A Darker Shade of Sweden
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.05
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
About this listen
Ever since Stieg Larsson shone a light on the brilliance of Swedish crime writing with his acclaimed and best-selling Millennium trilogy, listeners around the world have sought out and devoured the crime fiction of his countrymen (and women), many of whom have proved to be some of the greatest masters of the genre. In this landmark and unique publication, Sweden's most distinguished and best-loved crime writers have contributed stories to an anthology that promises to thrill even the most jaded mystery listener.
Containing 17 stories, all never before published in English, A Darker Shade of Sweden illuminates the shadow side of this beguiling country as never before, and promises to be among the most highly anticipated crime fiction of the season.
©2014 John-Henri Holmberg (P)2014 HighBridge CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Creak on the Stairs
- By: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
- Narrated by: Diana Croft
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a body of a woman is discovered at a lighthouse in the Icelandic town of Akranes, it soon becomes clear that she’s no stranger to the area. Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes following a failed relationship, and her collegues Sævar and Hörður commence an uneasy investigation which uncovers a shocking secret in the dead woman’s past that continues to reverberate in the present day.
-
-
too hard to follow
- By Kindle Customer on 07-10-21
-
For the Missing
- By: Lina Bengtsdotter
- Narrated by: Emma Powell
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nora's daughter, Annabelle, has disappeared, last seen on her way home from a party. Gullspång's inexperienced police are wilting under the national media spotlight - and its residents desperate for answers. Stockholm DI Charlie Lager must return home to find Annabelle and then get out of town as soon as she can. Before everyone discovers the truth about her....
-
Poirot Investigates (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Tim Bruce
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An impossible grand theft in a posh Brighton hotel. The locked-room murder of an Italian nobleman. The suspicious suicide of a man worth more dead than alive. What are the motives behind these puzzling crimes? In Agatha Christie’s first collection of short stories, eleven mysteries in all, detective Hercule Poirot makes his investigations. Leave it to the unflappable Belgian sleuth and his partner, Captain Arthur Hastings, to put the pieces together.
-
-
Entertaining!
- By James R. Thies on 01-01-24
By: Agatha Christie
-
Death of a Dissident
- Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mysteries Series, Book 1
- By: Stuart M. Kaminsky
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aleksander Granovsky has dedicated his life to exposing the brutality of the Russian penal system. In two days, he will be tried for the crime of smuggling essays to the West. It is a show trial, and there is no doubt he will be convicted and executed, yet before he dies, he intends to tell the truth one more time. But this is Moscow, where death is never heroic. While writing his final speech in his government flat, Granovsky is surprised by an assassin, who pierces his heart with the point of a rusty scythe.
-
Cold as Hell
- By: Lilja Sigurdardóttir, Quentin Bates - translator
- Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Icelandic sisters Áróra and Ísafold live in different countries and aren‘t on speaking terms, but when their mother loses contact with Ísafold, Áróra reluctantly returns to Iceland to find her sister. But she soon realises that her sister isn’t avoiding her...she has disappeared. As she confronts Ísafold’s abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend Björn, and begins to probe her sister’s reclusive neighbours, Áróra is led into an ever-darker web of intrigue and manipulation.
-
-
Engaging and fast paced
- By Hanybal on 07-21-24
By: Lilja Sigurdardóttir, and others
-
The Big Book of Espionage
- Big Book Series
- By: Otto Penzler
- Narrated by: Piper Goodeve, Daniel Thomas May, Alex Wyndham
- Length: 47 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler is back with a new anthology that has gathered the intel on the world's greatest secret agents, declassified here for the first time.
-
-
What a great bunch of stories.
- By Kay on 01-15-22
By: Otto Penzler
-
The Creak on the Stairs
- By: Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
- Narrated by: Diana Croft
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a body of a woman is discovered at a lighthouse in the Icelandic town of Akranes, it soon becomes clear that she’s no stranger to the area. Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes following a failed relationship, and her collegues Sævar and Hörður commence an uneasy investigation which uncovers a shocking secret in the dead woman’s past that continues to reverberate in the present day.
-
-
too hard to follow
- By Kindle Customer on 07-10-21
-
For the Missing
- By: Lina Bengtsdotter
- Narrated by: Emma Powell
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nora's daughter, Annabelle, has disappeared, last seen on her way home from a party. Gullspång's inexperienced police are wilting under the national media spotlight - and its residents desperate for answers. Stockholm DI Charlie Lager must return home to find Annabelle and then get out of town as soon as she can. Before everyone discovers the truth about her....
-
Poirot Investigates (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Tim Bruce
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An impossible grand theft in a posh Brighton hotel. The locked-room murder of an Italian nobleman. The suspicious suicide of a man worth more dead than alive. What are the motives behind these puzzling crimes? In Agatha Christie’s first collection of short stories, eleven mysteries in all, detective Hercule Poirot makes his investigations. Leave it to the unflappable Belgian sleuth and his partner, Captain Arthur Hastings, to put the pieces together.
