Trouble With Product X cover art

Trouble With Product X

Sinister events disrupt a quiet Cornish village

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About this listen

 A beautiful Cornish coastal village is the setting for a highly sinister conspiracy involving a kidnapped baby, mysterious monks and an almost irresistible new perfume...

'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book Review

Martha works for an advertising agency, filming a TV commercial on location on the stunning Cornish coast. The client is the eccentric owner of a chemicals company that has invented a new, almost irresistible perfume, and Martha is in charge of shooting the romantic ads - unfortunately starring his beautiful but highly manipulative daughter-in-law.

Before long, Martha finds herself embroiled in the conspiracy over the perfume's true origin - to say nothing of a kidnapped baby, sinister monks, her own long-since vanished ex-husband and a series of exploding soup cans. And what of her own floundering love life...?

'Witty and acute ... a nice romantic thriller' Punch Cosy Crime Fiction Gothic Horror Mystery Traditional Detectives Fiction Crime Suspense Disappearance

Critic reviews

Joan Aiken has an eye for original situations and characters ... a stolen formula, a kidnapped baby and a strange brotherhood keep the plot bubbling. An engaging story with one of the nicest babies I have met for a long time
Witty and acute ... a nice romantic thriller
Brilliant light-hearted picture of search for missing formula ... very funny
Superior stylish thriller with advertising agency background. A four month old baby steps into a key role in a headlong series of chases ... characterisation of bizarre cast bang on target... the writing is at once witty and sensitive
All stars
Most relevant
According to the introductory chapter, Joan Aitken was primarily a successful children's author and it shows in the well delivered prose, with just enough detailed description to make it fast moving and visual. I had not read anything by this author, adult novel or children's, prior to The Trouble with Product X, buying it because of the advertised Cornish setting, and, though a little dated, I enjoyed it very much. Written in the first person by the main protagonist, a young woman, abandoned seven years before By her husband, now an executive advertising writer, whose most recent campaign is to publicise a new perfume about to be launched. A castle in Cornwall is selected as the filming venue of the commercial, the new wife of the client company to be cast as lead actor. The filming goes well, but behind the scenes, all is chaos.

Clear, fun, but with heavily sinister undertones, this is a book very much of it's time - the mid sixties - and very enjoyable. Audio narration is by Lizza Aiken, her unpolished English voice initially disconcerting, like mum reading the story. At first I doubted that I would be able to listen to the end but speeding playback a little greatly improved the overall tone, conveying an appropriately 'homely' feel to the writing which thus made an even more pleasurable read.

Like an amusing film, this is a gentle, near farcical thriller, and recommended.

"A giraffe with a gazelle in tow."

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Well written
Good plot, atmospheric, hard to stop listening
Good narration
Highly recommended
Will read more by the author

So enjoyable

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