Luther

The Calling

By: Neil Cross

Narrated by: David Bauckham

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

A brilliant stand-alone crime novel and prequel to the acclaimed BBC series by the show's creator and sole writer....

Meet Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. He's a murder detective with an extraordinary case clearance rate. He's obsessive, instinctive, and intense. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. And yet there are rumors that Luther is bad - not corrupt, not on the take, but tormented. He seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn't - things well beyond the limits of the law.

Edgar Award-winning writer Neil Cross has created one of the most compelling characters in modern crime fiction - a man who may be a force for good or hell-bent on self-destruction. For fans of the award-winning series starring Emmy-nominee Idris Elba, and for all lovers of crime fiction, Luther is hailed by The Guardian as "Britain's own Stephen King."

©2011 Neil Cross (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

“Luther is to crime fiction what his historical counterpart was to religion.... Gripping, taut fiction by a new master in the genre” (Guillermo del Toro)

Good Book if you like the series

If you could sum up Luther in three words, what would they be?

dark, intense, riveting

What did you like best about this story?

the story is good, gritty, and makes you know about the character Luther before the television series started.

Any additional comments?

This will be a hard book to listen to if you are squeamish, but it is a good book. It is graphic in the description of the criminal activity.

Awesome

loved it!! Highly recommend the Luther series. I do wish there were mote books also.

Riveting book!

This book was hands down my favorite of 2015! The story just grabbed me with the right amount of intrigue and suspense in addition to the questionable actions by the hero.
The reader was also perfect giving each character a unique voice - loved that!
My only gripe is that I wish that a couple of the story lines were wrapped up a bit more. But maybe those will be addressed in subsequent books (?).
All in all - 5/5 stars from me!

Audible needs to add more

I like the book version better than the video that is currently running on PBS in the US. The story line is solid, character development is uneven and fussy, the mystery kept me listening to the end.

A Must for Luther Fans

If you could sum up Luther in three words, what would they be?

Heartpounding; Intriguing; Compelling

What was one of the most memorable moments of Luther?

There are two moments where otherwise disparate parts of the story come crashing together. The listener enjoys an "ah-ha" moment.

What does David Bauckham bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mr. Bauckham gives voice to the characters. Though this is not a dramatization, you do get the sense of seeing or hearing different actors portraying the different characters.

He is a master of several british realm accents, allowing the listener to believe that they are listening to the characters and not a narrator.

not for late night or public transport

Would you consider the audio edition of Luther to be better than the print version?

not sure

What did you like best about this story?

it give a back story to how he became the man he is

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

yes but it should have been idriss elba doing it:)

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

some of the stuff is really gruesome, really the tv show has some scary stuff, this book is way way way more gruesome, hearing the narrator narrate how the villian butchers his victems is not a calming read, every hit from the disabilitating hit to the knee, the hits to the face, the well you get the gist of it

don't read this in public transport people will see you flinch and if you read at night, well sleep might not come easy

Scapegoat

Luther is the most riveting crime novel I have read in a couple years. Listening to the narrative is very much like witnessing a gruesome accident from which we find we cannot avert our eyes. Neil Cross has created a compelling character in John Luther and to a purpose. A highly experienced and intuitive police officer, Luther is convinced that he is uniquely suited to stand opposite the most twisted and depraved individuals in society and, in effect, interpose himself between them and the innocents upon whom they seek to prey. What sets him apart is that he also comes to realize that there is a price which must be paid by those who choose to come to grips with undiluted evil. In a kind of increasingly chilling zero sum game, we watch him gradually sacrifice in his own life all the things which he is working to preserve for others. His ability to believe in himself as a "good" person; his capacity for joy; his vital connection with a wife whom he adores.

It is one thing, and a very good thing, when an author presents us with realistic characters who are never paragons of unadulterated virtue nor irredeemable ciphers for evil. It is quite a different and somewhat less common thing that Cross is doing here. After providing us with a convincing portrait of evil in its most distilled and irreversible form, he forces us to acknowledge the profound personal and spiritual sacrifices which may be necessary if we are to confront and defeat it. The result is Luther, a scapegoat who is forced into the wilderness bearing the excruciating marks of the guilty action which preserves us. In the end you may decide that Cross has created a false choice, but at the very least you will have to wrestle with the question seriously.