-
-
Entertaining!
- By James R. Thies on 01-01-24
By: Agatha Christie
-
Death of a Dissident
- Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mysteries Series, Book 1
- By: Stuart M. Kaminsky
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aleksander Granovsky has dedicated his life to exposing the brutality of the Russian penal system. In two days, he will be tried for the crime of smuggling essays to the West. It is a show trial, and there is no doubt he will be convicted and executed, yet before he dies, he intends to tell the truth one more time. But this is Moscow, where death is never heroic. While writing his final speech in his government flat, Granovsky is surprised by an assassin, who pierces his heart with the point of a rusty scythe.
-
Cold as Hell
- By: Lilja Sigurdardóttir, Quentin Bates - translator
- Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Icelandic sisters Áróra and Ísafold live in different countries and aren‘t on speaking terms, but when their mother loses contact with Ísafold, Áróra reluctantly returns to Iceland to find her sister. But she soon realises that her sister isn’t avoiding her...she has disappeared. As she confronts Ísafold’s abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend Björn, and begins to probe her sister’s reclusive neighbours, Áróra is led into an ever-darker web of intrigue and manipulation.
-
-
Engaging and fast paced
- By Hanybal on 07-21-24
By: Lilja Sigurdardóttir, and others
-
The Big Book of Espionage
- Big Book Series
- By: Otto Penzler
- Narrated by: Piper Goodeve, Daniel Thomas May, Alex Wyndham
- Length: 47 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler is back with a new anthology that has gathered the intel on the world's greatest secret agents, declassified here for the first time.
-
-
What a great bunch of stories.
- By Kay on 01-15-22
By: Otto Penzler
-
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- A Lisbeth Salander Novel
- By: Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland - translator
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
-
-
A Classic Mystery with Wonderful Characters
- By Robert on 12-22-08
By: Stieg Larsson, and others
-
The Black Echo: Special Edition
- Harry Bosch, Book 1
- By: Michael Connelly
- Narrated by: Titus Welliver
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.
-
-
Titus Welliver has really stepped in it!
- By George Moneo on 04-08-20
By: Michael Connelly
-
Sun Storm
- By: Åsa Larsson
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rebecka Martinsson is heading home to Kiruna, the town she'd left in disgrace years before. A Stockholm attorney, Rebecka has a good reason to return: her friend, Sanna, whose brother has been horrifically murdered in the revivalist church his charisma helped create. Beautiful and fragile, Sanna needs someone like Rebecka to remove the shadow of guilt that is engulfing her, to forestall an ambitious prosecutor and a dogged policewoman.
-
-
i cannot abide. violence to animals; esp dogs!
- By J. Kromrie on 01-19-19
By: Åsa Larsson
-
Malice
- Kyoichiro Kaga
- By: Keigo Higashino
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed best-selling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he’s planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems.
-
-
Worth reading; the previous two books were better
- By SUNEET on 02-16-15
By: Keigo Higashino
-
Death Deserved
- By: Thomas Enger, Jorn Lier Horst
- Narrated by: James Lailey
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always Number One. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm visits Nordstrøm’s home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and signs of a struggle inside. A bib with the number one has been pinned to the TV. Police officer Alexander Blix is appointed to head up the missing-persons investigation, but he still bears the emotional scars of a hostage situation 19 years earlier, when he killed the father of a five-year-old girl.
-
-
A devious and suspenseful mystery
- By Karenique on 08-05-20
By: Thomas Enger, and others
-
Bullet for a Star
- Toby Peters Mysteries Series, Book 1
- By: Stuart M. Kaminsky
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hollywood, 1940: It's been four years since security guard Toby Peters got fired from the Warner Brothers lot for breaking a screen cowboy's arm. Since then he's scratched out a living as a private detective - but now his old friends, the Warners, have a job for him. Someone has mailed the studio a picture of Errol Flynn caught in a compromising position with an underage woman. Although Flynn insists it's a fake, the studio is taking no chances. Peters is to deliver the blackmailer 5,000 dollars and return with the photo negative.
-
-
Fun plot involving stars from the golden age of Hollywood
- By MKJ on 02-10-24
-
Naked in Death
- In Death, Book 1
- By: J. D. Robb
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eve Dallas is a New York police lieutenant hunting for a ruthless killer. In over ten years on the force, she’s seen it all - and knows her survival depends on her instincts. And she’s going against every warning telling her not to get involved with Roarke, an Irish billionaire - and a suspect in Eve’s murder investigation.
-
-
Don't Judge the Series by the First Book!
- By Fee on 03-10-12
By: J. D. Robb
-
Ghost Story
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" ( Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.
-
-
Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
- By Jaimie on 07-17-12
By: Peter Straub
-
The Bat
- The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel
- By: Jo Nesbø, Don Bartlett
- Narrated by: Joh Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the electrifying first installment of the New York Times bestselling series, Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. As he circles closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the murder.
-
-
Not as good as the others....
