Acquired Audiobook By: I started to listen to audiobooks in [2016] as a way to offset my readings of print books whilst noting there was a rumour about how audiobooks could help curb chronic migraines as you are switching up how your reading rather than allowing only one format to be your bookish choice. As I found colouring and knitting agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I have embarked on a new chapter of my reading life where I spend time outside of print editions of the stories I love reading and exchange them for audio versions. Through hosting for the Audiobookworm I’ve expanded my knowledge of authors who are producing audio versions of their stories whilst finding podcasters who are sharing their bookish lives through pods (ie. AudioShelf and Talking Audiobooks; see my sidebar). Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue whilst making purchase requests for audio CDs. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I am hoping to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year starting in 2018.
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “A Looming of Vultures” via Audiobookworm Promotions who is working directly with the author Richard Storry in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
What drew my eye to listening to this novel:
Two Words: Storry & Urry
I’d love to say there was a more specific reason why I wanted to listen to this story – however, once you find a winning combination of author + audiobook narrator, you are willing to take a risk and simply request a story to listen to whilst not entirely sure of the premise behind the story your receiving to review! I honestly did a blind request with this audiobook – I knew I loved the ways in which Mr Storry can tell a story whilst I am in love with how Mr Urry narrates stories!
For me, it was kismet finding a new story by both the author and the narrator I loved discovering whilst listening to The Cryptic Lines which remains to this day my top favourite audiobook! In close second are the Moira Quirk narrations for Anna Blanc (read my notes about my latest listening session) which are wicked addictive in the same vein of interest – one author writes Suspense and the other writes wicked brilliant Cosy Historical Mysteries – clearly, I have a mind for murderously lovely stories akin to Jessica Fletcher who lived in such a small towne considering the sincere random quirk of stumbling into crimes with such a high frequency in which she did! lol (smirks) Mind, not all the stories I read involve nefarious crimes (though most do!) – I love a wicked good psychological suspense wherein no one dies but the suspense is harder to needle out because it encapsulates itself into other avenues of the human psyche.
What draws me into Urry’s narration is how his voice is well-matched for the stories Mr Storry is crafting together – therein, you do note how his voice doesn’t quite match his appearance, as I nearly mistook him for someone else entirely – but it’s how well apt he is at these particular genres which lends me wicked addictive to seeing what he’ll do next whilst taking on a new story to narrate. I’ve have it in mind to listen to the stories outside the canon of Storry he narrates, but part of me is curiously curious if some of those are a bit outside the scope of what I would enjoy. Not all, as I am sure I spied at least one story I’d be keen on hearing but the rest, I know he entertains other genres outside my own wanderings.
In short, I’m addictive to his voice and I am musefully happy to see what Mr Storry is going to write next because his stories are a brilliant match to Urry’s narration.
A Looming of Vultures
Subtitle: Ruritanian Rogues, Volume One
by Richard Storry
Source: Audiobook via Audiobookworm Promotions
Narrator: Jake Urry
While an ugly war with its neighbouring realm continues to rage, the insulated members of Ruritania’s upper class laugh and dance their way through their superficial lives. Some people, increasingly disillusioned by the pointless conflict, start to consider how the King might be persuaded - or forced - to end it.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of items of great value are going missing from those attending these high society gatherings. At whom will the finger of suspicion point? Who can be trusted?
With so many competing, yet intertwined, agendas, what will be the outcome of this looming of vultures?
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B0764M7FM9
Also by this author: The Cryptic Lines, A Nest of Vipers
Also in this series: A Nest of Vipers
Published by Self Published
on 5th October, 2017
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 4 hours 57 minutes (unabridged)
Published By: Cryptic Publications
Ruritanian Rogues series:
A Looming of Vultures | Book One
A Nest of Vipers* | Book Two | Synopsis
*audiobook narrated by Urry, released 10th January, 2018
About Richard Storry
Richard is the author of four published novels, with his fifth “A Looming of Vultures” due for publication in 2017. Prior to writing his first novel, “The Cryptic Lines” he was very busy in the theatrical world: He composed the incidental music to Chekhov’s Three Sisters, seen in London’s West End, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Eric Sykes, and subsequently broadcast on BBC4 television.
His musical adaptation of “The Brothers Lionheart” premiered at London’s Pleasance Theatre, followed by a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival where it was voted Best Childrens’ Play. “The Cryptic Lines” has now been adapted for both the stage and screen.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
The Woman in the Camphor Trunk
A Christmas Surprise
Colourless
A Heavenly Christmas