Author:Francis Durbridge,Crawford Logan,Gerda Stevenson,Full Cast
From 1938 to 1968 crime novelist and detective Paul Temple and his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve solved case after case in one of BBC Radio’s most popular series. Now the glamorous duo return to the airwaves to break a mysterious drug-running gang. Post-war London is buzzing with speculation about the deaths of ten young drug addicts within the space of just one week. The police are desperate to cut off supplies of heroin and cocaine to the capital, but they are struggling. So Sir Graham Forbes turns to Paul Temple. By fast car and police launch, on deserted houseboats and midnight beaches, in dodgy East End pubs and smart West End restaurants, braving booby traps, bullets and blazing houses, Paul and Steve pursue the ruthless and feared drug dealer known only as ‘Valentine’. This new production for BBC Radio 4 uses the original scripts, vintage sound effects and much of the original incidental music from the missing 1946 production. As far as possible it is a technical and stylistic replica of how that production might have sounded if its recording had survived.
One can usually rely on Miss Gladys Mitchell for something unexpected and in The Twenty-Third Man she certainly provides
—— GuardianBizarre, fascinating and entertaining
—— TatlerCrime writing's best-kept secret
—— ScotsmanMonumental, DeLillo at his chilling best. Concentrates on the inner life of the people who shaped the Kennedy assassination. He constructs the very human faces behind a monstrous event, creating fiction which trespasses on reality
—— Time OutAn audacious blend of fiction and fact
—— The TimesIf you prefer your thrillers to be gripping not grisly, Bolton is a name to remember . . . spine-tingling tale
—— GraziaBolton expertly balances the gothic supernatural elements with a crackling psychological plot, leaving readers breathless until the last page
—— Publishers Weekly (starred review)Part Wicker Man, part League of Gentlemen... Moody and creepy, with a killer twist
—— Financial Times (Books of the Year)Spine-tingling suspense! S.J. Bolton ups the chills and thrills factor with her compelling blend of ghostly possibilities layered upon very real world crimes
—— LISA GARDNERS J Bolton's frission-generating Blood Harvest is a satisfyingly atmospheric 500-plus pages; a clever synthesis of two sure-fire strategies: the slow burning mystery...and the dark psychological crime narrative.
—— Good Book Guide, Oct 11Combines the expert suspense manipulation skills of a Daphne du Maurier romance with those of a John Le Carre thriller
—— The New York TimesA real page turner, full of surprises to the very end
—— Woman's WeeklyAn intriguing plot, clever twists, surprise elements, believable characters and unexplained history explored... A real page-turner
—— ChoiceOne of Britain's finest thriller writers
—— Time OutThis guy can write.
—— James EllroyNeville has the talent to believably blend the tropes of the crime novel and those of a horror, in the process creating a page-turning thriller akin to a collaboration between John Connolly and Stephen King...
—— The Sunday IndependentA brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening.
—— The ObserverA no-frills thriller that barrels along at a ferocious pace, pausing only to offer the occasional nod to 1970s paranoid classics such as William Goldman's Marathon Man.
—— Declan Burke , Irish TimesStuart Neville's third novel effortlessly exceeds the high expectations created by the first two installments... Stuart Neville's latest novel is a thrilling masterpiece. From its gripping and well paced plot to its well defined and intriguing characters, Stolen Souls is a powerful novel, which does not shy away from exploring the new literary landscape for Northern Irish fiction.
—— Kellie Chambers , Ulster TatlerWith echoes of The Thomas Crown Affair, spectacular storytelling and a beautifully judged super-twist, it confirms Nesbo's place at the pinnacle of thriller writers and, inevitably, a film version will be with us next year. It's that good.
—— Geoffrey Wansell , Daily MailHarris is a master of pace an entertainment, and The Fear Index is a thoroughly enjoyable book . . . Read the book. If I die tomorrow, blame the computer.
—— ObserverLike all Harris's books, this one is readily enjoyable as a suspense story . . . But what makes Harris's thrillers so much more rewarding than those of his rivals is that they all, whatever their ostensible subject, come out of his deep and expert interest in politics, broadly conceived - which is to say, in power, in how power is taken, held and lost; how some people are able to dominate others; how wealth and status, fear and greed, work . . .The Fear Index (which has a lot to say about the very rich - a group to which Harris himself now belongs but doesn't like) is ultimately a study in the total lack of morality of those who manipulate the markets . . . By focusing thus on a rogue algorithm and a pure scientist, Harris is not really fronting up the true authors of our current financial plight, perhaps. But, in its own carefully conceived terms, The Fear Index is certainly another winner.
—— Evening StandardThis latest nail-biter from the author of The Ghost will keep fans of suspense up all night.
—— Good HousekeepingTo crawl by bus through rush-hour traffic is not something that would normally appeal to a busy person. Unless, like me, that person was in possession of Robert Harris's new thriller The Fear Index. Then they would certainly relish the potential for escapism such a slow journey could provide and there was nowhere else I wanted to be then in that story, which delivers pure pleasure with every page.
—— The LadyHarris is a master of pace and entertainment, and The Fear Index is a thoroughly enjoyable book . . . Read the book.
—— ObserverThe Fear Index is an escapist thriller to rank with the best of them, and as a guide to what hedge funds actually do, it is surprisingly clear and instructive.
—— EconomistThere are moments when this book feels so up to date it could have been written next week... spookily exciting.
—— ExpressPerhaps the greatest thriller writer around, Harris has delivered his best work yet. A modern classic.
—— Irish ExaminerMock-gothic variant on Frankenstein relates what happens when a computer programme goes rogue and ravages the money market. Suspense and satire combine in a book that is as up to the minute as a news flash.
—— Sunday TimesIf you didn’t catch it in hardback, grab it now in austerity-Britain paperback. Harris’s latest bestseller is a gripping, funny and timely tale of money – losing it or, more terrifyingly here, making too much of it… A high-speed plot, deft characterisation… and Harris even manages to explain what a hedge fund is.
—— The LadyPopulist fiction at its best.
—— SpectatorI would recommend The Fear Index. The writing is as elegant as ever.
—— Lionel Barber , Financial TimesHarris writes with a deceptively languid elegance, so that the novel straddles not only the crime and sci-fi genres but also that of literary fiction. A satisfying read on a number of levels, it is strongest as a character study of a man who discovers, pace Hemingway, the true meaning of the phrase "grace under pressure".
—— Irish TimesThe Fear Index is a frightening book, of course, as, with its title, it intends. Harris has an excellent sense of pace, and understands as much about fear in literature as Hoffman does in markets.
—— TelegraphLike Frankenstein, his novel is a tale of the catastrophic consequences of galvanising inanimate matter into uncontrollable life . . . The Fear Index is both cutting edge and keenly conscious of its literary predecessors. Reworking classic texts is a large-scale literary industry these days. Harris's tongue-in-cheek flesh-creeper (whose most chilling moments are its reminders of our present financial woes) is a virtuoso specimen of it.
—— Sunday TimesHarris is a master of pace and entertainment, and The Fear Index is a thoroughly enjoyable book . . . Read the book. If I die tomorrow, blame the computer.
—— ObserverA nail-biting listen - the financial world has never seemed so thrilling - beautifully read by Phillip Franks
—— Kati Nicholl , Daily ExpressThere is a cool edge to Franks' voice as he tracks Alex's surging paranoia to a blockbuster climax
—— Daily Telegraph