Audio Books : Mystery and Suspense : Other quality : English


All are unabridged and recorded at 48kbps Mono CBR MP3.
Titles 1 to 5 are from cassette tapes (no CDs available) and 6 to 8 are from CDs.
Narraters include Julia Franklin, Ann Cator and Julia Barrie.

British mystery series featuring ex-policewoman Jordan Lacey, now advertising her services as a private investigator in the local newspaper and working out of a junk shop in the quiet part of a town in West Sussex.
Will there be enough crime in the sleepy streets of Latching to keep her in business? It looks like there is, as she's immediately thrown in the deep end of several intriguing and dangerous cases...



1. Pray and Die [2000], Cassette, 8 hours 37 mins, (176MB) read by Ann Cator
Someone has to investigate the mean streets of Latching, West Sussex - and that someone is Jordan Lacey, ex-policewoman, now advertising her services as a private investigator in the local paper and working out of a junk shop in the quiet part of town. Will there be enough crime in the sleepy streets of Latching to keep her in business? It looks like there is. Ursula Carling is convinced that her husband is having an affair and employs Jordan to track down the mistress who is sending hate mail. But Ursula isn't telling Jordan everything: for example, her husband died eighteen months ago. Then Jordan discovers the body of a dead nun in an abandoned hotel, along with clues to a hidden World War Two fortune, clues which somehow connect to Ursula Carling. But when she tries to notify the police, in the shape of the devastatingly attractive DI James, she finds herself accused of crying wolf. Not even the slice of poisoned carrot cake she mysteriously received is enough to change his mind. Perhaps it will take an altogether more dramatic attempt on Jordan's life to make DI James sit up and take notice.

2. Wave and Die [2001], Cassette, 8 hours 35 mins, (177MB) read by Julia Franklin
In the sequel to "Pray and Die", off-the-wall private investigator Jordan Lacey has progressed to cases of an entirely different class: from missing tortoises to stolen water lilies and vandalism at the Women's institute. But Sussex wives will be careless with their husbands, and soon enough Jordan is on the trail of another missing spouse. Complications arise when the husband in question is found dead in a burning showroom, and his 'wife' turns out not to be married to him. Then Jordan is accused of the arson attack at the scene of the crime and really starts to wonder whether sleuthing is her true vocation. There's a silver lining to every cloud, however, now that Jordan's in this deep, she doesn't have to via for the attention of dishy DI James, since he's hounding her...

3. Spin and Die [2002], Cassette, 7 hours 25 mins, (153MB) read by Julia Franklin
PI Jordan Lacey takes on her new cases with verve and ingenuity. She is hired to follow Sonia Spiller, a woman suspected of a compensation fraud against a Latching department store. Then she’s asked to take on a second case at the same department store - tracking down vanishing stock. Then, when a man spins to his death on Hell's Revenge, a high-tech funfair ride, Jordan realizes that the two cases are horribly linked. The situation becomes even more complicated when a JCB destroys the local bowling pavilion revealing some grisly remains, Jordan is accused of being a stalker and she ends up trapped in a waterwheel . . . Can she rely on DI James to come to her rescue?

4. Hide and Die [2003] , Cassette, 7 hours 53 mins, (162MB) read by Julia Franklin
Jordan Lacey, Latching's intrepid and unconventional P.I., has two new cases to solve: a paternity dispute and a weird cross-dressing mystery. Neither case is as simple as it seems and during her roller-coaster investigations, she unearths more than she expects. She becomes entangled in a ten-year-old unsolved murder and it doesn't help when she is held hostage by a bull mastiff, engulfed by a freak tidal wave and poisoned by some suspicious parsley. Her own emotional dramas escalate when Detective Sergeant Ben Evans talks her into a holiday and Detective Inspector James, the object of her unrequited love, has a fit of old-fashioned jealousy.

5. Jest and Die [2004], Cassette, 7 hours 46 mins, (160MB) read by Ann Cator
Nightly surveillance up a tree is hardly Pl Jordan Lacey's idea of career development, but she's there to catch an intruder who is bent on destroying Denbury Court's beautiful hill-top garden. When the intruder's calling card is discovered to be a pair of impaled garden shears, the whole scene turns nasty and bloody. Her other case - protecting George Hill, a handsome stand-up comedian, from a female stalker - is fraught with a different danger. When Jordan accidentally unearths an international crime racket, her hero, Dl James demands that she goes into hiding. But Jordan has no intention of taking orders from him or of giving up her cases. However, fate deals a cruel blow and Jordan is left to pick up the pieces and somehow solve what has now become a personal vendetta.

6. Ring and Die [2005], CD, 8 hours 2 mins, (164MB) read by Julia Barrie
Jordan Lacy, Latching's zany private eye, is thrown in the deep end - literally - when fishing rods start disappearing from the pier. Next, stolen pedigree puppies start adding to her case load. But it all gets more serious when one of the anglers is found hanging in the bell tower of a church, his past life shrouded in mystery. Then a cache of diamonds go missing from a raided security box and a revengeful gang member is determined to find out where they are hidden. The personal stakes are upped as a series of planned road crashes shakes Jordan's sense of security. And when the love of her life, DI James, announces his transfer to Yorkshire, she knows she will have to claw her way back to sanity.

7. Turn and Die [2007], CD, 8 hours 13 mins, (169MB) read by Julia Barrie
Latching's enterprising and zany private investigator, Jordan Lacey, has a back-to-front mystery to solve. The lovely Holly Broughton has been acquitted of trying to murder her husband, banker Richard Broughton, but she hires Jordan to find out who framed her and why. When Jordan's life is threatened on three separate occasions, she realises that she may, for once, be on the right track. Her usual flare for surveillance gear has her impersonating an insurance agent, ghost hunter and a foreign day tripper. And she takes a job as a barmaid at the fated Medieval Hall pub, to keep a reluctant promise to Detective Inspector James. The pace is fast and funny as Jordan finds herself propelled towards a solution that is claustrophobic and totally unexpected.

8. Fold and Die [2010], CD, 7 hours 23 mins, (152MB) read by Julia Barrie
Jordan Lacey, Latching's zany but intrepid private eye, goes cruising to Norway and the spectacular Midnight Sun. But she is the undercover bodyguard of Joanna Carter, a woman who believes that her life is in danger. A set of curious events culminate with Jordan on the run and being charged with Joanna's murder. In desperation Jordan emails DI James for help. Storms at sea, gale force winds, a mysterious grey man, a disappearing Thai stewardess and a doddery old lady who calls herself Miss Phoebe Brown accentuate the twists and turns of this fast moving plot aboard a supposedly leisurely cruise.

A ninth title in this series called Jazz and Die was published this year, but is not available in audio format yet.

Note that some of these recordings are from cassette tapes that are in some cases old, thus the sound quality may be a tad dull sometimes, but they are reasonably hiss free and clear.
My friend Shauna kindly provided books 1 to 5 from cassette tapes (no CDs are available) and I provided books 6 to 8 from CDs.
(This well written modern cozy British murder mystery series is a favorite of mine.)


Enjoy and Seed!!