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Sirens

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Sirens

By: Joseph Knox
Narrated by: Lewys Taylor
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Sirens by Joseph Knox, read by Lewys Taylor.

I stopped going to work. I went missing. We still live in a world where you can disappear if you want to. Or even if you don't.

Detective Aidan Waits is in trouble

After a career-ending mistake, he’s forced into a nightmare undercover operation that his superiors don’t expect him to survive.

Isabelle Rossiter has run away again

When the teenage daughter of a prominent MP joins Zain Carver, the enigmatic criminal who Waits is investigating, everything changes.

A single mother, missing for a decade

Carver is a mesmerising figure who lures young women into his orbit – young women who have a bad habit of disappearing. Soon Waits is cut loose by the police, stalked by an unseen killer and dangerously attracted to the wrong woman.

How can he save the girl, when he can’t even save himself?


‘Razor-sharp urban noir – very special indeed.’ – Lee Child

‘Thrilling, breathless stuff’ – Observer

‘Jumps straight into the top league of English noir.’ – The Times

© Joseph Knox 2017 (P) Penguin Audio 2017

 Crime Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Exciting Scary

Critic reviews

Knox presents the city as pungently and uncompromisingly as Ian Rankin does Edinburgh
A firecracker of a crime tale. His writing is taut, atmospheric and studded with eye-catching descriptions. An arresting new talent.
Razor-sharp urban noir – very special indeed. (Lee Child)
Sirens is a powerhouse of noir. Joseph Knox owns Manchester and paints it in all its grimy colours. (Val McDermid)
Thrilling, breathless stuff
The dark, gritty underbelly of Manchester is captured with eviscerating authenticity in this debut . . . This is urban noir at its freshest and most ferocious.
A noir in that great tradition of the American writers James M Cain and Dashiel Hammet . . . it reminded me a bit of Chandler’s LA, the whole city is corrupt, the authority figures are as bad as the criminals. (Jake Kerridge on Open Book, Radio 4)
Jumps straight into the top league of English noir.
Manchester throbs with lowlife in this startling debut . . . a page-turner with a beating heart. I loved it. (Sarah Hilary)
This is an excellent read; it feels both classic and completely new and is remarkably assured for a first outing.
All stars
Most relevant
First Joseph Knox book and I was not disappointed. Terrific story read magnificently!!! Thank you!

Such a brilliant book + performance!

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A dark, brooding story with a dark, brooding character that looks for the truth no one wants to find, in a world where good and evil are hard to discern, no heroes but plenty of villains and victims.

A bleak modern detective story told in black and white, that is never boring and full of turns and twists to create a world where corruption is the norm.

Noir of the darkest kind.

Finding secrets can kill your soul

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I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this book, it was okay, but it didn’t seem to have highs and lows I expect from this genre of book, it just seemed to go at a steady pace with all these characters that I really didn’t find myself caring about. It would have been nice to have felt more connected to some of them.

I didn’t care about the characters enough to make this gripping

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This is a well written and well read book. Just unrelentingly grim. Just not my thing. But I did listen right to the end.

Grim world

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

Look at Headline

Who was your favorite character and why?

That would be the Bug, because he seemed to be the most in depth character, even though it was only a small role.

Have you listened to any of Lewys Taylor’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Not as yet, but as this was Knox's first book he may well be used again in the future considering the publishing heavyweights he has behind him of Penguin and Random House.

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

This book was not really designed for this, although the opening of the book reminded me of the opening to Lethal Weapon.

Any additional comments?

This book was a worthy addition to the 2017 Theakstons Old Peculier New Blood Panel, hosted and chosen by Val McDermid.

Drug fuelled politics, family suspense

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