Audio Books
Both the Abbot Agency series and the popular Ellie Quicke Mysteries are available in audiobooks through Soundings.
Abbot Agency
For information about the Abbot Agency audiobooks please click here to visit the Abbot Agency pages on this web site.
Use the controls below to listen to extracts of two audio books in the Abbot Agency series by Veronica Heley.
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Ellie Quick
Here you can listen to the adventures of the feisty fiftyish widow as she makes new friends, learns to deal with her demanding family, and solves mysteries in her community.
These stories are now being brought out in large print, and also in audiobooks by Soundings.
Use the controls below to listen to extracts of nine audio books in the Ellie Quick series by Veronica Heley.
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These audio books are available from Isis-Publishing.
Murder at the Altar - Ellie Quicke Series - book 1
Read by Anne Cater
Ellie Quicke is struggling after her husband’s death. Her relatives are vying for a share of her husband’s estate, and more than one potential suitor is already on the scene. Then, as she begins to come to terms with her new life, a brutal murder takes place in the church opposite. Ellie is sure she saw something important that night, but what was it?
Does the boy next door know more than he’s saying? The murder victim’s mother is missing. Are the warring couple next door involved? Ellie finds she is more capable at dealing with her new circumstances than she had thought, even though her own life is soon under threat…
ISBN 1-84283-129-1
Purchase
UK: Isis
Murder by Suicide - Ellie Quicke Series - book 2
Read by Anne Cater
Just as Ellie Quicke is beginning to come to terms with life as a widow, poison pen letters start to spread through the parish. The first targets are their much-loved vicar – and Nora, their feeble little organist. When poor Nora goes to pieces, Ellie is asked to help out, even though she is valiantly trying to cope with her own family crises. To complicate matters, Ellie gains two suitors, one of whom may not be all he appears.
The poisonous letters keep coming, and now their targets include Ellie herself. The police are no help, even when one victim is driven to suicide. Ellie soon discovers the letters can be fatal to anyone who receives them...
ISBN 1-84283-315-4
Purchase
UK: Isis
Murder of Innocence - Ellie Quicke Series - book 3
read by Annie Aldington
Recently widowed and still unsure of herself, Ellie Quicke is devastated when ten-year-old Tod, her neighbour’s son, disappears. Ellie is very fond of Tod and is determined to get to the bottom of what has happened to him. Police and neighbours are convinced that a pathetic homeless man is responsible, and when Ellie takes him in, she too becomes the victim of prejudice.
Battling with demanding relatives, needy friends, and a claim by the local church for most of the money she’s inherited from her husband, Ellie follows her instincts which lead her into danger and the sinister world of some very odd stamp collectors.
ISBN 1-84283-655-2
Purchase
UK: Isis
Murder by Accident - Ellie Quicke Series - book 4
read by Julia Franklin
Adjusting to life as a wealthy widow, Ellie Quicke is shattered to hear that her difficult but endearing Aunt Drusilla has been killed in a freak accident. Her only son, Roy, is also devastated. However, Aunt Drusilla has made many enemies in her time, among them Ellie’s selfish daughter Diana, who believes she is great-aunt’s heir.
What if it was not a genuine accident: And what if Aunt Drusilla’s cleaner was missing? The police are suspicious of all those closest to Aunt Drusilla, and that includes not only her family but all those who have worked for her, and their families too. Ellie struggles to keep her dysfunctional family from falling apart as each one in turn is suspected of murder.
ISBN 1-84283-837-7
Purchase
UK: Isis
Murder in the Garden - Ellie Quicke Series - book 5
read by Julia Franklin
The body of a young girl is found in next door’s neglected garden, to the horror of the occupiers who are friends of Ellie. How long has the body been there and who is it?
Ellie Quicke seems to be the only person who has known all the families who have lived in that house – a house that seems to attract misery.
Going through her memories of the inhabitants – loud party-givers and possible con men amongst them – Ellie is forced to confront the past tragedies of her own life and wonders if she was a bad neighbour. While the body gives up its secrets, the killers haunt the vicinity, determined to find some one else upon whom to pin the murder.
ISBN 1-84559-278-6
Purchase
UK: Isis
Murder by Committee - Ellie Quicke Series - book 6
read by Julia Franklin
It seems an innocent request; would widowed Ellie Quicke visit a man whose dog died in an accident? The dog’s master – a powerful but unpleasant man – believes he was the intended target, and that an old enemy was responsible. Feuding financiers are bad news not only for the City where jobs are at stake, but also for Ellie, who can’t fill in a tax return without help.
