Audio Book News: Mistress of the Just Land

For fans of the Inspector McLevy radio series, there is now a (currently) two-book series featuring Mistress Jean Brash: Mistress of the Just Land (2016) and The Lost Daughter (2017) written by David Ashton.

Mistress of the Just Land, is currently 99p on kindle but the bonus is that the add-on Audible narration is only £2.99 and is narrated by "Jean Brash" herself, Siobhan Redmond.

Jean Brash, who first appeared in BBC Radio 4's Inspector McLevy mysteries, is a formidable woman in her prime. Once a child of the streets, she is now Mistress of the Just Land, the best bawdy-hoose in Edinburgh and her pride and joy. But a murder in her establishment could wreck everything.

New Year's Day - and through the misty streets of Victorian Edinburgh an elegant, female figure walks the cobblestones - with a certain vengeful purpose. Jean Brash, the Mistress of the Just Land, brings her cool intelligence to solving a murder, a murder that took place in her own bawdy-hoose.

A prominent judge, strangled and left dangling, could bring her whole life to ruin and she didn't haul herself off the streets, up through low dirty houses of pleasure and violent vicious men - to let that come to pass. The search for the killers will take Jean back into her own dark past as she uncovers a web of political and sexual corruption in the high reaches of the Edinburgh establishment.

A young boy's death long ago is demanding justice but, as the body count increases, she has little time before a certain Inspector James McLevy comes sniffing round like a wolf on the prowl.

Jean may be on the side of natural justice but is she on the side of the law? Or will the law bring her down?

Favourite Discoveries 2013 (10)

Today's final instalment of favourite discoveries of 2013 comes from Lynn Harvey who blogs at Little Grey Doll as well as reviewing for Euro Crime.

We began this series of discoveries with one publisher, The British Library, and end with another one, Audible.

Lynn Harvey's Favourite Discovery of 2013

My favourite discovery of 2013 is not so much a particular book but listening to crime fiction via download from Audible.

Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day to read all those books. Listening to downloads however – whilst travelling, cooking, waiting, whatever – lets you shoehorn in a few more. Of course listening is not the same as reading. I find the main issue is whether or not I like the narration. On the Audible website I can listen to a sample of a book before I buy. And sad to say there are one or two books I would like to hear but I some of the readers' styles are not for me. However some narrations are a joy in themselves. 


Nigel Anthony gives a tour-de-force display of character voices in his readings of Colin Cotterill's funny and magical series featuring Dr Siri Paiboun, the National Coroner of Laos: old, young, male, female … leave alone spirits, he voices them all with skill and variety.

But he displays another side in his narration of Johan Theorin's THE QUARRY (which sent me searching for the previous titles in the series). Some books have a distinctive production as well as the work of the narrator. I enjoyed (once I got used to it) listening to Mons Kallentoft's MIDWINTER SACRIFICE which introduced a different sound quality for voices on the telephone and a distinctive treatment for the Kallentoft trademark “voice of the victim”. 

Meanwhile I catch up with favourites such as Philip Kerr's “Bernie Gunther” series which is narrated by American actor Jeff Harding (which seems to fit with the private-eye-noir element).

Above all “listening” to books has enabled me to discover books I hadn't found time to read. And listening to these has sent me searching out other work by their authors. What more can you get by way of discovery.