Hyperion
by Dan Simmons (Doubleday, 1989)
audiobook read by Allyson Johnson & Marc Vietor (Audible Frontiers, 2008)
Presumably Hyperion won the Hugo Award for its worldbuilding, not its efficaciousness as a novel. The story consists of six SF novellas (all interesting enough but none fully satisfying), strung together by a framing narrative that offers nothing at long journey’s end.
Father Brown, Series 2
by G.K. Chesterton; dramatised by John Scotney (BBC Radio 4, 1986)
Series Two of Scotney’s radio adaptations sees a reduction in length to only five episodes but a greater fluency of script and assuredness of performance. Andrew Sachs’ cadences as Father Brown seem to have informed Mark Williams’ delivery in the TV series.
My Cousin Vinny
dir. Jonathan Lynn (1992)
Very few comedies hold up after 30+ years, but this one does! Adroitly scripted and impeccably directed, with bravura performances by Marisa Tomei (Oscar for best supporting actress), Joe Pesci and Fred Gwynne, My Cousin Vinny remains an eminently quotable courtroom classic.
A Late Phoenix
by Catherine Aird (Doubleday, 1970)
audiobook read by Robin Bailey (Bolinda, 2014)
While Aird does capture something of English county life in its lingering post-war hangover, the mystery remains a leisurely non-event, solving itself while Inspector Sloan (well portrayed in Bailey’s audiobook performance) drifts along in its wake, offering sardonic commentary under his breath.
Peanuts: The Loves of Snoopy
by Charles M. Schulz (Hodder & Stoughton, 1978)
A slim (46-page) hardcover collection of Sunday strips affording plenty of space to each panel but paying only lip service to the title. The inking is often quite shoddy, at its most bizarre assigning variable hair colours to several of the characters!
Raumpatrouille: Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion
(ARD, 1966)
This seminal German SF series (complete at only seven episodes) features groovy mod-club music, memorable sets (even in black-and-white), edgy interpersonal conflict and a winning marriage of ideas-based science fiction and action/adventure, undercut by an over-the-top, rather petulant Kirk-like lead character (McLane).
The Owl Service (1967)
by Alan Garner (William Collins, 1967); audiobook read by Wayne Forester (Naxos, 2008)
Eerie, immersive but ultimately unsatisfying, as if Garner dreamed a novel idea while wintering in Wales, and when he woke up there was nothing to it, but he went ahead anyway. An unfocussed tangle of character, class, mystery and myth, laughably unresolved.
Beware of the Trains
by Edmund Crispin (Gollancz, 1953)
audiobook read by Paul Panting (Collins Crime Club, 2023)
Gervase Fen proves more palatable in the shorter form, though still exhibits little personality beyond brusque impatience and a Sherlock-like propensity for the conjurer’s reveal. Crispin’s mysteries—generally of the impossible type—are intellectual studies as much as sops to reader enjoyment.
It Walks By Night
by John Dickson Carr (Grosset & Dunlap, 1930)
audiobook read by John Teller (Soundings, 2020)
Bencolin himself has potential but the viewpoint narrative is mostly slush-ridden, pseudo-poetic waffle disguising a paper-thin solution. The conspirators’ plan to hatch alibis—and thus the crime’s apparent impossibility—relies entirely on there existing an unusually observant witness with a slow watch!
Death of a Busybody
by George Bellairs (John Gifford, 1942)
audiobook read by Ric Jerrom (Isis, 2017)
Bellairs often seems quite pleased with his trenchant vignettes and depictions of village life. Punching down aside, these hardly make up for a lack of substance elsewhere. The mystery is straightforward and slight, the amiable Inspector Littlejohn engaging in precious little brainwork.