Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery
by Deborah & James Howe (Atheneum Books, 1979)
audiobook read by Victor Garber (Listening Library, 2004) [as part of The Bunnicula Collection]
![Book cover: "The Bunnicula Collection" by Deborah & James Howe (Listening Library, 2004); audiobook read by Victor Garber; review of “Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery” [first published, Atheneum Books, 1979]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Howe_Bunnicula-Collection.jpg)
A gentle MG story in which a dog and cat’s peaceful existence as family pets is disrupted by the arrival of a supposed vampire bunny. The human and animal characters all evince distinct personalities (brought to the fore in Garber’s audiobook reading).
The Mystery of the Blue Train
by Agatha Christie (William Collins & Sons, 1928)
audiobook read by Hugh Fraser (Lamplight Audio, 2014)
The mystery mostly makes sense once solved, but Christie’s omniscient narrative and excessive sketching of character backstories prove a poor substitute for genuine intrigue. Poirot misleads by treating every development as vital and always acting as though on the verge of omniscience.
Death in Captivity
by Michael Gilbert (Hodder and Stoughton, 1952)
audiobook read by Garrard Green (Bolinda, 2015)
The mystery element sits largely in the background of this Second World War POW story—as would have been the reality! Gilbert himself was interned in northern Italy in just such a camp as depicted. The upshot is a thoroughly convincing narrative.
The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu
by Sax Rohmer (Robert M. McBride & Company, 1916)
audiobook read by John Bolen (Tantor, 2009)
Stitched-together short stories, none especially gripping. The racial depiction of Fu Manchu isn’t so problematic as the sledgehammered assertion of villainy, which itself is nothing compared to Petrie’s besotted witterings re Kâramanèh. Bolen reads as if auditioning for a Bertie Wooster gig.
Ruddy Gore
by Kerry Greenwood (McPhee Gribble, 1995)
audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (Bolinda, 2010)
A light mystery that mostly solves itself, under cover of Daniel’s poised audiobook reading and the infectious enthusiasm carried over by Greenwood from her copious research into 1920s Melbourne (especially Chinese immigrant culture), the theatre and Gilbert & Sullivan (Ruddigore in particular).
The Not-Just-Anybody Family
by Betsy Byars (The Bodley Head, 1986)
audiobook read by Blain Fairman (Books on Tape, 2008)
A cleverly executed MG novel. Things mostly go wrong for the protagonists—a seven-year-old boy, his 11-year-old brother and sister, their grandpa and his dog—but their travails are told with humour and they come away with a deeper appreciation of family.
Human Man’s Burden
by Robert Sheckley, Galaxy Science Fiction (September, 1956)
reprinted 12 Great Classics of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin (Fawcett, 1963), pp. 57-71.
A disarming little story that, in setting itself up as a comedy, appears to make one point about men, women and the human condition, switches as if to make another, then turns out to have been about robot sentience and master/slave dynamics.
The Door
by Eric Frank Russell, Universe Science Fiction #4 (March 1954), pp. 6-17.
A plotless short story likening career spacers to lovelorn young men grown old in service to the Foreign Legion. Russell pitches this as a SF fairy tale, but the framing narrative is awkward and the voice offers nothing of his usual personality.
Asterix the Gladiator
by Goscinny & Uderzo (Pilote, 1961-1962); trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Hodder & Stoughton, 1969)
A glorious plethora of puns and running gags, built around the conceit of Cacofonix the bard being kidnapped as a gift for Caesar. The physical humour is delightful (as always), and all the characters brim with personality, the historical setting exquisitely realised.
Tintin: King Ottokar’s Sceptre
by Hergé (Le Petit Vingtième, 1938-1939); re-drawn in colour (Casterman, 1947); trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1958)
Not as coherent as some of the later Tintin stories, nor as sublimely threaded with humour—though the Thom(p)son twins do offer some light relief from the conspiracy plot and death-defying Boy’s Own antics. Hergé’s attention to artistic detail continues to amaze.