-
The Driver's Seat
- Narrated by: Dame Judi Dench
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $16.35
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Long Drop
- A Novel
- By: Denise Mina
- Narrated by: David Monteath
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The "trial of the century" in 1950s Glasgow is over. Peter Manuel has been found guilty of a string of murders and is waiting to die by hanging. But every good crime story has a beginning. Manuel's starts with the murder of William Watt's family. Looking no further that Watt himself, the police are convinced he's guilty. Desperate to clear his name, Watt turns to Manuel, a career criminal who claims to have information that will finger the real killer.
-
-
Denise Mina demands our attention
- By 6catz on 06-23-17
By: Denise Mina
-
Tales of Terror
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: David Thorn, Bruce Blau
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American poet, critic, and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe is universally recognized for his cultivation of the macabre in fiction. His stories are characterized by an original kind of supernatural horror, often using the awareness of death as a catalyzing force in its own right. His tales and poems brim with psychological depth and intense imagery, made vivid through his musical language and hypnotic rhythms, which are especially captivating when heard aloud.
-
-
Pick an accent
- By Megan on 10-08-20
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Secret History
- By: Donna Tartt
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Papen had never been to New England before his 19th year. Then he arrived at Hampeden College and quickly became seduced by the sweet, dark rhythms of campus life - in particular by an elite group of five students, Greek scholars, worldly, self-assured, and at first glance, highly unapproachable. Yet as Richard was accepted and drawn into their inner circle, he learned a terrifying secret that bound them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brough to brutal life...and lead to a gruesome death.
-
-
A little dark, but a great character study
- By JoAnn on 10-27-14
By: Donna Tartt
-
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
- By: James Hogg
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny, Nick McArdle
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A psychological thriller before its time, James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, published in 1824, takes us back to the world of 18th-century Scotland, into a mind haunted by religious obsession, and driven to commit murder. The events are told from several different viewpoints, so that truth and reality appear to dissolve in this disturbing story of the dark legacy of Calvinist doctrine, and how it led one man to madness.
-
-
A gripping story
- By fred greene on 04-19-18
By: James Hogg
-
Snow
- A Novel
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family. The year is 1957, and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford - flinty, visibly Protestant and determined to identify the murderer - faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in this tight-knit community he begins to investigate.
-
-
Narrator John Lee is the best!
- By Barbara S on 10-17-20
By: John Banville
-
A Song for the Dark Times
- An Inspector Rebus Novel
- By: Ian Rankin
- Narrated by: James Macpherson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When his daughter, Samantha, calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days. Rebus fears the worst - and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. He wasn’t the best father - the job always came first - but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?
-
-
Great New Rebus
- By Lynn on 10-16-20
By: Ian Rankin
-
The Long Drop
- A Novel
- By: Denise Mina
- Narrated by: David Monteath
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The "trial of the century" in 1950s Glasgow is over. Peter Manuel has been found guilty of a string of murders and is waiting to die by hanging. But every good crime story has a beginning. Manuel's starts with the murder of William Watt's family. Looking no further that Watt himself, the police are convinced he's guilty. Desperate to clear his name, Watt turns to Manuel, a career criminal who claims to have information that will finger the real killer.
-
-
Denise Mina demands our attention
- By 6catz on 06-23-17
By: Denise Mina
-
Tales of Terror
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: David Thorn, Bruce Blau
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American poet, critic, and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe is universally recognized for his cultivation of the macabre in fiction. His stories are characterized by an original kind of supernatural horror, often using the awareness of death as a catalyzing force in its own right. His tales and poems brim with psychological depth and intense imagery, made vivid through his musical language and hypnotic rhythms, which are especially captivating when heard aloud.
-
-
Pick an accent
- By Megan on 10-08-20
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Secret History
- By: Donna Tartt
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Papen had never been to New England before his 19th year. Then he arrived at Hampeden College and quickly became seduced by the sweet, dark rhythms of campus life - in particular by an elite group of five students, Greek scholars, worldly, self-assured, and at first glance, highly unapproachable. Yet as Richard was accepted and drawn into their inner circle, he learned a terrifying secret that bound them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brough to brutal life...and lead to a gruesome death.
-
-
A little dark, but a great character study
- By JoAnn on 10-27-14
By: Donna Tartt
-
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
- By: James Hogg
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny, Nick McArdle
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A psychological thriller before its time, James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, published in 1824, takes us back to the world of 18th-century Scotland, into a mind haunted by religious obsession, and driven to commit murder. The events are told from several different viewpoints, so that truth and reality appear to dissolve in this disturbing story of the dark legacy of Calvinist doctrine, and how it led one man to madness.
-
-
A gripping story
- By fred greene on 04-19-18
By: James Hogg
-
Snow
- A Novel
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family. The year is 1957, and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford - flinty, visibly Protestant and determined to identify the murderer - faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in this tight-knit community he begins to investigate.
-
-
Narrator John Lee is the best!
- By Barbara S on 10-17-20
By: John Banville
-
A Song for the Dark Times
- An Inspector Rebus Novel
- By: Ian Rankin
- Narrated by: James Macpherson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When his daughter, Samantha, calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days. Rebus fears the worst - and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. He wasn’t the best father - the job always came first - but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?
-
-
Great New Rebus
- By Lynn on 10-16-20
By: Ian Rankin
-
Eddie's Boy
- A Butcher's Boy Novel, Book 4
- By: Thomas Perry
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Shaeffer is a retired American businessman, living peacefully in England with his aristocratic wife. But her annual summer party brings strangers to their house, and with them, an attempt on Michael's life. He is immediately thrust into action, luring his lethal pursuers to Australia before venturing into the lion's den - the States - to figure out why the mafia is after him again and how to stop them.
-
-
A Great Series I Want To Share W/Action-Thriller Lovers
- By Kay Tracy on 12-22-20
By: Thomas Perry
-
Amulet
- By: Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews - translator
- Narrated by: Adriana Sananes
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A tour de force, Amulet is a highly charged first-person, semi-hallucinatory novel that embodies in one woman's voice the melancholy and violent recent history of Latin America. Amulet is a monologue, like Bolaño's acclaimed debut in English, By Night in Chile. The speaker is Auxilio Lacouture, a Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico in the 1960s, becoming the "Mother of Mexican Poetry", hanging out with the young poets in the cafés and bars of the University.
-
-
Read The Savage Detectives first
- By Alicia Grega on 12-05-13
By: Roberto Bolaño, and others
-
Murder by Milk Bottle
- By: Lynne Truss
- Narrated by: Matt Green
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The August bank holiday is approaching, and after two extremely high-profile murder cases, Constable Twitten is eagerly anticipating a quiet spell at work. But then they find the bodies - and the milk bottles. Three seemingly unconnected victims - a hard-working AA patrolman, a would-be beauty queen, a catty BBC radio personality - have all been killed with the same highly unusual murder weapon.
-
-
A very fun murder mystery
- By Paul on 08-10-20
By: Lynne Truss
-
The Searcher
- A Novel
- By: Tana French
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After 25 years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
-
-
WONDERFULLY DREARY IRISH ATMOSPHERE & STORY
- By McSusie on 10-06-20
By: Tana French
-
A Shot in the Dark
- By: Lynne Truss
- Narrated by: Matt Green
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the notorious 'Middle Street Massacre' of 1951, when the majority of Brighton's criminals wiped one another out in a vicious battle as the local police force enjoyed a brief stop en route for an ice cream, Inspector Steine rather enjoys life as a policeman. No criminals, no crime, no stress. He just wishes Sergeant Brunswick would stop insisting that perhaps not every criminal was wiped out that fateful day. So it's really rather annoying when an ambitious - not to mention irritating - new Constable shows up to work and starts investigating a series of burglaries.
-
-
Funny and Brilliant
- By Melanie on 09-14-18
By: Lynne Truss
-
The Ballad of Peckham Rye
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley hires Dougal Douglas (a.k.a. Douglas Dougal) to do "human research" into the private lives of its workforce, they are in no way prepared for the mayhem, mutiny, and murder he will stir up. In fact, this Music Man of the thoroughly modern corporation changes the lives of all the eccentric characters he meets, from Miss Merle Coverdale, head of the typing pool, to V.R. Druce, unsuspecting Managing Director.
-
-
An open door may be dangerous
- By M. J. Walsh on 05-29-20
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Man in the Red Coat
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days' intellectual shopping: a prince, a count, and a commoner with an Italian name. In time, each of these men would achieve a certain level of renown, but who were they then and what was the significance of their sojourn to England? Answering these questions, Julian Barnes unfurls the stories of their lives which play out against the backdrop of the Belle Epoque in Paris. Our guide through this world is Samuel Pozzi, the society doctor, free-thinker, and man of science with a famously complicated private life....
-
-
Pathetic narration makes this title unbearable
- By Chris Quigg on 02-27-20
By: Julian Barnes
-
Missionaries
- A Novel
- By: Phil Klay
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Cynthia Farrell, Henry Leyva, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A group of Colombian soldiers prepares to raid a drug lord's safe house on the Venezuelan border. They're watching him with an American-made drone, about to strike using military tactics taught to them by US soldiers who honed their skills to lethal perfection in Iraq. In Missionaries, Phil Klay examines the globalization of violence through the interlocking stories of four characters and the conflicts that define their lives.
-
-
Captivating, realistic, and touching
- By Derek Long on 02-11-21
By: Phil Klay
-
House of Names
- By: Colm Tóibín
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson, Charlie Anson, Pippa Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"I have been acquainted with the smell of death." So begins Clytemnestra's tale of her own life in ancient Mycenae, the legendary Greek city from which her husband, King Agamemnon, left when he set sail with his army for Troy. Clytemnestra rules Mycenae now, along with her new lover, Aegisthus, and together they plot the bloody murder of Agamemnon on the day of his return after nine years at war.
-
-
Power. Control. Restraint.
- By David on 06-27-17
By: Colm Tóibín
-
Hamnet
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
-
-
A masterpiece
- By Molly-o on 08-03-20
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
The Eighth Detective
- A Novel
- By: Alex Pavesi
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked all the rules out – and wrote seven perfect detective stories to demonstrate. But that was 30 years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island, counting the rest of his days. Until Julia Hart, a brilliant, ambitious editor knocks on his door. Julia wishes to republish his book, and together they must revisit those old stories: An author hiding from his past and an editor keen to understand it.
-
-
GOING IN MY TOP 10!!
- By Shaelyn on 08-07-20
By: Alex Pavesi
-
The Kingdom
- A Novel
- By: Jo Nesbo, Robert Ferguson - Translator
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roy has never left the quiet mountain town he grew up in, unlike his little brother, Carl, who couldn't wait to get out and escape his troubled past. Just like everyone else in town, Roy believed Carl was gone for good. But Carl has big plans for his hometown. And when he returns with a mysterious new wife and a business opportunity that seems too good to be true, simmering tensions begin to surface and unexplained deaths in the town's past come under new scrutiny. Soon powerful players set their sights on taking the brothers down by exposing their role in the town's sordid history.
-
-
What Was That?
- By michelle nelson on 12-03-20
By: Jo Nesbo, and others
Publisher's Summary
Lise is thin, neither good-looking nor bad-looking. One day she walks out of her office, acquires a gaudy new outfit, adopts a girlier tone of voice, and heads to the airport to fly south. On the plane, she takes a seat between two men. One is delighted with her company, the other is deeply perturbed. So begins an unnerving journey into the darker recesses of human nature.
Read by Dame Judi Dench, rediscover this shocking masterpiece in audiobook on the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark's birth.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about The Driver's Seat
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Erez
- 07-17-11
Masterfully written and read
First of all, a technical note: an earlier reviewer claims that the sound quality is very bad, and that the audiobook only contains 4 of the 7 chapters. If there was any problem with the audio, it's fixed now, and the quality is just fine. As for the number of chapters: yes, the audiobook is divided into 4 sections, but they have no relation to the chapters. Rest assured that no word from the original book is missing.
Now on to the book itself: Muriel Spark was a master of describing distressed, borderline psychotic people, and she does it very well here too. Personally, the only thing that bothered me was that the shock value of the book seems to have diminished somewhat in the forty years since it was written. Other than that, the book is excellent, and the narration is top notch.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- h and l
- 05-02-11
strange tale by a great writer
i read this book years ago and wasn't sure i would still like it. i did. it is dark, intense, believable, and brief. the reading by judi dench is wonderful as always, but the recording is old, probably taken off old cassettes or something! for me, it didn't interrupt the pleasure. i wish audibles would get much more muriel spark, especially her great novels like the prime of miss jean brodie, girls of slender means, memento mori. not to mention the short stories. come on, audibles, dig up some more old recordings and make them available for this great price! at least one listener will be grateful.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Nouette
- 11-24-10
Unhappy with this product
I must say I'm very unhappy with this product for two main reasons:
1) There are only 4 chapters / 7 available in this record
2) The sound is really bad and a sort of echo can be heard throughout those chapters
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrea
- 02-01-12
what a pleasure to hear Judi Dench's voice!!!