- By KP on 07-10-13
By: Jo Nesbø, and others
-
What Angels Fear
- Sebastian St. Cyr, Book 1
- By: C. S. Harris
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man - Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.
-
-
An Addictive Series
- By Bibliophile1963 on 10-17-16
By: C. S. Harris
-
Snare
- Reykjavik Noir, Book 1
- By: Lilja Sigurdardottir
- Narrated by: Suzannah Hampton
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a messy divorce, attractive young mother Sonia is struggling to provide for herself and keep custody of her son. With her back to the wall, she resorts to smuggling cocaine into Iceland and finds herself caught up in a ruthless criminal world. As she desperately looks for a way out of trouble, she must pit her wits against her nemesis, Bragi, a customs officer whose years of experience frustrate her new and evermore daring strategies.
-
-
Really good. Interesting.
- By Dana on 01-12-18
-
I've Got You Under My Skin
- By: Mary Higgins Clark
- Narrated by: Jan Maxwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this suspenseful audiobook from the number-one New York Times best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark, a Manhattan ER doctor is brazenly murdered in front of his young son in a city playground. Five years later, his killer is still at large. Meanwhile his widow, Laurie Moran, is now an award-winning TV producer. Still haunted by her husband's murder, she has been raising their son alone. Laurie and her TV crew have just received the green light to produce a new cold-case series.
-
-
Enjoyable to listen to
- By Cammy J on 02-04-15
Related to this topic
-
Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
-
-
Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
-
Shadow Show
- All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
- By: Sam Weller - editor, Mort Castle - editor
- Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ray Bradbury - peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors - is a literary giant whose remarkable career spanned seven decades. Now 26 of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
-
-
THE MAN WHO FORGOT RAY BRADBURY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-27-17
By: Sam Weller - editor, and others
-
Sun Storm
- By: Åsa Larsson
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rebecka Martinsson is heading home to Kiruna, the town she'd left in disgrace years before. A Stockholm attorney, Rebecka has a good reason to return: her friend, Sanna, whose brother has been horrifically murdered in the revivalist church his charisma helped create. Beautiful and fragile, Sanna needs someone like Rebecka to remove the shadow of guilt that is engulfing her, to forestall an ambitious prosecutor and a dogged policewoman.
-
-
i cannot abide. violence to animals; esp dogs!
- By J. Kromrie on 01-19-19
By: Åsa Larsson
-
Laguna Heat
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Laguna: a place where a crazed killer has turned paradise into a Disneyland of depraved violence - with a fiery vengeance - and where homicide cop Tom Shephard unravels a grisly mystery. It reaches back across 40 years of sordid sex, blackmail, and suicide into the dark corners of his own past.
-
-
Fabulous
- By Stacy on 02-24-09
-
Our Story Begins
- New and Selected Stories
- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wolff here returns with fresh revelations - about biding one's time, or experiencing first love, or burying one's mother - that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. A retired Marine enrolls in college while her son trains for Iraq. A lawyer takes a difficult deposition. An American in Rome indulges the Gypsy who's picked his pocket.
-
-
Great
- By chris on 04-11-08
By: Tobias Wolff
-
Pacific Beat
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ex-cop Jim Weir thought he'd seen it all during his years on the force. That is until he saw the body of his sister Annie, brutally used by a monster in human form, then carelessly discarded. He'd never seen such grief ravage the face of his friend and brother-in-law Ray Cruz, a good cop on the Newport Beach Police Department. When Weir learns that the only witness swore the killer made his escape in a Newport Beach squad car, his disbelief turns to confusion and outrage.
-
-
Bad, bad, bad...
- By Robert E. Orlando on 11-19-14
-
Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
-
-
Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
-
Shadow Show
- All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
- By: Sam Weller - editor, Mort Castle - editor
- Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ray Bradbury - peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors - is a literary giant whose remarkable career spanned seven decades. Now 26 of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
-
-
THE MAN WHO FORGOT RAY BRADBURY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-27-17
By: Sam Weller - editor, and others
-
Sun Storm
- By: Åsa Larsson
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rebecka Martinsson is heading home to Kiruna, the town she'd left in disgrace years before. A Stockholm attorney, Rebecka has a good reason to return: her friend, Sanna, whose brother has been horrifically murdered in the revivalist church his charisma helped create. Beautiful and fragile, Sanna needs someone like Rebecka to remove the shadow of guilt that is engulfing her, to forestall an ambitious prosecutor and a dogged policewoman.
-
-
i cannot abide. violence to animals; esp dogs!
- By J. Kromrie on 01-19-19
By: Åsa Larsson
-
Laguna Heat
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Laguna: a place where a crazed killer has turned paradise into a Disneyland of depraved violence - with a fiery vengeance - and where homicide cop Tom Shephard unravels a grisly mystery. It reaches back across 40 years of sordid sex, blackmail, and suicide into the dark corners of his own past.
