Author

Sam Holland Audiobooks

Sleeping Beauties: a crime thriller with the chill built into its title

1 audiobook reviewed

Main genres

Crime & Thriller

Who is Sam Holland?

Crime fiction likes a title that turns something familiar sour, and Sleeping Beauties does precisely that. A phrase from the nursery, applied to a case, tells a listener a good deal about the tone before the first chapter has begun. The plural is doing its share of the work as well.

Sam Holland is filed with us squarely under crime and thriller, without the softening of a general fiction tag, which places the writing at the darker end of the shelf rather than in cosy territory. Just over seven hours is the modern thriller’s preferred shape: taut, unpadded, and finished in a couple of sittings.

Sam Holland in audiobooks

Holliday Grainger takes the narration, and in a thriller the reading is close to half the effect. Pace has to be held without hurry, and the genuinely unpleasant moments need a voice that declines to sensationalise them, since restraint is almost always more frightening than emphasis.

Ratings have yet to accumulate for this one, which is simply a function of how recently it landed rather than any comment on the writing.

Start here if you are meeting this author for the first time. It will suit listeners who want their crime bleak rather than comfortable, and who appreciate a running time that does not outstay its plot. What we hold is listed below.