Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross (read by David Bauckham) Whole Story (audiobook) It normally works the other way around. You write a book, whether it stars Morse, Marple, Holmes or Dexter. Then you write the television series. Never afraid to buck the trend, DCI John Luther has done things backwards. First came the excellent series, starring Idris Elba (aka The Wire's Stringer Bell). Now creator Neil Cross has adapted it for the page. David Bauckham, not Elba, reads. Bouncy and almost cheerful, Bauckham lacks Elba's gravitas, but makes for easy enough listening. The Calling is a prequel: here, Luther is still married, though only just. Indeed, the case that will obsess him tears his personal life apart. An unknown killer slays an entire family, including an unborn child. Cross writes with enough punch to knock out both Klitschkos. His short sentences are full of striking details, such as a strip light 'dotted inside with the desiccated carcasses of dead flies'. His dialogue is just as hardboiled. 'It was definitely Kidman and Tonga?' Luther asks an informant called Reed. 'I know it was Tonga because he is the biggest f***** I ever set eyes on.' Bam.