The feisty widow already has more than enough to cope with; Aunt Drusilla’s health is failing, her bullying daughter Diana is in financial crisis and her architect cousin mixed up in one of the tycoon’s shadier deals – which happens to threaten the future of the parish.
Ellie discovers the tycoon has made more enemies than he can count, though not all of them are as helpless as they seem. Standing up for herself and other victims of the tycoon, Ellie waltzes straight into the firing line.
ISBN 1-84559-479-7
Purchase
UK: Isis
Murder by Bicycle - Ellie Quicke Series - book 7
read by Julia Franklin
A mysterious bout of sickness hits the parish after a lunch at church and Ellie is horrified to discover that her home-baked quiches are considered to be the source of the problem. Worse still, someone dies. So who is to blame?
Fighting off the relentless demands of her daughter Diana and plagued by toothache, Ellie’s life is beset with problems – not least the insistence of an old flame that she takes his proposal of marriage seriously.
When more suspect food turns up, Ellie's investigative instincts are aroused, for these incidents seem connected in some way with her young friend Felicity's troubled past.
ISBN 978-1-84559-644-6
Purchase
UK: Isis
Murder of Identity - Ellie Quicke Series - book 8
read by Julia Franklin
Feisty widow Ellie Quicke collects some Portuguese laurel for Mrs Dawes, that formidable flower arranger, only to step on a dead body…a corpse without an identity. Next day, Mrs Dawes misses a wedding at church, and is discovered by Ellie and her grandson, badly beaten and close to death.
Much to Ellie’s dismay, the police think shaven-headed Neil, Mrs Dawes’ handyman grandson, is responsible, even after a third body comes to light.
As if this were not enough, Ellie’s ambitious daughter Diana has gone into partnership with a smiling, steely estate agent, causing her to neglect her son, Ellie’s aged aunt is making plans for the family which are sure to cause ructions, and their delightfully rotund vicar asks for more attention from Ellie than she can easily give.
So who has lost their identity and who has gained it?
8 Compact Discs: ISBN 978-1-84559-849-5
7 Audio Cassettes: ISBN 978-1-84559-848-8
Purchase
UK: Isis CD or cassette.
Murder in the Park - Ellie Quicke Series - book 9
read by Julia Barrie
Ellie Quicke is a feisty widow, busy with family and church affairs until a pitbull savages a young mother to death in the nearby park. Witnessing the attack, Ellie’s friend Felicity goes into shock and calls on Ellie for help. Ellie's enquiries indicate that the dog and his owner are strangers to the neighbourhood, but soon there is another attack…and after this one, too, the dog seems to vanish into thin air.
Meanwhile Ellie's personal life is heading for meltdown as her difficult but endearing Aunt Drusilla is fading fast, her daughter Diana is taking ruthless steps to ensure she inherits the family wealth, and Thomas - upon whom Ellie has come to rely for companionship - decides to leave the parish. Driven to distraction, Ellie hardly has time to hunt down a killer dog, and has no idea that she is the next target – until the police question her for a crime she didn’t commit!
This killer is very close to home.
The ninth Ellie Quicke Mystery.
ISBN 978 1 4079 0272 2
Purchase
UK: Isis (9 CD set)
Murder in House - Ellie Quicke Series - book 10
read by Patience Tomlinson
Ellie and her new husband are suffering from terrible colds when called to deal with Ursula, a student with a mind of her own, who has staged a sit-in at church and refuses to move. Ursula challenges Ellie to solve three mysteries; a broken engagement, her friend Mia’s disappearance and a murder. When Ellie agrees to return Ursula’s engagement ring to her fiancé, she begins to suspect that there is more to Mia’s disappearance and the ‘accidental’ death of another friend than their families and the police are willing to admit. As Ellie manages to solve one of the mysteries, she finds friends and family targeted as a powerful group hunt her down.
Meanwhile Ellie’s dreadful daughter Diana makes herself homeless and her architect cousin lands himself in yet another financial mess. Both become caught up in the race to ruin Ellie before she can produce the dreadful evidence of corruption and abuse that is haunting the council chambers.
Every lead returns to Ursula, who has not been entirely open with the truth. But what can one young girl do, against such a powerful family?
The tenth Ellie Quicke Mystery.
ISBN 978-1407914558
Purchase
UK: Isis (Cassette set, CD set, MP3 CD)