stonepicnicking_okapi

I stumbled upon the Sloan & Crosby series (also known as The Calleshire Chronicles) by Catherine Aird, and I really like it, not least of which is because in at least two books of the series (and I hope more!) the audiobook versions are narrated by Robin Bailey, who did a great job with Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Clocks. Bailey has a low, rumbly, very tired and world weary kind of voice, which is perfect. The stories are cosy, police procedural type of stories but what sets them apart is the dry humor. DI Sloan is helped by DC Crosby who is always making quips, and at regular intervals, Sloan communicates with his superior Superintendent Leeyes and summaries the case or succinctly relates off-stage incidents--and the banter between Sloan and Leeyes is all I could want and aspire to in my own dialogue, sharp and quick and witty and sarcastic and they are so well rendered in Bailey's voice. The first in the series is available A Religious Body on youtube. I had sort of despaired a bit for something to listen to [I'd fallen back on my fave Frederick Davidson reading The Hound of the Baskerville and had been strangely put-off a re-listen of Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue and A Shilling for Candles] and so I am really thrilled to find an author who is new to me and whose style I really like.