Regular price: £24.99
You wake. Confused. Disorientated. A noose is round your neck. You are bound, standing on a chair. All you can focus on is the man in the mask tightening the rope. You are about to die. John Wallace has no idea why he has been targeted. No idea who his attacker is. No idea how he will prevent the inevitable. Then the pendulum of fate swings in his favour. He has one chance to escape, find the truth and halt his destruction.
For Commandant Verhoeven life is beautiful: he is happily married, expecting his first child with the lovely Irène. But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. Worse still, the press seem to have it in for him - his every move is headline news. When he discovers that the killer has killed before - that each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel - the fourth estate are quick to coin a nickname: The Novelist.
In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Despite hundreds of potential witnesses, no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother, left behind at the previous station, alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central Station, the girl was nowhere to be seen.
1985. Kazumasa Yuuki, a seasoned reporter at the North Kanto Times, runs a daily gauntlet against the power struggles and office politics that plague its newsroom. But when an air disaster of unprecedented scale occurs on the paper's doorstep, its staff are united by an unimaginable horror and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop.
A standalone thriller from the prizewinning queen of Nordic noir and author of the Thora Gudmundsdottir series. A chilling thriller from the author of The Silence of the Sea, winner of the 2015 Petrona Award for best Scandinavian Crime Novel. A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide. An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing.
Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home. Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed. The search for the missing girl goes on, but so does everyday life. As it must.
You wake. Confused. Disorientated. A noose is round your neck. You are bound, standing on a chair. All you can focus on is the man in the mask tightening the rope. You are about to die. John Wallace has no idea why he has been targeted. No idea who his attacker is. No idea how he will prevent the inevitable. Then the pendulum of fate swings in his favour. He has one chance to escape, find the truth and halt his destruction.
For Commandant Verhoeven life is beautiful: he is happily married, expecting his first child with the lovely Irène. But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. Worse still, the press seem to have it in for him - his every move is headline news. When he discovers that the killer has killed before - that each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel - the fourth estate are quick to coin a nickname: The Novelist.
In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Despite hundreds of potential witnesses, no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother, left behind at the previous station, alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central Station, the girl was nowhere to be seen.
1985. Kazumasa Yuuki, a seasoned reporter at the North Kanto Times, runs a daily gauntlet against the power struggles and office politics that plague its newsroom. But when an air disaster of unprecedented scale occurs on the paper's doorstep, its staff are united by an unimaginable horror and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop.
A standalone thriller from the prizewinning queen of Nordic noir and author of the Thora Gudmundsdottir series. A chilling thriller from the author of The Silence of the Sea, winner of the 2015 Petrona Award for best Scandinavian Crime Novel. A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide. An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing.
Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home. Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed. The search for the missing girl goes on, but so does everyday life. As it must.
Meet Matthias Telemachus, Teddy Telemachus, Maureen Telemachus, Irene Telemachus, Frankie Telemachus and Buddy Telemachus! They were the Amazing Telemachus Family, who in the mid-1970s achieved widespread fame for their magic and mind-reading act. That is until the magic decided to disappear one night, live on national television.
The gripping new thriller from the best-selling author of Saving Sophie. Stephanie is scared for her life. Her psychologist, Connie Summers, wants to help her face her fears, but Connie will never really understand her. Stephanie's past has been wiped away for her own protection. Stephanie isn't even her real name. But then, Dr Summers isn't Connie's real name either. And that's not all the women have in common.
Daughter of a cold, controlling mother and an anonymous donor, studious, obedient Elizabeth finally let loose one night, drinking too much at a nightclub and allowing a strange man’s seductive Russian accent to lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. The events that followed changed her life forever. Twelve years later, the woman now known as Abigail Lowery lives alone on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks. A freelance programmer, she works at home designing sophisticated security systems.
For all fans of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy comes this master class in suspense about a spy caught up in his own web of deception.... Alec Milius is young, smart and ambitious - with a talent for deception. When a chance encounter opens the door to a career with MI6, he is desperate to make his mark. But life as a spy begins to take a terrible toll on himself and those around him, and soon Alec is chasing not just success but survival.
When a woman is beheaded in a park outside Rome and her six-year-old son goes missing, the police unit assigned to the case sees an easy solution: they arrest the woman's husband and await his confession. But the Chief of Rome's Major Crimes unit doubts things are so simple. Secretly, he lures to the case two of Italy's top analytical minds: Deputy Captain Colomba Caselli, a fierce, warrior-like detective still reeling from having survived a bloody catastrophe, and Dante Torre, a man who spent his childhood trapped inside a concrete silo.
Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor.
The only witness to a shocking murder is the victim's 10-year-old daughter, Margret. The police turn to the Children's House for their expertise in childhood trauma. The manager, Freyja, doesn't much like the police - especially the detective in charge, Huldar. But she does want to help them protect Margret. And when more people die - their murders heralded by strange messages, texts, and strings of numbers - they will have to work together to crack the riddle before they become targets themselves.
China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer—and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field—with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war.
Mid-December, and Cambridgeshire is blanketed with snow. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw tries to sleep after yet another soul-destroying Internet date – the low murmuring of her police radio her only solace. Over the airwaves come reports of a missing woman – door ajar, keys and phone left behind, a spatter of blood on the kitchen floor. Manon knows the first 72 hours are critical: you find her, or you look for a body.
Luther meets The Wire. This is the first Detective Harry Virdee audiobook. The sky over Bradford is heavy with foreboding. It always is. But this morning it has reason to be - this morning a body has been found. And it's not just any body. Detective Harry Virdee should be at home with his wife. Impending fatherhood should be all he can think about, but he's been suspended from work just as the biggest case of the year lands on what would have been his desk.
