Dan Brown’s Latest Title Announced

Dan Brown’s long awaited follow up to The Da Vinci Code has at last been announced. The Lost Symbol is launched on 16th September. Audio Books at Audio Book Bargains has it pre-ordered and should be with you on or around that date.

THE LOST SYMBOL will once again feature Dan Brown’s unforgettable protagonist, Robert Langdon. Brown’s longtime editor, Jason Kaufman, Vice President and Executive Editor at Doubleday said, “Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book’s narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. THE LOST SYMBOL is full of surprises.”

Movie tie-in audio book of Coraline

To coincide with the newly released film in the UK, the is an unabridged version of Coraline on 3 CDs.

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring…. In Coraline’s family’s new flat are twenty-one window and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close, The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own. Only it’s different…. At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom. But there’s another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself. Performed by Neil Gaiman With original music by “The Gothic Archies”.

New Release M. R. James The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James – Volume 1 Audio Book Unabridged CD

M. R. James (August 1, 1862 – June 12, 1936) is generally believed to be the first modern ghost story writer. He was a noted mediaeval scholar and provost of King’s College, Cambridge. James did away with the traditional gothic settings and used instead contemporary situations.

The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James – Volume 1 is on 8 CDs. It contains 14 chilling tales from the Master of British Ghost Stories. A Masterful unabridged reading by David Collings. Critically acclaimed readings of the following stories: Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book, Lost Hearts, Count Magnus, Number 13, Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, The Mezzotint, The Ash-tree, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Rose Garden, A School Story, The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, The Tractate Middoth, Casting the Runes and Martin’s Close.

Audio Book Bargains open a direct account with Blackstone Audiobooks

We’ve recently opened a direct account with Blackstone Audiobooks and can now deliver a much expanded range. One of the exciting new series to us are the Bernard Cornwell audio books. Included are titles such as Sharpe’s Gold, Sharpe’s Sword and Sharpe’s Rifles. There are a total of 14 titles in the Richard Sharpe series available from Blackstone.

Of course also are Blackstone’s super range of classics. Titles such as The Count of Monte Cristo on 37 CDs and read by John Lee.  Dracula is available. There are a host of well read titles.

New P. D. James The Private Patient

BBC Audiobooks have released P. D. James The Private Patient complete and unabridged audio book at a remarkable price of £15. Read by Michael Jayston, it is the latest in the Adam Dalgliesh series and sees P. D James in top form.

Synopsis:

Cheverell Manor an old house in Dorset is now a private clinic run by the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. When journalist Rhoda Gradwyn arrived there one autumn afternoon, scheduled to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed, she had every expectation of a successful operation and a pleasant week recuperating.

Two days later she was dead, the victim of murder.

To Commander Adam Dalgliesh, who with his team is called in to investigate the case, the mystery at first seems absolute. Few things about it make sense. Yet as the detectives begin probing the lives and backgrounds of those connected with the dead woman—the surgeon, members of the manor staff, close acquaintances—suspects multiply all too rapidly. New confusions arise, including strange historical overtones of madness and a lynching 350 years in the past. Then there is a second murder, and Dalgliesh finds himself confronted by issues even more challenging than innocence or guilt.

P. D. James has gained an enviable reputation for creating detective stories of uncommon depth and intricacy, combined with the sort of humanity and perceptiveness found only in the finest novelists. The Private Patient ranks among her very best.

Review – Exit Music by Ian Rankin

Exit Music is Ian Rankin’s final Rebus novel, Inspector Rebus is about to retire. As readers will know, these novels were written in real time at the rate of a book a year, taking Rebus from 43 to 60 years of age and thus his compulsory retirement from the Edinburgh police force. In his final case, he investigates the murder of a dissident Russian poet. Read by Tom Cotcher, who reads with a perfectly pitched dour Scottish accent, Ian Rankin has saved the best for last.

Ian Rankin often brings world and local events into his novels. In The Naming of the Dead, for example, he set the novel during the G8 summit in Edinburgh. The plot of Exit Music has parallels with the murder in the United Kingdom of Alexander Litvinenko. At the time of the murder, a group of high powered Russian businessmen are in town investigating investment opportunities in Scotland with the Scottish Parliament and senior bankers. The politicians and bankers want the case closed quickly and quietly. Rebus suspects links between the delegation of Russians and the murder and is, as usual, rubbing up his superiors the wrong way. The plot is rich and full of twists and sub-plots. As usual, too, Rankin’s writing takes the reader from the light to the dark. One of the funny sub-plots running through the book is Rebus’s attempts to get hold of signed copies of the poet’s work which he left at his final public reading – to sell on eBay! Meanwhile, Rebus’s nemesis, “Big Ger” Cafferty who seems to be involved with the Russian delegation, has been attacked and hospitalised. Rebus is suspected.

This reviewer confesses to being a huge fan of the Rebus series, having read every one in order. Tom Cotcher’s performance adds much to Rebus’s swansong. Highly recommended.

Children’s audio books for Christmas

At Audio Books at Audio Book Bargains we have some fantastic children’s audio books that will keep the very youngest to the oldest quiet through the year.

From Angie Sage we have Magyk for the teenager. For the youngest – and this one is my six year old son’s current favoured bedtime listening we have Araminta Spooky on CD.

Christopher Paolini audio books are HUGE sellers. The Inheritance trilogy was begun at the age of 15. Eragon was originally self published before being traditionally published. Eldest and most recently Brisingr followed.

An evergreen title is a full set of The Chronicles of Narnia on CD. Containing 31 CDs, C. S. Lewis’s complete Narnia works are read by actors such as Kenneth Branagh, Lynn Redgrave, Derek Jacobi and more.

In the only authorised recording of A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories, Peter Dennis reads the Winnie the Pooh Box Set. This audio set includes the ten stories of Winnie-the-Pooh, the ten stories of The House at Pooh Corner, the forty-four poems of When We Were Very Young, and the thirty-five poems of Now We Are Six.

We also have a range of Philip Pullman audio books.

Just in – Stephenie Meyer Twilight Unabridged on CD

Certain to be the biggest cinema hit of 2008, Twilight was written by Stephenie Meyer and was a huge publishing success rivalling Harry Potter. Meyer was born in 1973 in the US on Christmas Eve. Twilight is available now on 12 CDs.

About three things I was absolutely positive:
First, Edward was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of him–and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be–that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

“I’D NEVER GIVEN MUCH THOUGHT TO HOW I WOULD DIE– I’d had reason enough in the last few months –but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this. . . . Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of something else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.”
When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.
What Bella doesn’t realize is the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. And, it might be too late to turn back. . . .
Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight will have readers riveted right until the very last page is turned.

Review – Man in the Dark by Paul Auster

Man in the Dark tells the story of August Brill, a 72 year old retired book critic, recovering from a car accident in his daughter’s house. Brill’s leg was shattered in the accident, his wife has recently died after a long battle with cancer, his daughter is recently divorced and his granddaughter has recently lost her fiancé in horrific circumstances. He cannot sleep at night, and in order to stop him thinking of all the recent personal tragedies, he tells himself stories.

One story is about an alternative view of America today. Owen Brick wakes up in a dark hole and finds himself in uniform. America is at war with itself and Brick is now a soldier. He gradually discovers that following the flawed 2000 election result, sixteen states have seceded from the Union, tens of thousands have died, there was no Twin Towers event and no war in Iraq.

Brick is told that the reason he has been transported to the parallel America is to assassinate the author of the war; a miserable 72 year old man in a wheelchair who is thinking it up – August Brill. It’s an interesting device that makes the listener think about fiction and authorship. “There are many worlds, and they all run parallel to one another, worlds and anti-worlds, worlds and shadow-worlds, and each world is dreamed or imagined or written by someone in another world. Each world is the creation of a mind.”

Finally his granddaughter comes into his room before dawn and Brill recounts the family history. This is a moving section of the book, as Brill and his granddaughter confront the past. It is a story about how families deal with life’s sorrows and the ugliness sometimes present in the world.

Auster reads the tale without much differentiation between the characters, but his deep & clear enunciation is rhythmic and soothing. It is always interesting to hear an author read his own work as emphasis and pauses are of course as the author intended.

Just in – Blake’s 7

We’ve just added a number of Blake’s 7 audio books from Entain8. Included are some fabulous Blake’s 7 audio titles.  Included are Blake’s 7 Rebel, Blake’s 7 Liberator & Blake’s 7 Traitor. The titles feature the actors from the BBC series & have proved very popular. There is also a box set available containing the three titles – Blake’s 7 The Audio Adventures.