you feel for Ruby due to the lack of decent parenting and for the most part being generally let down by the adults in her life. Predictable ending though. 6/10.

Meh...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Bauer at her best .I adored this book …favourite so far after Blacklands and Snap. Lots of unexpected twists and turns… likeable characters and fantastic narration.

Absolutely brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews