A Rare Book of Cunning Device  By  cover art

A Rare Book of Cunning Device

By: Ben Aaronovitch
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Publisher's summary

Exclusive to Audio! Somewhere amongst the shadowy stacks and the many basements of the British library, something is very much amiss - and we're not talking late returns here. Is it a ghost, or something much worse? PC Peter Grant really isn't looking forward to finding out....

©2017 Ben Aaronovitch (P)2017 Audible Studios

What listeners say about A Rare Book of Cunning Device

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I LIKE TO LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES OF FICTIONAL

CHARACTERS
A lot of paranormal with a mix of Steampunk. Nothing I am too excited about and I will forget all of it by next week, but it is free and is only a half hour of my life. Certainly worth a go.

LIBRAIRIANSHIP IS NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED
The SODDEN narrator does a fine job.

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79 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Peter Grant bonus short story

London PC Peter Grant gets called to the British Museum, which has a serious problem in one of its many basements. They think it's a poltergeist; something, at least, is moving things around in ways that can't be accounted for by the actions of staff and users. Grant thinks this is unlikely, because of how modern the building is, but given the ancient, rare, historical, and otherwise valuable items in the collection, can't rule it out.

And so he goes hunting through the basements. But is he hunting a ghost, a poltergeist, something else?

And has he brought the right equipment?

This is a nice little short story, an Audible exclusive, that adds to the world-building and character development of the series. It's an additional little treat if you've been reading the series, and a nice introduction to Peter Grant if you haven't been.

This story was free on Audible when I downloaded it.

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20 people found this helpful

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Waste of time

Short story with no real ending.. Not sure if this is a sample of something but it's just a waste of time

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8 people found this helpful

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Excellent as usuall, just to short, will take It.

Every audiobook in this series gets better, this was a snippet, but listening to this narrator, is about as good as they get, imho of course. I sincerely hope that he will release these little short stories in between novels, especially if we are going to have to wait any significant amount of time, again just imho.
Great story, writer and narrator. A winning trifecta

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didn't understand

I guess i would need to read more book with these characters to understand them. this is the first I read and didnt get it at all

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6 people found this helpful

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Dangers of Librarians and Poltergeists

It's a short story so it's hard to say much without giving some of the plot away. What a fantastic taste of Peter Grant, at it again. The usual dry, irreverent humour that makes it such a excellent read with loads of laugh out loud moments. This is a short adventure with Peter and Post Martin. Even if you've never read any of the earlier books, you'll still enjoy it, and with the vocal genius of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, you'll be hooked!

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6 people found this helpful

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such a delight.

Librarians, magic and Peter Grant making his patented wry observations. A must for fans.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Couldn't get hooked

glad this was free and short....i couldn't get hooked at all. I have no idea what even happened LOL

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4 people found this helpful

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It's a Short Storry

Luckily I got this for free or I would have never read it. I'm not much of a short story reader. PC Peter Grant is called to the British Library by a tough librarian who suspects that there is a poltergeist in the stacks. With the assistance of the Archivist and his ghost hunting dog, he sets out to figure out what to do about the troublesome device.

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as usual is a first rate narrator.

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4 people found this helpful

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a cunning tale

I really enjoyed this short story, in fact I purchased the first in the series and enjoyed it very much.

good stuff

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4 people found this helpful