What I'm Listening to Now

The Small Change Trilogy, Jo Walton, read by John Keating and Heather O'Neil

These are three books -- Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half a Crown -- set in an AU where Britain made peace with Hitler in 1941. FDR was assassinated in his second term, so that Lindberg becomes president just before WWII kicks off. I guess it isn't a WW, since no one except Britain is fighting Hitler; and then they make peace.

In any case, these books are about fascism increasing world-wide, and especially in Britain, so they're apropos for today's events. There's a great and awful bit in the second book, from the POV of an actress, saying all politicians are alike, Churchill and Atlee wouldn't have done anything different from the Farthing group (the fascists that take over Parliament), and the death camps in Germany are just work camps, and anyway none of Britain's business. In the third book, there's some harrowing scenes of fascists marching in London and Jews being stoned.

These are mystery books, in that each book turns around a mystery; but they aren't traditional mysteries. Mysteries are generally conservative works, in that they start with a Utopian space, which is disrupted by crime; and then the space becomes disordered and terrible; and then the police or a private detective or Miss Marple solve the crime, right the wrong, and the world returns to its former Utopian space. However, here, the space being disrupted is far from Utopian, and while the crimes get solved, nothing is made better by the solving of the crime. Indeed, everything gets worse, until the last book, which has, frankly, an unbelievable ending.

These are excellent books, wonderfully narrated. Well worth listening to. Available via Audiobooks.

The Keeper, Tana French, read by Roger Clark

This is the third in the Cal Hooper trilogy, about a Chicago homicide detective who retires to sheep country in Ireland and accidentally adopts/mentors a 13 year old (Trey is 15 in this novel). The setting, a small rural town, is as much a character as anyone else. The cast of characters includes sheep farmers, shopkeepers, ne'er-do-wells, high school students, and Cal himself. Also some great dogs.

Each of the novels contains a mystery, including this one, but honestly I don't read French so much for the mystery as her ability to create characters and place. When you listen to them, also, there are wonderful Irish accents. 

Available via Audiobooks.

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson, read by Tony Walker

I may not make it all the way through this one. Jackson writes creepy better than anyone. It's strange, because she also wrote these charming, slightly funny stories about her children (in Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons) which are just orthogonal to the horror fiction. Those are also worth listening to, by the way.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this one so far, but man is it creepy. The set up is a professor of haunted houses (or something like that) rents Hill House for a couple of months and goes to live there with these people he hired because they (the people) all of some sort of paranormal events in their background. Like one was living in a house where stones rained down for three days, and another is apparently telepathic, or at least can identify cards without looking at their faces.

There's also a very New England peasant couple. And, of course, Jackson's wonderful voice. I like what I've listened to so far (the first half hour or so) but it's starting to get creepy. This one is available for free on YouTube.