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No Night Is Too Long cover art

No Night Is Too Long

By: Barbara Vine
Narrated by: Alex Jennings, Shelley Thomson, Samuel West
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Publisher's Summary

Tim Cornish thought he'd gotten away with murder. For months after he'd killed his lover off the Alaskan coast, there hadn't been a word. But then the letters started to arrive. It seems that someone knows what Tim has done....

This compelling thriller delivers such a dark picture of romantic love that murder seems its natural mate. Frightening, suspenseful, and deeply unsettling, No Night Is Too Long is a modern crime masterpiece and will be enjoyed by readers of P. D. James and Ian Rankin.

Barbara Vine is the pen name of Ruth Rendell. Ruth has published 14 novels under the Vine name, two of which, Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet, won the prestigious Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award.

©1994 Barbara Vine (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"The Rendell/Vine partnership has for years been producing consistently better work than most Booker winners put together." (Ian Rankin)
"She deploys her peerless skills in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the murky impulses of desire and greed." (Sunday Times)

What listeners say about No Night Is Too Long

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

Interesting but long-winded

This book just went on way too long for most of it. It was, I know, was setting up the relationship but I kept feeling like saying 'get on with it', and even did something I rarely do.. skipped bits. It didn't upset the plot at all. However it is Vine/Rendell and so there are many redeeming features.. the descriptions of the environment, the absurd passions of people so well painted.
The narrators were good; even excellent. I couldn't work out why people were saying narrators, in the plural, as it's only right at the end that they appear. And thank heavens they did.. they brought it all together and so I forgave the author her indulgences.
I would have given the story three and a half stars if that was an option, but couldn't run to four.

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

descriptive novel needs in 1990's

well written and read Enjoyable and easy to listen to.
Nice gentle twist at the end

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

Great Read

I struggled to start this, had to have a few attempts, so glad I did as it was an excellent story.
Highly recommend.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Ok overall but well below my high expectations for thus author.

Good narrator performances. Storyline was pretty lame and many parts are hard to believe and/or understand the plotlines.
Tim is an anti-hero ..... he leaves his girlfriend very unkindly, suddenly starts hating on his next partner then tries to murder him. Despite this, he gets off any consequence and ends up in a weird heterosexual relationship!
Would the author have done this if it was reversed? That is, would the author have ultimately put Tim together, in bliss, with his previous male partner, iif his callous actions had led to the death of a former heterosexual lover and his partner's sibling? I don't think so!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narration excellent.

Found I was getting distracted with this story. If not for the narration I may have given up. The name character found to be annoying.

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

Absolutely riveting

So well written, so beautiful spoken.
A magical, fascinating journey.
I couldn’t wait to go to bed to listen!

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

Wonderful narration of a beautifully written story

I read this book about twenty years ago, and I remembered really enjoying it but not much about the plot twists. I thoroughly enjoyed it the second time around, finding Alex Jennings and Barbara Vine a perfect combination.

The main character, Tim Cornish, has many unappealing traits, but his memoir shows that the man who writes it is different from the man who experienced those events, and hints of a more mature and regretful person show through. Alex Jennings' narration is sublime, with impeccable diction and phrasing. He reads quite quickly but in a wonderfully expressive way that brings all of Tim's emotions to life.

The story takes its time but Vine's writing makes this leisurely journey a real pleasure. Knowing that Tim has done something terrible to his lover Ivo makes Tim's recollections of the progress of their relationship feel full of foreboding. And there are some completely surprising events before the suspenseful conclusion.

I just wish I could revisit all of Barbara Vine's novels with Jennings as narrator.

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

Well worth a listen

Wow what a story! I wasn’t too sure about whether I could finish this one but so glad I persisted. Really unexpected plot twist - loved it 😃

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Boring!

I couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters
of this book. I found the narrators voice tedious and the storyline just didn’t grab me.

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

A bit disappointing.

Of the 3 P's, Place (setting), People (character) and Plot, this only ticked 1 box for me - Place.
Having cruised the inside passage and also been a geology lecturer on cruise ships, the Alaskan setting was what drew me to this book, and this was indeed well done.
However the characters were in general such unlikeable people. One does not expect to universally like the characters but on the other hand they usually have some redeeming features to empathise with.
And finally the plot was disappointing, especially as, having enjoyed many Barbara Vine books, I had high expectations. She normally lays out early-on the who/what/how and the dramatic tension is in the gradual disclosure of the why. In this case the who/what/why was set out and the lead-up to the singular event of the how Ivo disappeared (no spoiler!) lacked the dramatic tension she normally does so well.
Admittedly, the last third of the book tracking the events after Ivo's disappearance did work well. However the Mills and Boon ending ruined it all - how could she?

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