Would you listen to The Driver's Seat again? Why?
maybe, just for the pleasure of JD's voice or to try to squeeze some sense from the story.
Would you be willing to try another book from Muriel Spark? Why or why not?
I already read Memento Mori and bought another one, so yes I would.
What does Judi Dench bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Her voice is clear and so warm and fun.
If you could take any character from The Driver's Seat out to dinner, who would it be and why?
I did not like any of them so I wouldn't take anyone to dinner
-
Overall

- marie
- 12-24-12
Elegant and creepy
Simply sublime. Beautifully read and suitably cold-hearted.Good length for a singlr listen. Bracing and gripping as a thriller.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 02-18-21
Bad audio
Even if the story is narrated by Judi Dench, the audio is a problem. The quality of the recording is bad. You can constantly hear background noise. The story was just ok. It deserve a read / listen for the end, which is one of the most disturbing things I've read.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- reader
- 12-14-20
Good story, fantastic narration, bad production
I very much enjoyed the story, and the narration by Dame Judi Dench is as excellent as I expected (she can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned), but there's a constant background noise of people talking, which is extremely distracting. I guess the soundproofing in the studio was not up to scratch, but it's really spoiled an otherwise great audiobook for me.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Story

- N. Howarth
- 11-08-20
Terrible
I couldn't relate to any of it. The characters or the story. The only part of it I did enjoy was the narration; Dame Judy doing a wonderful job of a very poor novel.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Annie
- 10-21-14
Judi Dench Makes This Experience!
Any additional comments?
I thought the book a bit light on everything. By the time it ended, I would have helped see off the central character! I love Judi's reading!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Earnest
- 06-19-14
oldie but a goodie
Would you consider the audio edition of The Driver's Seat to be better than the print version?
My guess is that the comparison would be favourable. The events are related almost as if they were solely from the protagonist's point of view so the terrible, angst driven woman's mind is well portrayed by a single voice.
What other book might you compare The Driver's Seat to, and why?
There was a well of similar toned books in that era from McEwan's "The Cement Garden" and "The Kindness of Strangers" to most of Patricia Highsmith's demented characters..
Have you listened to any of Judi Dench’s other performances? How does this one compare?
A polished and accomplished actor with a huge wealth of experience. Her rendition is marvellous although it might be worth hunting up Elizabeth Taylor's version on film. One can imagine she would give Dench a real run for her money in regards to representing a highly strung, psychotic female.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
If it were possible, yes. The novella is quite short which is almost a good thing. The terrible anguish of the main character is palpable and her unmitigated misery is hard to bear. The sense of impending doom is wonderfully evoked by Spark without the excess many modern writers succumb to. Less is more in this case.
Any additional comments?
Although some might find this novella dated, essentially it remains a milestone in restrained and evocative writing.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- SamanthafromKentishTown
- 03-03-21
I went without sleep over this book...
...and I had work the next day! Aside from the very well-managed suspense, it is beautifully written, every scene painted in my mind’s eye by the author’s prose. The film with Liz Taylor does not really do it justice ( I watched this the next day) and could not really. I was a tiny bit disappointed by the way it ended but I suppose that is the way it defies the reader’s or listener’s expectations. Judi Dench also gave a magnificent performance.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Dez
- 12-19-19
Bitter honey.
Razor sharp wit of Spark nuanced perfectly by the Dame. Utterly sublime. But...oh so dark.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- G. Roberts
- 07-11-19
Unique and sinister
Hard to define - a thriller, a fantasy, a puzzle. Strange and intriguing. Immaculate reading by Judi Dench.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- R. Olver
- 08-30-18
A short, mysterious, and enjoyable escape
The audio quality was, as I had read in other reviews, a little off, but it by no means outweighed my great enjoyment of the book. Dench’s voice draws you deep into an already intriguing protagonist, and she portrays the other characters’ accents really well. I was a bit worried the book would be a short and aimless ramble, but I was (happily) very wrong!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Rochelle
- 01-31-18
Poor quality recording
The recording sounds as though it has been taken from cassette tapes. It’s low quality and sometimes has background noises that sound almost like a conversation in the background, or an echo. It’s a solid performance by Dame Judi and a great story from Dame Muriel but the quality of the audio lets it down. It’s not a complete write-off, I’ve heard worse & some people will be able to look past it, but it is nonetheless disappointing.
1 person found this helpful