The audiobook of the year award goes to…

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Wednesday 11th December 2013

The Cuckoo's CallingI’m a big fan of audiobooks. With two children at university I spend loads of time on the motorway – which means heated discussions about what we should listen to en route. My daughter likes garage and house music (I don’t know what either of those are either), my son’s partial to The Doors and I’m a Radio Four addict, so it’s hard to please us all.

Audiobooks are the solution and we always take it in turns to choose. Luckily for us, 2014 has been a vintage year for stories.

Our favourites have been Kate Atkinson’s wonderful Jackson Brodie novels, Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles, A Delicate Truth by John le Carré and The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling).

My 19-year-old son and I enjoyed The Cuckoo’s Calling so much that we could easily have driven another 100 miles along the M4 to hear more of it. It’s a gripping crime story, with a damaged private investigator called Cormoran Strike, an atmospheric London setting and an addictive and unpredictable story line. Robert Glenister is a brilliant narrator so I hope he reads the follow-up when it’s published next year.

Given all this, I’m not surprised that Audible listeners have picked The Cuckoo’s Calling as their Audiobook of the Year. It was a landslide victory too, garnering twice the votes of the runner-up. So if you’ve got a long drive ahead of you this Christmas The Cuckoo’s Calling is perfect. Best of all, it’s nearly 16 hours long, so even if the traffic is horrendous it will see you through the festive jams and home again.


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