This is not pleasant material. Listeners who cannot abide portrayals of abhorrent crimes or who have problems with realistic language or sexual situations should look elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are interested in a gripping and convincing story which challenges some of your fundamental assumptions, you could hardly do better. The book is read superbly, and you may continue to hear it whispering in your mind long after Audible has hoped "you enjoyed this book."

EXCELLENT!!!

The only thing that could have made this audiobook better is for Idris Elba, the BBC television star of "Luther", as narrator. There's absolutely nothing wrong the present narrator, David Bauckham. But I'm just a bit partial to Idris, falling in love with him on HBO's acclaimed series "The Wire". His command of an American mid-Atlantic urban accent was so on point that I had no idea that he was British until the 5 season series had concluded. I'm not a big fan of A-List actors narrating audiobooks since narration requires an entirely different skill set than acting. More than one classic literary work has been ruined by actors (Can you say Elliott Gould and Samuel L. Jackson? 👎😝). But I would have been in sheer ecstasy if Idris Elba just read Luther's dialogue and let Bauckham handle the other parts which he does with great mastery including, but not limited to, British women and men with many of the kazillion European-accented English from East India to the West Indies, from Ireland to Africa, from East End London to Eastern Europe.

But I digress - due to my unabashed idol worship of Idris Elba! This is a superbly crafted thriller with great characters, each well developed. The beauty of the John Luther character is that there is noting stereotypically black about him. He's a complex, well educated, highly intelligent British police Detective Chief Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), complete with all the personal "strum und drang" of seeing humankind at its worse. In fact, if you didn't know about the television show, at first you would never have guessed that John Luther is black. The author alludes to it very lightly several chapters in. However, it's obvious that either Cross wrote this book with Elba in mind or the actor assiduously studied the overt and nuanced physical attributes created by this author. It is rare that a white writer gives a black character a brain, pride, inner strength, a soul, a love life, and "demons" which manifest themselves into outstanding deductive and organized thinking - qualities required for a DCI. In this book, Luther is going head to head with a psychopathic killing machine who has alluded the police for decades by being smart enough to make the bodies of his victims disappear. As the killer's skills mature, he becomes what a forensic profiler would call a "highly organized" psychopath, totally devoid of empathy, who plans every step of his crimes from start to finish. No impulse crimes for him here - which makes him the ultimate serial killer. Unfortunately, his nemesis Luther is just as organized and is also a driven tortured soul. Both men "live to work", rather than "working to live" like the majority of human beings. Author Cross has created a character which can exist forever in the literary world. I hope "Luther: The Calling" is the first of a very long series like the 18 (and counting) "Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch" detective mysteries written by Michael Connelly. If you liked "Harry Bosch", you will LOVE "John Luther"!!! More PLEASE & keep 'em coming!!!! 👍😄❤️

Damn what a great novel and an awesome reading.

Was basically confined to my bed for a week after a freak accident and finally got around to watching the BBC series on Netflix and just chewed through it its very very good. I immediately looked for Luther anything and seen there was a prequel novel..... it is as riveting as the amazing show , a must have for Luther fans.

I Want More

If you are like me, you’ve already seen the show. An AMAZING SHOW! I did not know it came from a book. And once I found out I ran to the book. I need to know if the show did John Luther justice. And let me tell you…Idris Elba embodied John Luthor in every way! This book is the prequel to the show. The very last 10 pages or 15 minutes of the book are the opening scenes to the first season of the first episode of the show. And it gave so much context to everything you’ll see in the show. I loved it. I don’t necessarily like the way a few of the side characters were changed for the show, but the book with everything. Gripping. There were scenes where I found myself clenching my hands together so hard that nail prints were left. I wish the book or series. A must read. The thing I love most about the book, you have no clue that John Luther is a black man until you’re almost done with the book. I loved everything about that