The Man in the Queue
by Josephine Tey (Methuen, 1929)
audiobook read by Stefan Rudnicki (Blackstone, 2025)
An odd mystery, relying on regular policework to identify a suspect, uncommon coincidence to cast doubt on his guilt, and then an out-of-the-blue confession to solve the case. Inspector Grant is a cerebral, rather literary protagonist, present and involved from the outset.
Brain Wave
by Poul Anderson (Ballantine, 1954)
audiobook read by Tom Weiner (Blackstone, 2011)
Old-school SF ‘what if?’ story, imagining the (near-catastrophic) consequences of a world-wide boost to intelligence. Weiner’s audiobook reading goes some way towards bestowing neglected characterisation, but for the most part this is a thought experiment explored woodenly by Anderson through third-person marionettes.
The Brain Sharpeners Abroad
by Philip Curtis; ill. Tony Ross (Andersen, 1987)
Class 8’s exchange visit to Germany offers some originality, yet the Brain Sharpeners have become woefully ineffective, their hold over the students as tenuous as a repressed sneeze. Re plans to thwart them, Curtis is clearly making it up as he goes.
An Author Bites the Dust
by Arthur W. Upfield (Doubleday & Co., 1948)
audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2010)
Bony is particularly energetic this case, the Yarra Valley setting rendering his bushcraft less germane than a bonhomous interest in people and his knack for pursuing odd, imaginative lines of inquiry. Miss Pinkney and Mr Pickwick provide charming evidence of Upfield’s popularism.
Tarantula
dir. Jack Arnold (1955)
Marketed like King Kong but much more effective in building suspense and bringing to life a monstrously enlarged terror to run amok. Unfortunately, as with Doctor Who’s The Seeds of Doom, a damp-squib military solution is preferred over the protagonists’ intelligence/scientific know-how.
Indiscretions of Archie
by P. G. Wodehouse (Herbert Jenkins, 1921)
audiobook read by Frederick Davidson (Blackstone, 2011)
A novelised reworking of eleven short stories featuring the hapless but well-meaning Englishman Archie Moffam, barely tolerated resident of his American father-in-law’s hotel. Wodehouse’s delivery is gently piquant, the painting into of corners not so intricate or consequential as in later works.
Forever…
by Judy Blume (Bradbury, 1975)
audiobook read by Caitlin Kinnunen (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2023)
A straightforward narrative, groundbreaking when first published. Blume shakes off societal hang-ups in her treatment of love and sex, and though the story is single-minded (perhaps aptly), the subsidiary characters all have depth. Caitlin Kinnunen’s audiobook reading perfectly captures the teen protagonists.
Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?
by Adrian Mourby (BBC Radio 4, 1994)
A Doctor Who wilderness years curiosity, reframing Susan’s adventures in the TARDIS and life thereafter by way of in-character interviews with her, Barbara, Ian, et cetera (none played by the original actors). The script is drolly subversive, and intentionally leery of continuity.
Peril at End House
by Agatha Christie (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1932)
audiobook read by Hugh Fraser (Lamplight, 2014)
Christie does somewhat redeem herself at the denouement, but for the most part this mystery is just Poirot boasting insufferably about deductions that he never sees fit to reveal, and then berating himself for having been so mistaken. Hastings continues to irritate.
The River of Adventure
by Enid Blyton (Macmillan, 1955)
audiobook read by Thomas Judd (Bolinda, 2021)
All the usual adventure elements but peppered with best British bias. The children travel to the Middle East with Bill and ‘his wife’ (aka their aunt/mother!) and win through thanks to the locals—especially the villainous element—being credulous, craven and unchristian.