The Quiller Memorandum

By: Adam Hall

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

You are a secret agent working for the British in Berlin. You are due to go home on leave, but you are being followed by the enemy - or your own people. A man meets you in the theater and briefs you on a plot to revive the power of Nazi Germany. You do not believe him, but you remember that one of the suspects mentioned was a senior SS officer you met while you were working as a spy in Nazi Germany. Next, you make contact with a beautiful girl who may know something. Someone tries to kill both of you.

Your name is Quiller. You are the hero of an extraordinary novel that shows how a spy works, how messages are coded and decoded, how contacts are made, how a man reacts under the influence of truth drugs, and that traces the story of a vastly complex, entertaining, convincing, and sinister plot.

©1965 Jonquil Trevor (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Winner, 1966 Edgar Award for Mystery Fiction

"You can't go wrong with Quiller." (Harper's)
"Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising." (New York Times)
"A model of breathless excitement." (New Yorker)

Loved it!!

The stream of consciousness parts were amazing!!! Kept me on the edge the whole time. I would never have know this book was published in the 60’s. Great thriller. Wish there were more of his works on Audible.

British

Very. British, very good
Enjoyed the presentation. This is a book I read many many years ago when I was an Adam Hall fanatic!

Good performance of a middling story

The plot was unnecessarily obscure, told through excessive exposition. No character development. There’s a good spy story buried inside somewhere.

Very good spy thriller

A sometimes very exciting spy story but ultimately not especially believable one but then again believability is hardly the purpose suspense and uncertainty rules the day here.

Quiller

Good but a bit tiring. It is very good writing, but tends to get repetitive and bogged down with few traditional thriller elements to get the reader enthused. Detailed descriptions of the undercover methods are great for those interested in such matters. Very little character development or exposition does not help. Quality narration.

A good thriller with a lot of spy craft

This is a story about a hunter of Nazi war criminal's. I am not sure when it takes place maybe the 1990s and there is a rise of neo-Nazis in Germany and still lots of war criminals on the loose. It begins very thrilling and quite exciting but towards the end, There is an awful lot of spy craft and details about what the hero is thinking and it drags and gets a bit boring.

If you are interested in the details of spy craft then you would really enjoy this book.

Engaging, tightly written, definitely worth it

First of all, Simon Prebble is a great reader. Second, this story is classic Cold War stuff, written in a plausible, procedural style with some psychological thriller notes (and quaint Freudian asides). Hall occasionally goes off into some long exposition to string together story elements, but most of what counts is in the narrative. It definitely keeps you listening and guessing.

A classic of espionage noir

Something of espionage procedural, full of tradecraft, this grim, tense secret agent story is set in mid’60’s Berlin, with the title character hunting resurgent Nazis. Well wrought, and very interesting, if occasionally tedious. Perfectly read by Simon Prebble.

Well written and thought out story

First time listening to a book by Adam Hall. I found it well written and attention holding from beginning to end. The performance by Simon Prebble was first rate.

Beautiful and brilliant piece of writing.

That is all. That is all. That is all. This is it. No more words.