Reviews: fiction e-books and audiobooks: Front Runner, The Martian and Sword of the North

by Felix Francis (read by Martin Jarvis)

Bolindar Publishing (audiobook)

Often you listen to an audiobook because of the author. Sometimes it's the subject, the cover or even the price. Occasionally, however, you see the narrator's name and are intrigued. British actor Martin Jarvis could lay claim to being the godfather of the audiobook with his one-man shows doing works by P.G. Wodehouse and Richmal Crompton. Although Felix Francis is the literary headline act, the cover adds that this is "a Dick Francis novel". For those not in the know, both authors specialise in equine crime, here investigated by recurring sleuth Jefferson Hinkley. Working undercover, Hinkley finds himself embroiled in a race-fixing scandal that climaxes with the apparent murder of champion jockey Dave Swinton. It almost goes without saying that poking his nose in where it isn't wanted lands Hinkley in a world of trouble. Jarvis reads with the same passion he reserved for recreating Oscar Wilde's trial. He finds voices to bring Francis' enjoyable, if not especially deep, characters to life.

by Andy Weir (read by R.C. Bray)