Geneva
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About this listen
"An outstanding debut - ingenious, fast-paced and unpredictable." (Harlan Coben)
"Geneva is one of the best thrillers I've ever read. And I've read quite a few." (A J Finn)
How far would you go for someone you love?
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has taken a step back from work to spend more time with her family. Movie nights with her husband Daniel and their daughter Maddie are a welcome respite from the scrutiny of the world’s press. As much as it hurts, it’s good to be able to see her father more too. He’s suffering from Alzheimer’s and needs special care.
Sarah has started to show tell-tale signs of the disease too. She’s been experiencing blackouts and memory loss. It’s early days but she must face the possibility that she won’t be there to see her daughter grow up. Daniel, a neuroscientist himself, is doing his best to be supportive but she already knows that she will have to be the strong one. For all of them.
So when Sarah is invited to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference in Geneva she declines, wanting to stay out of the public eye – that is until Daniel shows her the kind of work that the enigmatic Mauritz Schiller has been developing.
Flown first class to the spectacular alpine city and housed in a luxury hotel, Sarah and Daniel are thrust back into the spotlight. As they try to shut out the noise of the public media storm, in private Sarah is struggling with her escalating symptoms. And the true extent of what Schiller has achieved is a revelation. This is technology that could change medicine forever. More than that, it could save Sarah’s life.
But technology so valuable attracts all kinds of interest. Wealthy investors are circling, controversial blogger Terri Landau is all over the story, and someone close to Schiller seems bent on taking advantage of the situation for themselves. Sarah feels threatened and does not know who to trust – including herself. Far from being her lifeline Schiller's technology may be her undoing.
As events spiral out of control Sarah and Daniel are faced with the ultimate question: how far would you go for someone you love?
An unmissable debut thriller written and narrated by Richard Armitage, co-narrated by Nicola Walker and Jane Perry.
This book contains scenes pertaining to dementia that some listeners may find distressing.
©2022 Richard Armitage (P)2022 Audible, LtdListeners also enjoyed...
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It also has episodes of tenderness, thoughtful reflection and sensitivity that I felt came from his heart and from personal experience. He had me in tears a few minutes in, and the care home scenes will ring true with many more readers.
I was completely drawn in by the strong storyline, the interesting characters and some beautifully descriptive and evocative passages that transported the listener to the location.
The narration by all 3 readers is superb.
As I write, this audiobook has been the number 1 bestseller in the UK since early today, (on its day of release) and is only getting 5 star reviews so far - that reward is well deserved. i can't recommend it highly enough. I have to congratulate Richard on such a magnificent first novel, and look forward to more from him as an author.
Sadly, there is no accompanying print or ebook version as yet, so the novel is not accessible to everyone. I do hope this oversight will soon be rectified, as it deserves the widest possible audience.
I also look forward to a screen version that is apparently being considered.
Update, Spring 2023 - And I'm very happy to hear there will be hardcover print and Kindle versions of Geneva available on October 12 this year. We are also looking forward to another planned novel from Richard Armitage, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.
I'd also like to congratulate Richard on being shortlisted for the British Book Awards in the Audiobook of the Year category for Geneva - a great and well-deserved achievement.
A Stunning Debut Novel
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Excellent
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Great book
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Absolutely fantastic!
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I would listen to anything by RA
and I would listen to anything by nicola Walker
they both have the most glorious voices..and voices are everything
thoroughly recommended
fantastic twist n turn thriller
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Good story
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the difference voices
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A. Good plot
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Now, after seemingly removing himself from the Hollywood spotlight after the Hobbit trilogy came to an end (Thorin Oakenshield, you have my heart), and after having brilliantly narrated multiple audiobooks and Audible originals over the last years, here comes Geneva, Richard Armitage’s authorial debut in the form of an audiobook.
Aptly named, the novel takes place in one of Switzerland’s most famous cities which is about to host a prestigious biotech conference, headed by the Schiller Institute, that seeks to introduce the créme de la créme of neuroscientists and biochem investors to a breakthrough invention that could change the world of medicine. Sarah Collier, Nobel Prize-winning scientist, has been invited to the conference in the hopes of lending her face to the endeavour. What no one except her and her husband Daniel knows: Sarah is showing the tell-tale signs of early-onset Alzheimer’s. As someone who is notoriously private and who seems to be in declining health, Sarah really doesn’t want to go until Daniel convinces her to, and she witnesses what the jaw-dropping new technology invented at the Schiller institute could do to help others – and herself. But everything is not as it seems. Not at the conference, not at the Schiller institute, and not in Sarah’s and Daniel’s marriage…
This was a more than solid debut novel. After his continuous collaboration with Harlan Coben and his adaptations, I’m not surprised RA decided to place his first book firmly in the genre of crime thriller. And he does it well. Might he be missing a distinct voice that would distinguish him from other authors of the genre? Yes, but he still has more than enough time to develop such a voice, and I’m confident it will happen eventually, especially since “Geneva” was only his debut, after all.
The book provides its readers with a set-up I found immediately intriguing. A world-class professor suffering from Alzheimer’s? Slowly losing confidence in her abilities, herself? Not knowing what is real anymore and what isn’t and having to constantly keep it all together in front of rooms filled with experts on the disease she suffers from? Yeah, sign me up!
RA spends a lot of time developing Sarah’s inner working and feelings and even though the book is split into a mostly dual POV (Daniel’s chapters being read by Richard Armitage, Sarah’s chapters by the fabulous Nicola Walker), occasionally threefold POV, it is clear Sarah is the main character. The readers feel with her, and when she begins doubting her own perception, we do, too.
The novel’s whole setting is a ✨vibe✨, too. I wanted to read this one as soon as it came out, and I did, but because the plot takes place in Winter (December or January, I think), and there is snow and ice everywhere, some part of me wishes I had listened to this over several cold winter nights, tucked up in bed or on the couch with a warm blanket, hot chocolate, and Christmas cookies. There is icy atmosphere aplenty and even though I have never been to Geneva (or Genf, as it is actually called), I could just picture the frozen lake in the park, the snow-crusted trees and road signs, and the epic mountains surrounding the city.
Combined with Richard’s and Nicola’s expert narration (honestly, listening to Richard Armitage narrate ANYTHING is the equivalent of having warm, liquid chocolate poured in your ears), an intriguing set-up and the novel’s overall atmosphere, this one made for an entertaining and very fast-paced listen. I didn’t even mind (and I usually do) that I rightfully predicted 50-75% of all plot twists and sudden revelations. Something I can easily forgive and forget, given that the characters were purposefully written with such cruelty and bad intentions in their hearts, that my worst idea of where this story could go had to be the correct one.
Richard Armitage’s debut novel is an engaging thriller not afraid of taking digs at the, at times, horribly exploitative pharmaceutical industry, Putin and the Kremlin, the toxicity of the male ego and whether those closest to us really always have our best interests at heart. It might miss a unique voice and is, at times, a touch too predictable, coming across as forcefully novel-y in some passages, but only a bad-tempered reader will gripe about those things when the novel’s pros far outweigh its cons.
Solid debut!
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Beautiful voice of Nicola Walker
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