-
-
Fabulous
- By Stacy on 02-24-09
-
Our Story Begins
- New and Selected Stories
- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wolff here returns with fresh revelations - about biding one's time, or experiencing first love, or burying one's mother - that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. A retired Marine enrolls in college while her son trains for Iraq. A lawyer takes a difficult deposition. An American in Rome indulges the Gypsy who's picked his pocket.
-
-
Great
- By chris on 04-11-08
By: Tobias Wolff
-
Pacific Beat
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ex-cop Jim Weir thought he'd seen it all during his years on the force. That is until he saw the body of his sister Annie, brutally used by a monster in human form, then carelessly discarded. He'd never seen such grief ravage the face of his friend and brother-in-law Ray Cruz, a good cop on the Newport Beach Police Department. When Weir learns that the only witness swore the killer made his escape in a Newport Beach squad car, his disbelief turns to confusion and outrage.
-
-
Bad, bad, bad...
- By Robert E. Orlando on 11-19-14
-
Crimes by Moonlight
- Mysteries from the Dark Side
- By: Charlaine Harris - author/editor
- Narrated by: Natalie Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In number-one New York Times best-selling author Charlaine Harris’s "Dahlia Underground,” venerable vampire Dahlia Lynley-Chivers survives an attack by an anti-vampire terrorist group, only to show them they tried to blow up the wrong bloodsucker. Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a ghost assigned to assist humans in trouble, steps into the middle of a marital dispute with surprising twists in Carolyn Hart’s “Riding High”....
-
-
Pleasantly surprised
- By Bonnie on 08-06-11
-
Darling Jim
- A Novel
- By: Christian Moerk
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye, Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their suburban Dublin home, it seems that the secret behind their untimely demise will never be known. But then Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office's dead-letter bin. From beyond the grave, Fiona Walsh shares the most tragic love story he's ever heard---and her tale has only just begun.
-
-
Great Story
- By Book Worm on 05-28-09
By: Christian Moerk
-
Iron Lake
- Cork O'Connor, Book 1
- By: William Kent Krueger
- Narrated by: David Chandler
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger crafts this riveting tale about a small Minnesota town’s ex-sheriff who is having trouble retiring his badge. Cork O’Connor loses his job after being blamed for a tragedy on the local Anishinaabe Indian reservation. But he must set aside his personal demons when a young boy goes missing on the same day a judge commits suicide—and no one but O’Connor suspects foul play.
-
-
Great New Series
- By Lia on 06-01-18
-
Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
-
-
A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
-
The Lost Ones
- A Novel
- By: Sheena Kamal
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It begins with a phone call that Nora Watts has dreaded for 15 years - since the day she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. Bonnie has vanished. The police consider her a chronic runaway and aren't looking, leaving her desperate adoptive parents to reach out to her birth mother as a last hope. A biracial product of the foster system, transient, homeless, scarred by a past filled with pain and violence, Nora knows intimately what happens to vulnerable girls on the streets.
-
-
Would make a great movie!
- By Shay on 08-27-17
By: Sheena Kamal
-
The Secret Hour
- By: Luanne Rice
- Narrated by: Christina Traister
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beneath his controlled demeanor, attorney John O’Rourke is a man in turmoil. Since the death of his wife, he has been juggling the rigors of a controversial capital murder case and the demands of raising two children. As 11-year-old Maggie and 14-year-old Teddy long for the past, they must also contend with the hostility that swirls around them since their father took on the defense of a despised killer - including a brick through their window one autumn morning.
-
-
It's a Fairy Tale...eventually
- By Bette on 03-18-13
By: Luanne Rice
-
The Bone Clocks
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: Jessica Ball, Leon Williams, Colin Mace, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following a scalding row with her mother, 15-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.
-
-
Not Short Listed, This Time
- By Mel on 09-23-14
By: David Mitchell
-
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
-
-
Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
-
Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
-
-
Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
-
Eva's Eye
- Inspector Sejer Mystery, Book 1
- By: Karin Fossum
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eva Magnus and her daughter are out walking by the river when a man's body floats to the water's surface. Eva goes to call the police, but when she reaches the phone, she dials another number altogether.
-
-
Very little of Sejer, a whole lot of Eva
- By John Barnett on 07-04-17
By: Karin Fossum
-
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
- A Novel
- By: Graham Joyce
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, 16-year-old Tara Martin disappeared from a small town in the heart of England. Now, her sudden return and the mind-bending tale of where she’s been will challenge our very perception of the truth. For 20 years after Tara Martin disappeared, her parents and her brother, Peter, lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. Then suddenly on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents’ home, and there, dishevelled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It’s a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara’s story just does not add up.
-
-
Extremely Well Done
- By Amanda on 07-11-12
By: Graham Joyce
-
The Road Home
- By: Ford Michael Thomas Ford
- Narrated by: Blake Somerset
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a car accident leaves photographer Burke Crenshaw in need of temporary full-time care, he finds himself back in the one place no forty-year-old chooses to be--his childhood bedroom. There, in the Vermont home where he grew up, Burke begins the long process of recuperation, and watches as his widowed father finds happiness in a new relationship that's a constant reminder of everything Burke wants and lacks. Exploring local history, Burke discovers an intriguing series of letters from a Civil War soldier to his fianc.
