Contemporary Quests

The Da Vinci Code

• UNABRIDGED (16 hrs and 43 mins)
• By Dan Brown
• Narrated By Jeff Harding
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Winner of the British Book Awards, Book of the Year, 2005.

A murder in the silent, late night halls of the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his cryptographer daughter and her symbologist friend can untangle.

Beyond Tomorrow: Jack & Harry II

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 34 mins)
• By Tony McKenna
• Narrated By David Tredinnick

Yearning for what they’d left behind and disillusioned by city living, Jack Ferguson and Harry Turner leave Perth to return to the rough opal-mining environment of Coober Pedy, on the edge of the Stuart Ranges in South Australia. They discover, however, that all is not as idyllic as they remembered. They face harsh conditions, personal trials and a lack of funds. But determination, hard work and a little luck see them begin to establish themselves....

The Lost Symbol

• UNABRIDGED (17 hrs and 46 mins)
• By Dan Brown
• Narrated By Paul Michael
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol. Within minutes of his arrival, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object is discovered in the Capitol Building. The object is an ancient invitation, meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom. And when Langdon's mentor is kidnapped, Langdon's only hope of saving him is to accept this invitation and follow wherever it leads him.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet: Wayfarers 1

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 41 mins)
• By Becky Chambers
• Narrated By Patricia Rodriguez
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Firefly meets Mass Effect in this thrilling self-published debut! When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer.

The Heroes

• UNABRIDGED (23 hrs and 10 mins)
• By Joe Abercrombie
• Narrated By Steven Pacey
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they've brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.

Sacrifice

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 3 mins)
• By Sharon Bolton
• Narrated By Vivien Heilbron
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Moving to remote Shetland has been unsettling enough for consultant surgeon Tora Hamilton; even before the gruesome discovery she makes one rain-drenched afternoon...Deep in the peat soil of her field she is shocked to find the perfectly preserved body of a young woman, a gaping hole where her heart has been brutally removed and three rune marks etched into her skin.

The Long War: The Long Earth, Book 2

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 52 mins)
• By Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter
• Narrated By Michael Fenton Stevens
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth - but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind...

Crocodile Tears: Alex Rider Series, Book 8

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 2 mins)
• By Anthony Horowitz
• Narrated By Dan Stevens
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

With Sabina's family in Scotland, Alex Rider meets the mogul Desmond McCain. But a simple card game between them rapidly leads to a duel to the death – one that could ultimately result in the destruction of an entire East African country. Alex Rider – in the jaws of death.

The Hidden Oasis

• UNABRIDGED (20 hrs and 24 mins)
• By Paul Sussman
• Narrated By Gordon Griffin

Egypt 2153 BC: 80 priests set out under cover of darkness with a mysterious object.... Albania, 1986: A plane takes off bound for the Sudan. Somewhere over the Sahara it disappears.... The present: a mummified corpse is discovered in the dunes with a roll of camera film and a clay obelisk inscribed with a hieroglyphic sign.... Three unconnected events - or so it seems.

Kinslayer

• UNABRIDGED (18 hrs and 23 mins)
• By Jay Kristoff
• Narrated By Jane Collingwood

A Shattered Empire: Shogun Yoritomo has been assassinated, and the threat of civil war looms over the Shima Imperium. The Lotus Guild conspires crush the growing rebellion. A Dark Legacy: Yukiko and the mighty thunder tiger Buruu have been cast in the role of heroes by the Kagé rebellion. But Yukiko herself is blinded by rage over her father’s death. A Gathering Storm: Kagé assassins lurk within the Shogun’s palace, plotting to end the new dynasty before it begins.

Vicious Circle

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 27 mins)
• By Wilbur Smith
• Narrated By John Lee
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

When Hector Cross's new life is overturned, he immediately recognizes the ruthless hand of an enemy he has faced many times before: a terrorist group has re-emerged - like a deadly scorpion from beneath its rock. Determined to fight back, Hector draws together a team of his most loyal friends from his former life in Cross Bow Security, a company originally contracted to protect his beloved wife, Hazel Bannock, and her company, the Bannock Oil Corp. They travel to the remotest Middle East, to hunt down those who pursue him and his loved ones.

