
Dark Reading Matter
A Thursday Next Novel, Book 8
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
3 months free
Pre-order for $25.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
By:
-
Jasper Fforde
About this listen
Dark Reading Matter is the 8th and final novel in the New York Times bestselling Thursday Next series, following 2012’s The Woman Who Died a Lot. Listeners have been anticipating this book, whose concept is teased in the plot of Book 7, for over a decade now.
©2026 Jasper Fforde (P)2026 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Big Over Easy
- A Nursery Crime
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.
-
-
Total Whimsy
- By Bruce Sabin on 08-10-05
By: Jasper Fforde
-
Stone and Sky
- Rivers of London, Book 10
- By: Ben Aaronovitch
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All Detective Sergeant Peter Grant wanted was a nice holiday up in Scotland. He'll need one once this is over...
By: Ben Aaronovitch
-
Midnight Riot
- Rivers of London, Book 1
- By: Ben Aaronovitch
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Probationary constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale....
-
-
I LOVE this Book!
- By Nancy J on 02-26-13
By: Ben Aaronovitch
-
The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse
- By: Tom Holt
- Narrated by: Dan Starkey, Daphne Kouma
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The team of commercial sorcerers at Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson can help with any metaphysical engineering project, large or small (though by definition they all tend to be pretty large). They can also create massive great puddles of chaos that might one day swallow up the entire universe. Take, for example, the decision to recruit a certain bearded fellow whose previous work experience mainly involves reindeer and jingle bells. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but is he really the best person to save the world from Tiamat the Destroyer, who has literally gone ballistic?
-
-
Painful. narration
- By Georgia Shopper on 12-18-23
By: Tom Holt
-
Heathcliff Lennox - France 1918
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst -Phillips
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spring, 1918. The Great War is at a crucial stage, the Germans are making one last push into France, and the Allies are struggling to hold them back. Battle lines are shifting, and men, and their machines, are being sent up and down the front to shore up defenses. Major Heathcliff Lennox, and his batman Greggs, are told to report to their new HQ. They set off on a sunlit day to fly the distance, but the enemy is never far away, and disaster strikes. They're sent crashing to the ground behind enemy lines, where life, death, and love await.
-
-
Another great Heathcliff Lennox
- By Katydid65 on 06-04-21
-
Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons)
- A Miss Percy Guide, Book 1
- By: Quenby Olson
- Narrated by: Zara Ramm
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster. She does not dance, she has long stopped dreaming, and she certainly does not have adventures. That is, until her great uncle has the audacity to leave her an inheritance, one that includes a dragon’s egg. The egg—as eggs are wont to do—decides to hatch, and Miss Mildred Percy is suddenly thrust out of the role of “spinster and general wallflower” and into the unprecedented position of “spinster and keeper of dragons.” But England has not seen a dragon since…well, ever.
-
-
Pride and prejudice and dragon
- By Silly pants on 11-07-22
By: Quenby Olson
-
The Big Over Easy
- A Nursery Crime
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.
-
-
Total Whimsy
- By Bruce Sabin on 08-10-05
By: Jasper Fforde
-
Stone and Sky
- Rivers of London, Book 10
- By: Ben Aaronovitch
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All Detective Sergeant Peter Grant wanted was a nice holiday up in Scotland. He'll need one once this is over...
By: Ben Aaronovitch
-
Midnight Riot
- Rivers of London, Book 1
- By: Ben Aaronovitch
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Probationary constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale....
-
-
I LOVE this Book!
- By Nancy J on 02-26-13
By: Ben Aaronovitch
-
The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse
- By: Tom Holt
- Narrated by: Dan Starkey, Daphne Kouma
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The team of commercial sorcerers at Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson can help with any metaphysical engineering project, large or small (though by definition they all tend to be pretty large). They can also create massive great puddles of chaos that might one day swallow up the entire universe. Take, for example, the decision to recruit a certain bearded fellow whose previous work experience mainly involves reindeer and jingle bells. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but is he really the best person to save the world from Tiamat the Destroyer, who has literally gone ballistic?
-
-
Painful. narration
- By Georgia Shopper on 12-18-23
By: Tom Holt
-
Heathcliff Lennox - France 1918
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst -Phillips
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spring, 1918. The Great War is at a crucial stage, the Germans are making one last push into France, and the Allies are struggling to hold them back. Battle lines are shifting, and men, and their machines, are being sent up and down the front to shore up defenses. Major Heathcliff Lennox, and his batman Greggs, are told to report to their new HQ. They set off on a sunlit day to fly the distance, but the enemy is never far away, and disaster strikes. They're sent crashing to the ground behind enemy lines, where life, death, and love await.
-
-
Another great Heathcliff Lennox
- By Katydid65 on 06-04-21
-
Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons)
- A Miss Percy Guide, Book 1
- By: Quenby Olson
- Narrated by: Zara Ramm
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster. She does not dance, she has long stopped dreaming, and she certainly does not have adventures. That is, until her great uncle has the audacity to leave her an inheritance, one that includes a dragon’s egg. The egg—as eggs are wont to do—decides to hatch, and Miss Mildred Percy is suddenly thrust out of the role of “spinster and general wallflower” and into the unprecedented position of “spinster and keeper of dragons.” But England has not seen a dragon since…well, ever.
-
-
Pride and prejudice and dragon
- By Silly pants on 11-07-22
By: Quenby Olson
-
The Vanishing Bookstore
- By: Helen Phifer
- Narrated by: Stephanie Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1692. On the outskirts of Salem, a bookstore stands covered in overgrown vines. Inside, a young woman hides a linen-wrapped journal under a loose floorboard and runs away, panicked by the sound of hounds barking in the distance. The bookstore vanishes into thin air…
-
-
a mixed bag
- By Anonymous User on 02-18-25
By: Helen Phifer
-
The Constant Rabbit
- A Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An inimitable blend of satire, fantasy, and thriller, The Constant Rabbit is the latest dazzlingly original foray into Jasper Fforde's ever-astonishing creative genius. England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-sized rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphising Event 55 years before.
-
-
great book!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-20
By: Jasper Fforde
-
White Silence
- Elizabeth Cage, Book 1
- By: Jodi Taylor
- Narrated by: Kate Scarfe
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elizabeth Cage is a child when she discovers that there are things in this world that only she can see. But she doesn't want to see them, and she definitely doesn't want them to see her. What is a curse to Elizabeth is a gift to others - a very valuable gift they want to control. When her husband dies, Elizabeth's world descends into a nightmare. But as she tries to piece her life back together, she discovers that not everything is as it seems.
-
-
Something new, but still very much Jodi Taylor!
- By Lora Feeley on 09-22-17
By: Jodi Taylor
-
The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
- The Outlaws, Book 1
- By: Jonathan Stroud
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scarlett McCain is a shoot-first ask-questions-later kind of outlaw. She scrapes by on bank heists, her wits - and never looking back. She’s on the run from her latest crime when she comes across Albert Browne. He is the sole survivor of a horrific accident, and against her better judgement, Scarlett agrees to guide him to safety.
-
-
Missing Originality
- By Joki on 12-25-21
By: Jonathan Stroud
-
How to Be Eaten
- A Novel
- By: Maria Adelmann
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. And Raina's love story will shock them all.
-
-
Great story & narration; i wish it were longer (sad face emoji)
- By socalconsumer on 08-12-23
By: Maria Adelmann
-
The Incandescent
- By: Emily Tesh
- Narrated by: Zara Ramm
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walden is good at her job—no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself.
-
-
My favorite book of the year
- By lsrygl on 05-15-25
By: Emily Tesh
-
Gobbelino London & a Scourge of Pleasantries
- Gobbelino London, PI, Book 1
- By: Kim M. Watt
- Narrated by: Paul Tyreman
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Find a missing book. That was the job the woman in the Doc Martens gave us. Easy money, right? Only now it seems she's actually an ancient, powerful sorcerer, and the book is a Book of Power that doesn't want to be found. It wants to tear reality apart at the seams, and it'll use anyone it can to do it. So now we've got one spectacularly displeased sorcerer, a hungry, still-missing book, a dentist with bad hygiene, and a neighbourhood having some reality issues to deal with. Plus about a day before the book turns our world - and us - inside out.
-
-
Delightful series
- By celestial on 06-23-24
By: Kim M. Watt
-
Medicus
- A Novel of the Roman Empire
- By: Ruth Downie
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced and down-on-his-luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to seek his fortune in an inclement outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia. After a 36-hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner. And before he knows it, Ruso is caught in the middle of an investigation into the deaths of prostitutes working out of the local bar.
-
-
Took Me by Surprise
- By Lehua of Pacifica on 03-29-08
By: Ruth Downie
-
Early Riser
- A Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Thomas Hunt
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Winter, the human population hibernates. Your name is Charlie Worthing, and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses. You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artifact borne of the sleeping mind. When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling. When you get the dreams, too, it's weird. When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
-
-
A different book from Jasper Fforde
- By MarilynArms on 02-16-19
By: Jasper Fforde
-
A Man with One of Those Faces
- By: Caimh McDonnell
- Narrated by: Morgan C. Jones
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first time somebody tried to kill him was an accident. The second time was deliberate. Now Paul Mulchrone finds himself on the run with nobody to turn to except a nurse who has read one-too-many crime novels and a renegade copper with a penchant for violence. Together they must solve one of the most notorious crimes in Irish history. Or else they’ll be history.