-
-
No need to check your scepticism at the door!
- By Orlando on 08-23-13
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Chiefs
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Mark Hammer
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1919, Delano, Georgia, appoints its first chief of police. Honest and hardworking, the new chief is puzzled when young men start to disappear. But his investigation is ended by the fatal blast from a shotgun. Delano's second chief-of-police is no hero, yet he is also disturbed by what he sees in the missing-persons bulletins. In 1969, when Delano's third chief takes over, the unsolved disappearances still haunt the police files.
-
-
In my 'Top Ten' books of all time!
- By karen on 09-17-13
By: Stuart Woods
-
Northmen
- The Viking Saga AD 793-1241
- By: John Haywood
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Northmen is there to tell the tale, to pay homage to what was lost and celebrate what was won. Focusing on key events, including the sack of Lindisfarne in 793 and the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, medieval history expert John Haywood recounts the saga of the Viking Age, from the creation of the world through to the dwindling years of halfhearted raids and elegiac storytelling in the 13th century.
-
-
Boring 😴
- By Anonymous User on 09-24-21
By: John Haywood
-
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
- By: Madeleine Thien
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Madeleine Thien's new novel is breathtaking in scope and ambition, even as it is hauntingly intimate. With the ease and skill of a master storyteller, Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations - those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution in the mid-20th century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in one of the most important political moments of the past century.
-
-
Should have won the Booker
- By RI in Canada on 10-28-16
By: Madeleine Thien
-
Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop
- Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Darci Hannah
- Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After Lindsey Bakeswell catches her celebrity chef fiance sizzling in the arms of another woman, Lindsey leaves big city Wall Street for small town Beacon Harbor, Michigan, to pursue her own passion as a pastry baker - and gets mixed up in someone's sweet taste of revenge.
-
-
slow start and an inane section
- By chanda j pinkney on 01-10-22
By: Darci Hannah
-
Death in Fine Condition
- By: Andrew Cartmel
- Narrated by: Olivia Dowd
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cordelia knows books. An addict-turned-dealer of classic paperbacks, when she's not spending her days combing the charity shops and jumble sales of suburban London for valuable collector's items, she's pining for the woman of her dreams and nimbly avoiding her landlord's demands for rent. The most elusive prize of all, her white whale, has surfaced—a set of magnificent, vintage Sleuth Hound crime novels. Gorgeous, and as rare as they come. Just one problem. They're not for sale. Still, that won't stop a resourceful woman like Cordelia…
-
-
An entertaining antihero
- By Colby Johnson on 07-01-23
By: Andrew Cartmel
-
Open Season
- A Joe Pickett Novel
- By: C. J. Box
- Narrated by: David Chandler
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden—especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way—is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in.
-
-
Disappointed.
- By Kristina on 02-18-14
By: C. J. Box
-
Chiefs
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Mark Hammer
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1919, Delano, Georgia, appoints its first chief of police. Honest and hardworking, the new chief is puzzled when young men start to disappear. But his investigation is ended by the fatal blast from a shotgun. Delano's second chief-of-police is no hero, yet he is also disturbed by what he sees in the missing-persons bulletins. In 1969, when Delano's third chief takes over, the unsolved disappearances still haunt the police files.
-
-
In my 'Top Ten' books of all time!
- By karen on 09-17-13
By: Stuart Woods
-
Northmen
- The Viking Saga AD 793-1241
- By: John Haywood
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Northmen is there to tell the tale, to pay homage to what was lost and celebrate what was won. Focusing on key events, including the sack of Lindisfarne in 793 and the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, medieval history expert John Haywood recounts the saga of the Viking Age, from the creation of the world through to the dwindling years of halfhearted raids and elegiac storytelling in the 13th century.
-
-
Boring 😴
- By Anonymous User on 09-24-21
By: John Haywood
-
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
- By: Madeleine Thien
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Madeleine Thien's new novel is breathtaking in scope and ambition, even as it is hauntingly intimate. With the ease and skill of a master storyteller, Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations - those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution in the mid-20th century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in one of the most important political moments of the past century.
-
-
Should have won the Booker
- By RI in Canada on 10-28-16
By: Madeleine Thien
-
Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop
- Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Darci Hannah
- Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After Lindsey Bakeswell catches her celebrity chef fiance sizzling in the arms of another woman, Lindsey leaves big city Wall Street for small town Beacon Harbor, Michigan, to pursue her own passion as a pastry baker - and gets mixed up in someone's sweet taste of revenge.
