The Facts of Life and Death Unabridged (Audio Download): Amazon.co.uk: Belinda Bauer, Colleen Prendergast: Books

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Audio Download
Listening Length: 9 hours and 38 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Random House Audiobooks
Audible.co.uk Release Date: 27 Mar 2014
Language: English
ASIN: B00IZ6G5OQ

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Description

"�Call your mother.�

'What do I say?'

`Say goodbye.��

This is how it begins. Lone women terrorised and their helpless families forced to watch - in a sick game where only one player knows the rules. And when those rules change, the new game is Murder.

Living with her parents in the dank beach community of Limeburn, ten-year-old Ruby Trick has her own fears. Bullies on the school bus, the forest crowding her house into the sea, and the threat of divorce. Helping her Daddy to catch the killer might be the key to keeping him close. As long as the killer doesn't catch her first...

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5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written. A serial killer thriller. 30 Mar 2014

By Richard Latham

Format:Hardcover

This is another wonderful story from the pen of Belinda Bauer.
Set, a little along the coast from Clovelly, in Limeburn a tiny village that once had a prosperous past, but never a pull for tourists to save its own economy. Slowly, the population and their homes seem to be surrendering to the economic reality, further squeezed by the advancing sea and the encroaching countryside. The hamlet has just 5 children who are forced to play together, one of whom is Ruby Trick. This is her story, during a changing time as she moves from small child into a young girl on the cusp of puberty. However, it is a wider threat to the whole of North Devon that will change her life forever and take her more rapidly into the world of adulthood. A serial killer is at work; no young woman appears safe and Ruby is determined to help her Daddy try to catch the murderer.
The author has always to my great pleasure shown great skills in voicing young people and writing from a child's perspective. That strength is demonstrated here with compassion and wit, through Ruby's coming of age, in her relationships at home, at school and as a new appointed deputy in her Dad's gunslingers' posse. Her relationship with her Father is crucial to this story and is beautifully explored, especially in their dialogue and interactions.
The sense of place is also beautifully drawn. I had visions of the author bribing local Welsh fisher folk to cross the Bristol Channel in secret to spy/research the geography and gather a sense of time and place. My partner suggested she probably used the Severn Bridge a couple of times. Whatever, Belinda Bauer has captured the locale and written so well that you can smell the sea, sense the damp and have to pause for breath as you climb one of the paths out of Limeburn. Read more ›

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5.0 out of 5 stars A creepy, damp, unsettling thriller 28 Mar 2014

By Charles Hurren

Format:Hardcover

"In Rock Cottage the living room floor had bulged and finally splintered to reveal a root of oak as thick as a man's leg."

The village of Limeburn in Devon, beset by encroaching tides on one side, and the insidious creep of the forest on the other, in constant danger of being crushed to sand by twin forces of nature, is home to the Trick family. Ten year old, red-haired, lonely Ruby shares her father's impatience with her mother, who always seems to be working or nagging them about sleep and vegetables. Ruby is Daddy's little girl, especially since he joined the Gunslingers, a group of amateur cowboys who hang out in nearby Clovelly to talk spurs and replica weapons in fake American accents. John Trick buys his overweight child's affection with tall tales, macho bragging and Mars Bars.

The story begins quietly, unusually for Bauer, with a rather gentle tale of a small, struggling family in a dank Gothic setting. Ruby, of course, grabs a hold of our hearts and has us rooting for her very quickly but others in the small community are intriguing and engaging too. At this stage the book almost seems to be shaping up to be a 21st century Cranford.

Then - oh my goodness - chapter five! One of the most terrifying scenes I've ever read. It comes from nowhere, it grabs hold of that Ruby-softened heart with a damp, cold hand and squeezes hard. No spoiler, this is included in the cover blurb, but if you're a mother, this really is your WORST possible nightmare.

After that, it's only a matter of time before another of those horrible scenes jumps out at us. We can't relax, and neither can the residents of Limeburn and Clovelly.

To everyone who's lived through the wettest British winter in living memory, this book will seem scarily, remarkably topical. Read more ›

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5.0 out of 5 stars Dark character driven psychological thriller 27 Mar 2014

By Liz Wilkins TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

‘Call your mother.’
‘What do I say?’
‘Say goodbye.’

This is how it begins. Living with her parents in the dank beach community of Limeburn, ten-year-old Ruby Trick has her own fears. Bullies on the school bus, the forest crowding her house into the sea, and the threat of divorce.

Helping her Daddy to catch a killer might be the key to keeping him close.

As long as the killer doesn’t catch her first..

So I recently read “Rubbernecker” from Belinda Bauer, also incidentally the first novel of hers I have read since Blacklands and it was so good that I was kind of worried that this one would fall flat. It absolutely did not do any such thing.

We follow along mostly with ten year old Ruby as she explores her world, puts up with bullies, hangs out with her friends and observes her people – she adores Daddy and is determined that he will be happy despite the fact that her parents are not getting on. Meanwhile young women are going missing, as a fledgling killer becomes more confident.

This was an extremely clever psychological thriller, especially as young Ruby’s viewpoint was so very authentic – she behaves like a ten year old with all the curiosity and wonder that time of life brings – and it was a different take on the way an adult would look at the world or peoples actions. Ruby, whilst helping her Dad try and track the killer, ends up with a lot of information that she doesnt realise is important. Offset that against the beautifully drawn police team (and not cliche at all – I thought Calvin was probably one of the most realistic sounding Police Officers I have ever read in fiction and boss Kirsty King was delightfully normal) and you have a cleverly constructed, character driven tale of the darker side of human nature. Read more ›

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The Facts of Life and Death (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

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