-
-
Not easily pleased
- By Anna on 08-30-18
By: Caimh McDonnell
-
Tor the Dungeon Crawler Box Set
- The Complete Death Goddess Cycle (The Wizardoms Epic)
- By: Jeffrey L. Kohanek
- Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays, Lucky Byfleet
- Length: 26 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A misfit crew of relic hunters armed with magical weapons set off on a series of action-packed quests. Their mission: Seek out and recover magical artifacts that might be used in the battle against the Dark Lord. They never anticipated that their actions might send their world hurtling toward a dire fate.
-
-
What an interesting series of hooks!
- By Baz on 11-30-24
-
The Very First Damned Thing
- An Author-Read Audio Exclusive
- By: Jodi Taylor
- Narrated by: Jodi Taylor
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jodi Taylor reads the long-awaited prequel in her Chronicles of St Mary’s series, as Dr Bairstow struggles to set up St Mary’s as we know it in a world still scarred by the ravages of civil war. Ever wondered how it all began? It’s two years since the final victory at the Battersea Barricades. The fighting might be finished, but for Dr Bairstow, just now setting up St Mary's, the struggle is only beginning. How will he assemble his team? From where will his funding come?
-
-
Wait for it on Kindle. Not the best on audio
- By Sheryl on 11-05-15
By: Jodi Taylor
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Frozen People: A Mystery
- Ali Dawson Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Elly Griffiths
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: they can travel back in time to look for evidence. So far, Ali has only made short trips to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, and member of a sinister group called The Collectors.
By: Elly Griffiths
-
Magyk
- Septimus Heap, Book One
- By: Angie Sage
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow—a newborn girl with violet eyes. Who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to the Heaps' beloved son Septimus?
-
-
Fun Listen
- By Emiko on 08-10-09
By: Angie Sage
-
The Calculating Stars
- A Lady Astronaut Novel
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process. Elma York’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
-
-
Never achieves lift off
- By Richard Bruno on 10-01-18
-
Stone and Sky
- Rivers of London, Book 10
- By: Ben Aaronovitch
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All Detective Sergeant Peter Grant wanted was a nice holiday up in Scotland. He'll need one once this is over...
By: Ben Aaronovitch
-
Early Riser
- A Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Thomas Hunt
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Winter, the human population hibernates. Your name is Charlie Worthing, and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses. You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artifact borne of the sleeping mind. When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling. When you get the dreams, too, it's weird. When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
-
-
A different book from Jasper Fforde
- By MarilynArms on 02-16-19
By: Jasper Fforde
-
Taken
- Lost Town, Book 1
- By: Nathan Hystad
- Narrated by: Bradford Hastings
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caesar, an undercover operative, enters Carmichael with the briefest of orders from his boss and a countdown on his phone. What will happen when the clock strikes zero? Deputy Amelia Miller is dispatched from a nearby city, and a series of events keeps her around much longer than she'd expected. In the middle of the night, something shifts, and the whole town disappears off the face of the Earth. Who caused the shift, and what lies beyond the veil of their settlement?
-
-
Hard for me to rate, hear me out...
- By Richard Sarno on 03-28-25
By: Nathan Hystad
-
The Frozen People: A Mystery
- Ali Dawson Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Elly Griffiths
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: they can travel back in time to look for evidence. So far, Ali has only made short trips to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, and member of a sinister group called The Collectors.
By: Elly Griffiths
-
Magyk
- Septimus Heap, Book One
- By: Angie Sage
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow—a newborn girl with violet eyes. Who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to the Heaps' beloved son Septimus?
-
-
Fun Listen
- By Emiko on 08-10-09
By: Angie Sage
-
The Calculating Stars
- A Lady Astronaut Novel
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process. Elma York’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
-
-
Never achieves lift off
- By Richard Bruno on 10-01-18
-
Stone and Sky
- Rivers of London, Book 10
- By: Ben Aaronovitch
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All Detective Sergeant Peter Grant wanted was a nice holiday up in Scotland. He'll need one once this is over...
By: Ben Aaronovitch
-
Early Riser
- A Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Thomas Hunt
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Winter, the human population hibernates. Your name is Charlie Worthing, and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses. You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artifact borne of the sleeping mind. When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling. When you get the dreams, too, it's weird. When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
-
-
A different book from Jasper Fforde
- By MarilynArms on 02-16-19
By: Jasper Fforde
-
Taken
- Lost Town, Book 1
- By: Nathan Hystad
- Narrated by: Bradford Hastings
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caesar, an undercover operative, enters Carmichael with the briefest of orders from his boss and a countdown on his phone. What will happen when the clock strikes zero? Deputy Amelia Miller is dispatched from a nearby city, and a series of events keeps her around much longer than she'd expected. In the middle of the night, something shifts, and the whole town disappears off the face of the Earth. Who caused the shift, and what lies beyond the veil of their settlement?
-
-
Hard for me to rate, hear me out...
- By Richard Sarno on 03-28-25
By: Nathan Hystad