-
-
slow start and an inane section
- By chanda j pinkney on 01-10-22
By: Darci Hannah
-
Death in Fine Condition
- By: Andrew Cartmel
- Narrated by: Olivia Dowd
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cordelia knows books. An addict-turned-dealer of classic paperbacks, when she's not spending her days combing the charity shops and jumble sales of suburban London for valuable collector's items, she's pining for the woman of her dreams and nimbly avoiding her landlord's demands for rent. The most elusive prize of all, her white whale, has surfaced—a set of magnificent, vintage Sleuth Hound crime novels. Gorgeous, and as rare as they come. Just one problem. They're not for sale. Still, that won't stop a resourceful woman like Cordelia…
-
-
An entertaining antihero
- By Colby Johnson on 07-01-23
By: Andrew Cartmel
-
Open Season
- A Joe Pickett Novel
- By: C. J. Box
- Narrated by: David Chandler
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden—especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way—is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in.
-
-
Disappointed.
- By Kristina on 02-18-14
By: C. J. Box
-
The Bookseller of Florence
- The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings - the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.
-
-
Great book, Horrible narrator
- By Sergio Remon on 07-01-21
By: Ross King
-
Secrets at the Last House Before the Sea
- Heaven's Cove, Book 1
- By: Liz Eeles
- Narrated by: Francesca Waite
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the attic of Driftwood House, there are stunning views of the deep green sea and sapphire sky. But Rosie can’t tear her eyes away from the faded photograph in her hands, and the words written on the back that will change everything.... Back in the tiny seaside village of Heaven’s Cove after the death of her mother, all Rosie Merchant wants is to hide her tears, rent out her childhood home and get back to her ‘real’ life, away from the gossiping villagers and wild Devon weather she escaped from years ago.
-
-
Enjoyable listen
- By Joluma on 08-10-21
By: Liz Eeles
-
Guidebook to Murder
- Tourist Trap Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Lynn Cahoon
- Narrated by: Susan Boyce
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the gentle coastal town of South Cove, California, all Jill Gardner wants is to keep her store - Coffee, Books, and More - open and running. So why is she caught up in the business of murder? When Jill's elderly friend Miss Emily calls in a fit of pique, she already knows that the city council is trying to force Emily to sell her dilapidated old house. But Emily's gumption goes for naught when she dies unexpectedly and leaves the house to Jill, along with all of her problems...and her enemies.
-
-
Very Whiny and Slow
- By AJ on 03-25-15
By: Lynn Cahoon
-
By Their Father's Hand
- The True Story of the Wesson Family Massacre
- By: Monte Francis
- Narrated by: John Glouchevitch
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neighbors were unaware of what went on behind the tightly closed doors of a house in Fresno, California - the home of an imposing, 300-pound Marcus Wesson, his wife, children, nieces, and grandchildren. But on March 12, 2004, gunshots were heard inside the Wesson home, and police officers responding to what they believed was a routine domestic disturbance were horrified by the senseless carnage they discovered when they entered.
-
-
Be Very Prepared for Disturbing and Graphic Detail
- By Jessica on 02-21-17
By: Monte Francis
-
The Magic Barrel
- By: Bernard Malamud
- Narrated by: Shelley Berman, David Cromer, Marge Kotlisky, and others
- Length: 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of The Natural comes a classic short story about a young rabbinical student and his fateful encounter with an enigmatic matchmaker. A co-production with the National Jewish Theater. Recorded before a live audience at Chicago’s Guest Quarters Suite Hotel in July 1992.
By: Bernard Malamud
-
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden
- A Novel
- By: Jonas Jonasson, Rachel Willson-Broyles - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a tiny shack in the largest township in South Africa, Nombeko Mayeki is born. Put to work at five years old and orphaned at 10, she quickly learns that the world expects nothing more from her than to die young, be it from drugs, alcohol, or just plain despair. But Nombeko has grander plans. She learns to read and write, and at just 15, using her cunning and fearlessness, she makes it out of Soweto with millions of smuggled diamonds in her possession. Then things take a turn for the worse....
-
-
overall a disapointment
- By Alex Bejan on 08-23-15
By: Jonas Jonasson, and others
-
Flipped for Murder
- Country Store Mystery Series #1
- By: Maddie Day
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nursing a broken heart, Robbie Jordan is trading in her life on the West Coast for the rolling hills of Southern Indiana. After paying a visit to her Aunt Adele, she fell in love with the tiny town of South Lick. And when she spots a "for sale" sign on a rundown country store, she decides to snap it up and put her skills as a cook and a carpenter to use. Everyone in town shows up for the grand reopening of Pans 'n Pancakes, but when the mayor's disagreeable assistant is found dead, Robbie realizes that not all press is good press.
-
-
Distracting
- By Lola on 04-18-16
By: Maddie Day
-
What She Couldn't Say
- Clean Western Romantic Suspense
- By: Laura Haley-McNeil
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A past she can’t remember. A memory he longs to forget. Will a madman bent on revenge tear them apart or make them strong? Dr. Eli Merrick’s day off turns into a trauma induced morning that drags him to the emergency room to save an unconscious woman and her baby. Though she’s been identified as Janet Jones, Eli senses that isn’t her name. When Janet’s life is threatened, Eli’s need to protect her and her baby kicks in. He takes her to his home at the Crystal Creek Ranch. Janet gains consciousness but is puzzled by the people who call her this unfamiliar name. As she struggles ...
