Terror in Topaz

A Harriet Gordon Mystery, Book 4

By: A.M. Stuart

Narrated by: Catherine Bilson

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

The next instalment in the riveting HARRIET GORDON MYSTERIES.

The chance to pursue a new opportunity takes Harriet and her brother Julian, to Kuala Lumpur, but death is waiting…

Singapore 1910: Harriet Gordon has been dismissed from the job she loved and finds herself cast adrift. When her brother receives an invitation to visit a prestigious school in Kuala Lumpur, she and Julian decide to leave Singapore behind for a few days, but their pleasant visit takes a dark turn when a visitor to the school is shot dead on the front steps of the headmaster’s bungalow.

After being suspended from the Straits Settlements Police, Inspector Robert Curran has disappeared on a personal quest to find a missing girl, but his suspension is not all it appears and he receives secretive orders to investigate the mysterious Topaz Club, which seems to be at the center of high-level corruption within the colonial government of Malaya.

The uninvestigated death of a woman with links to the Topaz Club brings Harriet and Curran together in a determination to shut down the notorious establishment for good.

But a devious criminal stands in the way and it is going to take Harriet and Curran all their resources to bring justice for the victims of the Topaz Club and in doing so, find what it is they have been looking for in each other.

©2023 Alison Brideson (P)2024 Alison Brideson

easy listen, less stressful than the last book!

I had never read about Kuala Lumpur before, it was very interesting! if you like the series, you'll like this book!

Wow! Oh wow!

I could hardly tear myself away! Harriet and her brother travel to Kuala Lumpur and in the midst of a stultifying expat society find that surface appearances don’t mean a thing. Our favorite police officer Curran is there clinging to a disguise and false name. There’s a hidden gentlemen’s club that caters to every vice. I think you could enjoy this as a stand alone novel but it’s even better as read in a series. I loved every bit and will probably listen to the whole thing again - it was that good. Reader did a splendid job as usual for this series.

Entertaining

I love the characters and the slight change of scenery from the other books. I enjoyed seeing Harriet continue to be the fierce, stubborn woman who straddles brave and infuriating for the men around her. I also enjoyed the humanising of the protagonist Koren as he wrestled with themes of family, love, and possible missteps with work.

Not the best of this series

I did not enjoy this book as much as the previous ones in the series. I found the story with its two different crimes too laboured. In addition the narration was often harsh and difficult to listen to.

Skip the audio version…read the book instead.

I love this series, but this was not the best of the stories. It took a bit of a long walk and seemed to rush to wrap up at the end. It was as if there was too much story.

Mostly, the recording quality was atrocious and was made worse by a new narrator. Her accents were terrible and seemed more like she was yelling when she was representing certain characters. I am disappointed and surprised that audible has such a poor quality recording for this book. Skip the audio version for this one. Read the book instead.

Terrible narration-

The narrator’s voice, flat, and hardly any change between characters. She mispronounced sister Samrita’s name from the beginning—- and Singh’s first name. This narrator should have listened to the previous book’s narrator in order to maintain consistency!!! Not only names, but “normal” words like litany, momentarily , and several others were mispronounced! A M Stuart, you must do a better job of overseeing your narrations. Loved the book but it was grueling to listen. The narrator for Evil in Emerald was great!

New narrator- ugh

The new narrator’s inability to do decent accents makes this deeply irritating to listen to.