Single and Single, by John le Carre, read by the author (Hodder Headline, 4 tapes, 6 hrs, £12.99 in UK)
A man is brutally executed on a Turkish hillside. The head of a respectable English accounting firm goes missing. Russian gangsters are flooding Western markets with every undesirable substance imaginable. And in a small seaside village in Devon, a man earns his living by doing conjuring tricks at children's parties. Are they connected? You bet they are, and in this slow-burning ode to love, family values and good old-fashioned decency in a world where profit is everything and turnover rules, the master spins a yarn as unlikely - and mesmerising - as any he has ever produced. Le Carre is a superb reader of his own work, exuding a world-weary elegance which can change in a flash to sinister or shrill via cheeky or gentle. The atmosphere is further enhanced by the addition of some apt musical interludes, though after the umpteenth blast of Georgian folk tunes or yet another Orthodox choir, you do have to grit your teeth a little.
Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan, read by Alan Bates (HarperCollins, 4 tapes, 5 hours, £12.99 in UK)
There were those who felt Ian McEwan's contemporary morality tale should have collected last year's Booker Prize, and listening to this absorbing recreation by Alan Bates, it's hard to disagree. Even in an abridged version the sheer quality of the writing is overwhelming as the plot ebbs and flows around the friendship between Clive and Vernon, one an eminent composer, the other the editor of a quality broadsheet, both ex-lovers of the irresistible Molly, with whose death the story opens. Bates captures McEwan's pointed satire with understated precision, and turns up the tension to such a degree that you don't dare switch it off, in case you inadvertently miss a word. Highly recommended.
Inspector Morse: The Wench is Dead (MCI Spoken Word, 2 tapes, 2 hrs)
Confined to a hospital bed and deprived of alcohol, interesting things to eat and, most of all, work, the always irascible Morse waxes positively apoplectic when he discovers a gross miscarriage of justice - dating from 1860. This dramatised story, with dialogue straight out of the TV series and a generous helping of sound effects and music, fairly romps along to its tidy conclusion; partly, of course, because it's over an hour shorter than the usual two-tape package, but partly because it's just so easy to listen to. A must for Morse fans.
The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, read by Kerry Shale (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £8.99 in UK)
There are storms and storms - and then something like this happens. A hurricane collides with a cold front coming one way and a storm coming the other. Electrical mayhem, churning seas, 100-foot waves and, if you're unfortunate enough to be caught off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland on a sword-fishing boat, certain death. With compassion, sympathy and a complete absence of sentimentality Junger traces the stories of the men who made up the crew of the doomed ship the Andrea Gail; Kerry Shale reads with an equally admirable restraint; it all adds up to a chilling exercise in elemental terror.
Addicted, by Tony Adams, read by Jasper Britton (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £8.99 in UK)
As the race for this season's Premiership hurtles towards the finishing post, it may be a good time for Arsenal fans to contemplate the confessions of Tony Adams, who, for much of a distinguished career in soccer at the highest level, was either drunk as a skunk or desperately hung over. Adams has been deservedly praised for his honesty in telling it like it was in this fascinating book, with which he hopes to encourage other alcoholics to seek the light at the end of the tunnel, and from which he emerges as such a decent bloke that even Manchester United and Chelsea fans won't be able resist wishing him well? Oh, all right then, maybe not.
The Poetry Quartets (Bloodaxe Books, each 2-tape, 3-hr set £11.99 in UK)
Full marks to Bloodaxe and the British Council for launching this stimulating series of readings, which they hope will build into "an authoritative collection reflecting the diversity and excitement of poetry today". Each set features four poets reading their own work, with brief introductions to each poem; these first three offer everything, from such veteran voices as Tony Harrison and Ken Smith, to "new young poets" Simon Armitage and Jackie Kay via the wit and wisdom of Carol Ann Duffy and Fleur Adcock. Four more "quartets", to include Michael Longley and Medbh McGuckian, are planned for release this year.
Showbusiness: diary of a rock and roll nobody, by Mark Radcliffe, read by the author (Hodder Headline, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)
Mark Radcliffe was well beyond teenage dream age when it finally dawned on him that you didn't have to be in a rock band. He subsequently transformed himself into a BBC radio DJ, but this amusing romp charts his earlier, less-than-glittering career as a rock god, which included gigs in the most unlikely places and an ill-advised venture into Europe as part of the vanguard of British punk - a particularly painful place to be, as it turned out. Radcliffe eventually made a musical name (of sorts) for himself with the humorous bunch of rock parodists Shirehorses, of whose intentionally awful music a little goes a long way, and of which, luckily, there is just a soupcon here.
Cereus Blooms at Night, by Shani Mootoo, read by Art Malik (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £8.99 in UK)
"Contains disturbing scenes the depiction of which some listeners may find offensive," declares the cover, a warning which is doubtless well intentioned but which ends up making the listener dread what might be coming - hardly a good way to begin. There are brutalities aplenty in this story of sexual confusion, child abuse and neglect in a small Caribbean town named, oddly enough, Paradise, but Shani Mootoo handles her material with compassion and skill - Cereus Blooms at Night may be disturbing, but it's considerably less offensive than, say, the obligatory gory wallowings of much contemporary detective fiction. Art Malik reads with wry lightness and a satisfyingly varied array of voices.