-
The Life She Was Given
- By: Ellen Marie Wiseman
- Narrated by: Lori Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a summer evening in 1931, Lilly Blackwood glimpses circus lights from the grimy window of her attic bedroom. Lilly isn't allowed to explore the meadows around Blackwood Manor. She's never even ventured beyond her narrow room. Momma insists it's for Lilly's own protection, that people would be afraid if they saw her. But on this unforgettable night, Lilly is taken outside for the first time - and sold to the circus sideshow.
-
-
If you're sensitive to animal cruelty don't listen
- By Emily on 08-08-17
-
The Corridors of Time
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
College student, ex-marine, and martial artist Malcolm Lockridge is in prison awaiting his trial for murder when he receives an unexpected visit from an extraordinarily beautiful woman named Storm. Claiming to be a representative of the Wardens, a political faction from 2,000 years in the future, Storm offers the astonished young man a proposition: freedom in return for his assistance in recovering an unspecified lost treasure. But it is not long before Malcolm realizes that, in truth, he's been recruited as a soldier in the Wardens' ongoing war against their rivals, the Rangers.
-
-
the oldies are still great
- By Malonejr on 06-21-21
By: Poul Anderson
-
The Elizabeth Chater Regency Romance Collection #1
- By: Elizabeth Chater
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 22 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A SEASON FOR THE HEART Miss Melpomene Rand’s only refuge from a life of monotony and cruelty is the extensive library left to her by her grandfather. The fantastic notions and romantic heroes in those books are the only things that distract her from the abuse of her adopted family. But then a mysterious stranger, the Earl of Austell, finds they have a mutual malady of boredom, and he endeavors to rescue them both. THE DUKE’S DILEMMA After losing their parents in an accident, older sister Leslie Endale runs off with her two younger sisters and her brother Daryl, the nine-year-old heir to...
-
-
Need REAL voices
- By Chantel on 11-16-24
By: Elizabeth Chater
-
Dead Man's Hand
- Crime Fiction at the Poker Table
- By: Otto Penzler - editor
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon, Keith Sellon-Wright, Gail Shalan
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hit the jackpot with stories from Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Walter Mosley, Alexander McCall Smith, and more superstars of mystery.
What listeners say about A Darker Shade of Sweden
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cindy
- 12-01-14
Not enough stories
To much blah blah blah, not enough of the stories. They only way I made it through the book is I thought the next chapter would be better.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 08-22-18
Okay, but misses out with the narrators
As a native Swede I did appreciated the stories of more or less known authors to me.
However I found the narrators inability of pronouncing Swedish locations and streets annoying . In some stories I had to back to listen again to get the picture of location . Otherwise not bad compilation.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AudioAddict
- 08-20-14
Awesome stories, pointless stories and more...
STORY (Swedish crime fiction) - There are 15 or 20 short stories in this collection, each lasting about an hour or less. I enjoyed this book as a whole but, as my title suggests, some stories were much better than others. They are written by various Swedish authors, each with their own writing style. Some are just basic detective-type stories, some are thrillers, some are dark and eerie, some noir... blah, blah. Steig Larsson himself (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) wrote one of the stores, and his long-time girlfriend pitched in a couple as well. Another reviewer, Alcairha, has written an excellent summary of each story and rated them individually. I agree with most of her opinions.
The entire first chapter is basically an introduction to Swedish crime fiction which I could have done without, and before each story is a summary of its author. I listened to all that stuff but, in hindsight, I wish I'd fast-forwarded through it because I gained very little information of interest when compared with the time spent listening to it all.
My favorite was the third story entitled "Never in Real Life," about a couple on a camping trip. Not only is it very good, but the ending totally rocks! Another story toward the end of the book is entitled "Diary Braun." I was totally confused by the story till it finished and I did a Google search to figure who in the heck it was about. While I enjoyed the mystery and suspense, I think I would have enjoyed the story more if I'd been familiar with the story behind it. If you're interested, do a Google search of the name Eva Braun and read briefly about her relationship with Hitler, their marriage and their deaths. Interesting stuff.
PERFORMANCE - There are a variety of narrators reading these stories, some male, some female. All were very good and one of my favorites, Scott Brick, narrates a couple.
OVERALL - I would recommend this to all mature listeners, whether male or female. There are some sexual references (including lesbianism) and some cursing, but not a lot of either. I hope to hear more from some of these authors in the future!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- joan
- 12-25-14
Mixed reviews
As with any collection os short stories, some are good and some not. Actually more "not."
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kaisa Hörkkö
- 03-22-18
The pronunciation...
This book would have gotten more stars if the narrators had even tried to get the names of the authors correct. Professional narrators (in my view) are expected to find out how to pronounce at least the names correctly.
On the whole this was a good collection of Swedish crime novelists.