The Patriot Threat: Expanded Edition

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 58 mins)
• By Steve Berry
• Narrated By Steve Berry, Scott Brick
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

A provocative thriller posing a dangerous question: what if federal income tax is illegal? The 16th Amendment to the Constitution legalized federal income tax, but what if there were problems with the 1913 ratification of that amendment? Problems that call into question decades of tax collecting and could even bring down the US economy?

Temple of the Gods

• UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 14 mins)
• By Andy McDermott
• Narrated By Gareth Armstrong
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

NEW YORK CITY, USA. Archaeologist Nina Wilde's life has fallen apart - her husband, ex-SAS soldier Eddie Chase, is on the run, falsely accused of murder. Her only diversion has been investigating the origin of three strange statues stolen from her just before his disappearance. When Nina discovers they may be dangerous relics from the lost civilisation of Atlantis, it's clear that she has to get back in the game, and fast.

I Can See You

• UNABRIDGED (18 hrs and 42 mins)
• By Karen Rose
• Narrated By Elisabeth S. Rogers

A pulse-pounding suspense novel, where the line between the virtual world and reality gets blurred when it comes to murder. Complete and unabridged. Evie Wilson was the victim of the villain in DON'T TELL, an assault which resulted in paralysis on one side of her face. After her injury, Evie retreated into the virtual realm, seeking refuge from the public eye by interacting with online friends. Now, with the help of a surgeon, Evie's face is restored and she is ready to return to the real world.

The Nostradamus Prophecies

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 4 mins)
• By Mario Reading
• Narrated By Gareth Armstrong
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Nostradamus wrote 1000 prophecies. Only 942 have survived. What happened to the missing verses? This mystery drives two very different men. Adam Sabir is a writer desperate to revive his flagging career; Achor Bale is a member of an ancient secret society dedicated to the "Three Antichrists" foretold by Nostrodamus: Napoleon, Adolf Hitler - and "one still to come". As Sabir is drawn into the hidden world of France's gypsies, Bale is on his trail. A terrifying hunt begins...

The Valhalla Prophecy

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 54 mins)
• By Andy McDermott
• Narrated By Gareth Armstrong
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The ultimate duo - Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase - return in their ninth action-packed adventure. Secrets from the past emerge to threaten archaeologist Nina Wilde and her husband, former SAS soldier Eddie Chase, when a Viking runestone is stolen by a murderous gang of raiders. The stone holds the key to an ancient evil concealed in one of Norse mythology's holiest places: Valhalla. Travelling to Sweden, Eddie and Nina find themselves in a race against time to locate the legendary hall of the Viking warriors - before rival powers claim its deadly contents for themselves.

The Historian

• ABRIDGED (11 hrs and 28 mins)
• By Elizabeth Kostova
• Narrated By Joanne Whalley, Martin Jarvis, Dennis Boutsikaris

Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of: a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.

The Deep Silence

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 56 mins)
• By Douglas Reeman
• Narrated By David Rintoul
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

HMS Temeraire: latest and most advanced of Britain's nuclear submarines. When Temraire's trials are cut short and she is ordered to the Far East to reinforce the fleet against a threat from Red China, her captain, David Jermain, knows that this is no routine exercise in flag-waving. And once in Asian waters, he and his submarine find themselves involved in a hidden, undeclared conflict beneath the sea.

The Strangler Vine

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 58 mins)
• By M. J. Carter
• Narrated By Sam Dastor
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of M. J. Carter's The Strangler Vine, read by the actor Sam Dastor. India, 1837: William Avery, a fresh young officer in the East India Company, arrives in Calcutta expecting to be seduced by its ancient traditions. Nine months later he hasn't learnt a word of Hindoostani, is in terrible debt, and longs to return home before the cholera epidemic finishes him off.

Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople from the Hook of Holland: The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 3 mins)
• By Patrick Leigh Fermor
• Narrated By Crispin Redman
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, Silver PEN Award, 1987.The acclaimed travel writer's youthful journey - as an 18-year-old - across 1930s Europe by foot began in A Time of Gifts, which covered the author's exacting journey from the Lowlands as far as Hungary. Picking up from the very spot on a bridge across the Danube where his readers last saw him, we travel on with him across the great Hungarian Plain on horseback, and over the Romanian border to Transylvania.