The complete set of The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire trilogy, featuring The Bullet Catcher's Daughter, Unseemly Science and The Custodian of Marvels. Elizabeth Barnabus lives a double life - as herself and as her brother, the private detective. She is trying to solve the mystery of a disappearing aristocrat and a hoard of arcane machines. In her way stand the rogues, freaks and self-proclaimed alchemists of a travelling circus....
Oregon, 1851. Eli and Charlie Sisters, notorious professional killers, are on their way to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling experiences in the landscape of Gold Rush America. And they bicker a lot. Arriving in California, and discover that Warm has invented a magical formula, which could make all of them very rich. What happens next is utterly gripping, strange and sad....
Six Four. The nightmare no parent could endure. The case no detective could solve. The twist no listener could predict.
For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again.
For the 14 years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police's apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as Six Four. They would never forgive the authorities their failure. For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case.
He could never imagine what he would uncover. He would never have looked if he'd known what he would find.
It's a struggle to get into, the Japanese names and the regional British accent Burnip gives to them doesn't quite fit, it's also very dense almost an examination into the Japanese police system, however at about the 5 hour mark it clicked and turned into something quite special and unique. It also takes a direction that I never saw coming. Outstanding
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Far too long. Annoyingly correct and plummy English narrator spoiled it for me. Not good
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
The storyline itself, once untangled from all the fluff and the personal and political crisis of the man in character , was interesting and well thought out. But it gets lost amongst endless interpersonal conflict, and drawn out questions about the police as an institution.
Basically it's far, far to long. But the most frustrating part was having a bland narrator, with pompous interpretations of the characters voice with little consideration of the cultural nuances of the characters and structure. Why some of these characters sounded in part like Only Fools and Horses/ The Sweeny- I'll never understand. If this has been read by a person with an accent and understanding appropriate I would have enjoyed it far more.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up Six Four in three words, what would they be?
It was hard at first to get all the characters names because they were Japanese.But the story was one not to put down. You wanted to know what was going to happen next. Being a true story and asking my Japanese Pen Friends it is really a big book and film. I would love to see the film too.
Who was your favorite character and why?
I loved the detective who had been given a new roll as the Press Director. The character is great all the way through the book.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
I enjoyed the ending but will not say what happens. But it is not what you expect.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Yes the problems the Press Director went through with father of the kidnapped daughter and the problems he had with his own daughter.
Any additional comments?
It is hard work but worth the read. You will get into the characters and remember the names.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up Six Four in three words, what would they be?
Slow fast awesome
Who was your favorite character and why?
Mikami, whose decency and honour shone
What about Richard Burnip’s performance did you like?
Laboured
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I felt happier at the end
Any additional comments?
It's dreadfully slow and I nearly gave up, but if you can hang on through the relentless tedium in the first half, the story is suddenly intriguing and then more stuff happens and I found it hypnotic. I'm so glad I stuck with it.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
I couldn't finish this I'm ashamed to say. Could be the cultural differences but I found it hard to get into the mindset and get emotionally involved with the characters. I got really fed up of the political stuff as it felt very repetitive. I also struggled with keeping track of who was who, however that could easily be down to the fact that I am unfamiliar with the style of names.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
I wasn't to sure if this was for me but after only a short spell I was intrigued and interested until the end. Will read again I expect
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Had looked forward to something different but found it to be a relatively slow and sometimes confusing 'political' study rather than a 'crime thriller'. Perhaps something was lost in translation but...
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This is a 'Marmite book' I would need to do a psychometric assessment first.
What other book might you compare Six Four to, and why?
I liked this more than 'The Goldfinch' which is saying something.
Have you listened to any of Richard Burnip’s other performances? How does this one compare?
Very good. Narrated with the paucity of emotion that I would expect from a policeman native of Japan.
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
On the far side of a dark river
Any additional comments?
OK, this isn’t the easiest book to follow with a seemingly endless list of characters with names that all sounded alien and disturbingly similar given there were no familiar identifiers such as Origami, Kawasaki or Sushi. Very early in the plot I felt the need to draw up an organisation chart to keep track. As the burden increased I transcribed to Powerpoint as approximately 50 individuals were finally identified.
This is a slow-burner and sometimes it felt like damp leaves were being added to a peat fire as the police politics were described in minute detail. But it was all very much worth it. It was worth if only for the last couple chapters when all the threads were deftly pulled together in a deeply satisfying, cleverly intimated, conclusion.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Its read very, very slowly so first impression is that its boring. Just couldn't get in to it
5 of 7 people found this review helpful
The story in Six Four picks up fast, and keeps moving. The characters are well-drawn, often surprising. But the narrator, and in particular the way he voices the protagonist, are extremely off-putting, making it very difficult to bond in any way with the story or the protagonist. Too bad, for sure, because I think there is more subtlety of characterization than comes across in the audio version.
Six Four is not a thriller, or even a mystery. Oh, there is a mystery within the various subplots, but it isn't the core focus.
No, Six Four is an in depth look into the police force in Japan, as seen by the head of Media Relations. It is actually more interesting than it sounds, but don't go in expecting bang zoom action. This is a novel about reflection, examination and duty.
I recommend it, but with a reminder that Six Four is a slow, deep crawl.
Narration draggy even after speeding it up, in desperate need of guide to characters, and their motivations remain a mystery. The main character is in public relations for the police and half the book is taken up with the relationship with the press. The mystery is a very small part and every bit discussed is gone over and over. While many may find the discussions of Japanese sensibilities very interesting, it made it very hard for me to understand how the characters would behave and frustrating to see their perverse priorities. it's just really, really boring, sorry to say.