King Solomon's Carpet cover art

King Solomon's Carpet

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

King Solomon's Carpet

By: Barbara Vine
Narrated by: Michael Pennington
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Eccentric Jarvis lives in a crumbling schoolhouse overlooking the tube line, compiling his obsessive history of the Underground. A group of misfits are also drawn towards his strange house: Alice, who has run away from her husband and baby; Tom, the busker who rescues her; truant Jasper, who finds his terrifying thrills on the tube; and enigmatic Axel, whose deadly secret casts a shadow over all their lives. Damaged, dispossessed, outcasts, they are brought together in violent and unforeseen ways by London's dark and dangerous underground system.

©1991 Kingsmarkham Enterprises Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Exciting Crime

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Brimstone Wedding cover art
A Fatal Inversion cover art
Underground cover art
The Keys to the Street cover art
Talking to Strange Men cover art
Live Flesh cover art
The Killing Doll cover art
The Long Gaze Back cover art
A Demon in My View cover art
The Bridesmaid cover art
What Was Rescued cover art
The Rottweiler cover art
Thirteen Steps Down cover art
Master of the Moor cover art
Tell it to the Skies cover art
Shake Hands For Ever cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Excellent descriptive novel. Explores the character’s personalities in detail. Anyone who enjoys that style of novel will like this one. I prefer something more puzzling.

King Solomon’s Carpet

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fascinating story, interesting and believable characters. Narration was superb too. Enjoyed this as much as 'A Fatal Inversion' and 'Asta's Book'.

Truly excellent, gripping Barbara Vine

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Bit of a departure from her normal stories so I didn't enjoy it as much

Okay

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I feel I only scraped the surface listening to their lives of this disparate group whilst driving around in my car… intriguing themes. It feels like a good play that you have to think about afterwards.

I will listen to it again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent characterisation, cared about what happened to each one of them. Narration was perfect. Never come across anything quite like this story and very much enjoyed it throughout.

Loved this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What made the experience of listening to King Solomon's Carpet the most enjoyable?

I think Michael Pennington did a brilliant job. I would listen to him again.

What did you like best about this story?

I read the book years ago and loved it. The way the characters are drawn is so real and true to life, albeit they are a motley lot and you can't imagine it could actually happen. They are all flawed and you don't really feel much sympathy for any of them, they are not likeable, but somehow that makes the whole thing work. A very different story from your everyday read but very well written and read. Even though I remembered most of the story, I couldn't stop listening and found the audio version gave me more than I got from reading the book the first time, although I will probably read it again in the future and I will certainly listen again.

What does Michael Pennington bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He brought the characters to life in a way that you don't necessary get from reading the book. He makes them believable.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the young man falls from the tube, the occasions when Alice thinks about her baby, when Jed thinks he will have to have his pet hawk put to sleep and when Cecelia died with her friend by her side.

Any additional comments?

A gripping book whether you read or listen with unsympathetic characters but that works for all that. Quite dark so don't read or listen if you want something uplifting! One of the best books/audios I've ever read/listened to. Brilliant and thoroughly recommended.

So different and absolutely gripping

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
only got half way before giving up out of boredom .far too much rather boring train trivia in a rather boring voice

a yawnfest

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This novel, which I honestly believe that I have read/listened to at least five years is truly excellent. It tells the story and lives of a group of disparate people living in a converted school in West Hampstead.

King Solomon's Carpet

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
But on audible it was a deeply impressive presentation perfectly narrated bu Michael Pennington. It was pure listening pleasure- a multi stranded story with as always plenty to learn and enjoy along the journey.

I knew this book well already

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this story; the intriguing characters, some pleasant and some very unpleasant! It grabbed my interest from the first chapter until the last. I thoroughly recommend it.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews