American Crime Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or email
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Babson, Marian
Reel murder. 1986. Read by Helen Horton, 6 hours 22 minutes. TB 7802.
Trixie Dolan series; book 1. Evangeline Sinclair has been a star all her life. From silent films, through talkies, down to a retrospective showing at the recently opened Cinema in the sky, she has commanded the limelight. Never more so than when a horrendous moment from one of her old films is re-enacted in the garden of the London house where she is staying - only this time the corpse is real... TB 7802.
Babson, Marian
Nine lives to murder. 1994. Read by David Graham, 7 hours. TB 12304.
When Winstanley Fortescue, titan of the English stage and a notorious tomcatter, falls off a ladder onto the backstage cat Montmorency D Mousa, man and feline are catapulted into each other's body. Soon Winstanley Fortescue, cat, hears enough to know the fall was no accident. Who pushed him? His long suffering wife, his loony ex, his catty mistress or the critic who chewed up his last play? Twitching his tail, Win scats over to the hospital to sniff out the would be killer and save his own body, which is serving as host to Monty's bewildered soul. After all, how many lives could Monty's cat body have left? TB 12304.
Baxt, George
The Dorothy Parker murder case. 1985. Read by Arthur Blake, 10 hours 27 minutes. TB 6208.
It is 24 August 1926; Rudolph Valentino has just died in suspicious circumstances; Dorothy Parker has slit her wrists; and George S. Kaufman has found the body of a murdered showgirl in his Upper West Side hideaway. While Mrs Parker's attempted suicide raises no eyebrows (with Mrs P, suicide is a chronic condition), Kaufman's situation is clearly serious. TB 6208.
Bayer, William
Pattern crimes. 1987. Read by Stanley McGeagh, 12 hours 7 minutes. TB 6929.
When a succession of mutilated corpses are dumped near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, it looks as if Israel has its first case of serial murders. The relentless search for the underlying pattern by David Bar Lev becomes a race against time as he uncovers a series of coincidences as bizarre as the Ritual markings on the corpses. What is the link between a right wing rabbi and the release of a Soviet Jew to the West? Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 6929.
Berendt, John
Midnight in the garden of good and evil: a Savannah story. 1995. Read by William Roberts, 13 hours 11 minutes. TB 11415.
Gunshots ran out in the grandest mansion in Savannah, Georgia, in the early hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defence? This novel is based on a true story. Contains strong language. TB 11415.
Block, Lawrence
The burglar who liked to quote Kipling. 1981. Read by Bruce Montague, 7 hours 19 minutes. TB 4300.
Bernie Rhodenbarr series; book 3. Sequel to: The burglar in the closet. Bernie Rhodenbarr has a pleasant enough life: running a bookstore by day and pursuing his normal profession - crime - by night. And then he comes across the only surviving copy of a limited edition of The Deliverance of Fort Bucklow by Rudyard Kipling. All but this one had been burned at Batemans - and this one had been dedicated to Rider Haggard... TB 4300.
Block, Lawrence
The burglar who painted like Mondrian. 1984. Read by Simon Coady, 6 hours 3 minutes. TB 5429.
Bernie Rhodenbarr series; book 5. Sequel to: The burglar who studied Spinoza. Bernie Rhodenbarr is a professional burglar. He is also an antiquarian bookseller, a front which provides an entree into many promising homes for burglary. When a good friend, a happy lesbian called Carolyn, tells him that one of her cats has been kidnapped and the kidnapper is demanding as ransom a Mondrian currently on display in the Hewlett Gallery, Bernie decides to act. TB 5429.
Carr, Caleb
The Italian secretary: a further adventure of Sherlock Holmes. 2005. Read by Robbie McNab, 7 hours. TB 14377.
Mycroft Holmes, charged with ensuring the personal safety of Queen Victoria, calls on his brother for help when a number of attempts have been made on her life and when two unexplained deaths occur amongst the staff at her Scottish residencies. Accompanied by Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes goes north by train, examining the few facts Mycroft has been able to cryptically supply. To Watson's bafflement he is sure there is a link between these deaths and the murder in the old royal apartments at Holyrood of the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots: a killing which left a bloodstain that daily refreshes itself and in a room where voices can be heard in the darkest hours of the night. Can Holmes's extraordinary deductive powers solve the historical crime as well as the contemporary one? TB 14377.
Chandler, Raymond
The big sleep. 1967. Read by Marvin Kane, 7 hours 6 minutes. TB 1165.
Philip Marlowe series; book 1. Justice of an unexpected sort is done after a series of murders while a case of blackmail is being investigated. TB 1165.
Chandler, Raymond
Farewell, my lovely. 1940. Read by Marvin Kane, 8 hours 15 minutes. TB 2482.
Philip Marlowe series; book 2. Philip Marlowe's accidental entanglement with Moose Malloy involves him in adventures which end in the underworld of Los Angeles. TB 2482.
Clemeau, Carol
The Ariadne clue: a classical mystery. 1983. Read by Syd Ralph, 6 hours 12 minutes. TB 5041.
Classics professor, Antonia Nielson, finds herself in the middle of a mystery when a collection of Aegean gold artefacts is stolen and one of the best students disappears at the same time. Using the techniques of academic research, Antonia fights to keep one step ahead of the police. TB 5041.
Connelly, Michael
Blood work. 1999. Read by Dick Hill, 12 hours 53 minutes. TB 12829.
Thanks to a heart transplant, former FBI agent Terry McCaleb is enjoying a quiet retirement, renovating the fishing boat he lives on in Los Angeles Harbour. Until he has a visit from Graciela Rivers. She tells him that the heart beating in his chest belonged to her sister, who was not killed in an accident, as he had been told, but was murdered. And she wants him to take up the investigation. TB 12829.
Connelly, Michael
The black echo. 2002. Read by Dick Hill, 13 hours 21 minutes. TB 13844.
Harry Bosch series; book 1. One Sunday Harry Bosch gets a call out on his pager. A body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mulholland Drive, Hollywood. And Harry knows him. Billy Meadows was a fellow tunnel-rat out in Vietnam, running against the VC and against the fear that they called the black echo. At first Meadows looks like just another overdose victim but them comes news that he may have been involved in a huge bank heist eight months earlier, a case which the FBI are investigating. When Harry goes to the Feds to reveal what he has learned, they dismiss both him and his evidence out of hand. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 13844.
Connelly, Michael
The black ice. 2001. Read by Dick Hill, 11 hours 11 minutes. TB 14026.
Harry Bosch series; book 2. The official report said suicide. But in the city where murder is a sport, Bosch isn’t ready to blame the victim. Narcotics Officer Cal Moore was investigating the city’s latest drug killing. He ended up in a motel room with his head in several pieces and a suicide note in his back pocket. Years ago, Bosch learned the first rule of good police work: look not for the facts but the glue that holds them together. Now he’s making some very dangerous connections, following a string of bloody murders from Hollywood Boulevard’s drug bazaar to back-alleys south of the border and into the centre of a complex and lethal game - “ one in which Harry looks like the next victim. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 14026.
Cornwell, Patricia D
Hornet's nest. 1997. Read by Lorelei King, 13 hours 3 minutes. TB 11990.
Andy Brazil series; book 1. Deputy Chief Virginia West has a mood to match the heat in the city of Charlotte. Another out-of-town business man has been found murdered in his hire car and West is ordered to escort Andy Brazil, a rookie reporter on the local paper. And there are other causes for her increased nicotine intake: departmental in-fighting, court appearances and a never-ending string of burglaries, busts and bodies. TB 11990.
Cornwell, Patricia D
Postmortem. 1992. Read by Lorelei King, 9 hours 42 minutes. TB 10848.
Dr Kay Scarpetta series; book 1. Dr Kay Scarpetta has two problems. The first one is that a serial killer is strangling women in their own bedrooms, the second is that not everyone is thrilled that a woman is chief medical examiner. She uses all the technical tools at her disposal - computers, fingerprint-matching processors and DNA-testing equipment - to identify the killer. TB 10848.
Cornwell, Patricia D
Body of evidence. 2000. Read by Liza Ross, 10 hours 29 minutes. TB 12354.
Dr Kay Scarpetta series; book 2. Someone is stalking Beryl Madison. Someone who spies on her and makes threatening, obscene phone calls to the reclusive writer. Terrified, Beryl flees to Key West; the very night she returns, Beryl inexplicably invites her killer in... Did she know her killer? Adding to the intrigue is Beryl's enigmatic relationship with a prizewinning author, and the disappearance of Beryl's own manuscript. Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta heads an investigation that begins in the laboratory, and then leads her deep into a nightmare that soon becomes her own. Contains strong language. TB 12354.
Craven, Wes
Fountain society. 2000. Read by Jeff Harding, 12 hours 15 minutes. TB 12510.
A sinister plot is launched to confer immortality on a select group of government scientists. Weapon scientist Dr Peter Jance is chosen. He is dying of cancer just as he nears completion of his greatest invention. When Jance refuses to co-operate on moral grounds he finds himself in deep trouble. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 12510.
Cunningham, E V
The case of the poisoned eclairs. 1980. Read by Patrick Romer, 5 hours. TB 3997.
Masao Masuto series; book 4. Sequel to: The Case of the Russian Diplomat. None of the four divorcees touched the eclairs; the maid who took them home was poisoned. For whom were they intended and was there any further danger? TB 3997.
Daley, Robert
The dangerous edge. 1983. Read by Simon Coady, 14 hours 44 minutes. TB 5348.
It is 1952 and the supposedly impregnable Banque de Nice has been robbed. Unfortunately "The Brain" who engineered this heist also succumbed to a brief moment of hubris and made off with enough documents threatening careers, lives and reputations to make him the most hunted criminal in Europe. TB 5348.
Deaver, Jeffery
A maiden's grave. 2006. Read by Jeff Harding, 15 hours 18 minutes. TB 14673.
A school bus carrying eight deaf school girls and their teachers brakes suddenly on a flat Kansas highway. They should never have stopped to investigate the car crash. Waiting for them are three heartless men just escaped from prison - each with nothing to lose. And now, with the girls as their hostages, they have everything to gain. Stark against the prairie stands an ancient slaughterhouse that still reeks of decades of spilled blood. It is here that they make their stand. It is here that cold killer Lou Handy, the ringleader, announces his terms; here that he will kill one innocent girl an hour unless his demands are met. What follows is a twelve-hour siege of noose-tight tension - and a war of nerves between Handy and the FBI's senior hostage negotiator, Arthur Potter. Contains violence. TB 14673.
Dentinger, Jane
Death mask. 1988. Read by Kate Harper, 8 hours 43 minutes. TB 7868.
Jocelyn O’Roarke series; book 3. Sequel to: First Hit of the Season. Jocelyn O'Roarke, actress and fledgling director, scores a coup when the famous English actor, Frederick Revere, agrees to star in her fund-raising production of "Major Barbara". The play is to save a beautiful old theatre just off Broadway from demolition and all is going well until the curtain call of the first preview night: one of the cast does not straighten up again from his final bow... TB 7868.
Dexter, Pete
Paris Trout. 1988. Read by Emily King, 9 hours 37 minutes. TB 7468.
The horrific events of a summer's day in Cotton Point, Georgia, tore apart the social fabric of that sleepy little place. Paris Trout, white storekeeper and moneylender, kills two coloured females. He is both a product of the South and an aberration from its traditions, and is to cause more deaths before his own violent end. TB 7468.
Egan, Lesley
The miser. 1982. Read by Marvin Kane, 7 hours 29 minutes. TB 4253.
Jesse Falkenstein series; book 11. Sequel to: Motive in Shadow. Another case for Jesse Falkenstein, Lesley Egan's well-known lawyer-detective. Shabby Old Vanderveer is murdered and turns out to have been an archetypal miser. Jesse becomes involved in an absorbing hunt for hidden treasure. TB 4253.
Ellroy, James
L.A. confidential. 1994. Read by William Roberts, 14 hours 55 minutes. TB 13693.
L.A. quartet; book 3. Sequel to: The Big Nowhere. Christmas 1951, Los Angeles: a city where the police are as corrupt as the criminals. Six prisoners are beaten senseless in their cells by cops crazed on alcohol. For the LAPD detectives involved, the events will expose the guilty secrets on which they have built their corrupt and violent careers. Contains strong language. TB 13693.