I was looking for new authors to read or listen, but I had to do a lot of extra work to find out who were talked about...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- michele
- 04-10-15
Interesting short stories
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
I did enjoy it, although I was disappointed since many parts were anti-God. Most of the characters were messed up and held little hope, so I guess it stands to reason this was from a God - less perspective.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
It was a collection of short stories from the "darker" side, so what can you do with that?
What about the narrators’s performance did you like?
The narrators were really great. The "bridge" music between the stories was really cool too. Tavia Gilbert is a favorite.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
I think these stories could inspire a new re-make of "The Twilight Zone" television series.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nancy
- 08-25-14
A Mediocre Collection of Boring
I kept listening to this assortment of dull crime stories, hoping that one would actually be good. My hope was never realized. The only interesting part was my cat's reaction to the 'mysterious' music that was played in between each story; it scared the heck out of her.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sadyana
- 08-16-14
Too much explanation
Any additional comments?
While the stories and performances in this collection were interesting and engaging, the editor's interference was annoying. The detailed introduction was appreciated. However, the editor then goes on to preface each story with a lengthy adoration of the author(s) and their works. And then does the same after each story. I found this to interrupt the flow of the narrative and instead of allowing me to enjoy each story for itself, make me feel as if I were enduring a sales pitch for a time-share condo. It detracted from the authors' works instead of adding.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael
- 08-31-14
Eh. Not for me.
It is hard to assign a number to a collection of short stories written by different authors and presented by different narrators. Overall, I was disappointed. I found it quite difficult to get involved in such short stories populated, for the most part, by characters that I do not know and ultimately do not care about. Although I have read all of Henning Mankell's and enjoyed them thoroughly, the short story here with Kurt Wallender left me flat. Even Stieg Larsson's tale left me flat.
There was only one actual detective crime story late in the book. And even that one had a classic ending twist, not entirely unexpected. Perhaps, if I were a more discerning student of the art of writing a short story, I may have enjoyed this book more. But as it is, it is not for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alcairha
- 08-16-14
Very uneven collection with some gems (see below)
1. Tove Alsterdahl: Reunion
Meandering, atmospheric tale of a group of school friends reuniting as middle aged women. Can't quite decide if it's a ghost-story or a murder mystery. 3*
2. Ralph and Silla Borland: He liked his Hair
Incomprehensible story with minimal plotline that was a serial killer story?
Vampire novel? Werewolf novel? Not helped by the glacial pace of the narration. Thank God this was a short story! 1*
3. Aka Edvardson: Never in real Life
Terrific story of a couple's summer vacation turning out not to be quite what it looks like… 5*
4. inger Freemansson: In our darkened house
Excellent nugget about a woman's revenge on her former coworkers. 4*
5. Eva Gabrielson: Paul's last summer
Slight tale of a premature tombstone. 2*
6. Ana Johnsson: The Ring
Bullied child uses "The Ring" to give him courage and gets more than he bargained for. 4*
7. Asa Larsson: The Mail Run
Standard story of murder, misdirection and suspect wrongly accused/convicted by prejudice, but well told in a frontier mining town with medieval morals 4*
8. Stieg Larsson: Brain Power
Cautionary tale with the theme of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" taken to an extreme. Interesting idea, but you can see that the writer was young and immature since the characters are poorly developed. 3*
9. Henning Mankshall and Hagen Nesser: an unlikely meeting
Plotless story of two Swedish crime writers and their fictitious inspectors meeting on Christmas Eve. 1*
10. Magnus Montellius: An Alibi for Señor Venegas
Excellent tale of small time, petty politician manipulated into a false murder confession. 5*
11. Dag Orland: Something in his Eyes
Terrific morally ambiguous story of a repressive father and a daughter's fall from a balcony. Was it murder or was it suicide? 5*
12. Maryland Persson Jolito: Day and Night my Keeper Be
Strong character study, but depressing tale of a missing child. *4
13. May Huval and Per Walu: The Multimillionaire
Silly, pointless story about the start of the career of a minor con artist, who became a millionaire. It's beyond me what this story is doing in this collection since it contains neither murder nor mystery. It certainly wouldn't convince me to read the novels of the authors, who are reportedly Sweden's most famous and enduring crime writing couple. 1*
14. Sara Stridsberg: Diary Braun
A major disappointment after all the positive reviews. The story seems to consist mostly of endless descriptions of how she is getting rid of her jewelry and clothing while preparing for death 2*
15. Johann Theoren: Revenge of the Virgin
Skeletons in a rowboat. not much to it. Meh. 2*
16. Veronica von Schenck - Eitreia. an author to keep track of. Unfortunately, her books are only available in Swedish. Terrific story of an art dealer turned art fraud expert. I would love to read more of this author’s stories. 5*
17. Katerina Wenstahm:Too Late Shall the Sinner Awaken. Outstanding short story featuring a lesbian detective, Charlotta Lund, who is told the solution to an unsolved murder of a teenage boy that happened 25 years ago. 5*
I particularly loved the intros to each of the stories, which gave background information on the writers. I will try to read some of the novels by these writers, if they are available in English, since I generally prefer novels to short stories.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
13 people found this helpful