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I don't think it's stating the bleeding obvious to say that a narrator can make or break an audiobook. The wrong choice or an eccentric reading, and that recording is likely to be pushed to the bottom of a teetering pile – especially if it's one of the unabridged versions. THE SOUNDS OF CRIME features five different narrators and five new short stories on an exclusive recording for Whole Story Audio Books – a collection that's not available in print. The gem in the pack is Lawrence Block's "Dolly's Trash and Treasures" where the authorities find they've got their work cut out at the home of a woman who refuses to throw anything away. Those of us who are hoarders will twitch throughout Buffy Davis's laconic, laidback and absolutely pitch-perfect reading. Mark Billingham deserts his usual London streets for small-town America in "The Walls" where a couple who meet in a bar under unusual circumstances have a one-night stand. It's made for Eric Meyers' understated delivery, even if he does miss more often than he hits with female voices. I pretty much guessed what the twist was in the story, but this didn't detract from its starkness. John Hasler's breathless, chatty narration of a teenage prank that gets out of hand in rural Cornwall keeps Christopher Fowler's "The Deceivers" ticking over. The narrator is giving a statement in a police station, and Fowler does well to keep the tension going as to just why he's there. As for the two other stories, they're not helped by less successful readers. Mike Grady might as well have been reading a shopping list instead of a sharp, workmanlike addition to the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan canon from Val McDermid where a woman is thrown into a canal tied to a chair on Halloween and a bloke is burnt on a bonfire on "Bonfire Night." Grady's rendition of "Happy Holidays" is flat, badly-paced – he seems not to care about scene changes – and with some wandering identikit northern accents for the supporting roles, and throwaway expressionless delivery for the two main characters. Eve Karpf is in en-un-ci-at-ing ev-er so care-ful-ly act-tor mode in Peter James's deeply bizarre and creepy (not always in a good way) "Meet Me at the Crematorium." I've always been fond of his Brighton-based Roy Grace books, but the story of a woman running away to meet a lover in Germany is just a little too weird and icky to work. If you can overlook editor Maxim Jakubowski's tendency to favour anything with sex and sleaze in, this audiobook is well worth a punt, given I'd say just one of the stories is a miss. My one criticism is that the narrators aren't listed anywhere on the CD sleeve – I had to go poking around on the company website to find them. After all, they're half the reason to listen to an audiobook. § Sharon Wheeler is a UK-based journalist, writer and lecturer.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, March 2012
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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