January Window cover art

January Window

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

January Window

By: Philip Kerr
Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

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

Everyone knows football is a matter of life and death. But this time, it's murder.

Scott Manson is team coach for London City football club. He's also their all-round fixer - he gets the lads into training, and out of trouble, keeps the wags at bay and the press in his pocket. But now London City manager Joao Zarco is dead, killed at his team's beloved stadium at Silvertown Docks. Even Scott Manson can't smooth over murder... but can he catch the killer before he strikes again?

©2014 Thynker Ltd (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Mystery England

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Murder Wall cover art
Most relevant  
As a huge football fan I normally avoid fictional works centred in the world of the beautiful game but thought I'd give this one a try as Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series is exceptional. And, indeed, he carries some of that craft to this novel but all the football clichés are still present which makes this type of novel difficult to enjoy.

Not a patch on Bernie Gunther

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A warning of some really bad language and the sexual content would have been appreciated. Not everyone listens in headphones!!!
Bad ‘mockney’ accent almost put me off listening to the whole story.

Not bad but .....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is really well written and flows with great, colourful language. The crime is not that big a part of this story. I am not interested in football but I found the atmosphere and pace made this book a real joy. The narrator does the whole thing proud.

I don't do football but I loved this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Once upon a time there was an East London football club with a Scottish coach. Then, after some sinister goings on there was an unexplained death. Our hero (the coach) took on the job of solving the case. He doubted himself along the way but in the end he … no spoilers. This book has the elements you might expect: Foul-mouthed players, a poor attitude to women, hints to links with organised crime, a deep-rooted loathing for the police, lots of interesting inside gen about life in a football club. It’s not all that well written but I enjoyed it.
I chose it because (weirdly) it was recommended by Rory Stewart on the “Rest Is Politics” podcast. Rory Stewart has very little interest in football. His other book recommendations have mostly been non-fiction and way more high-brow.

Serviceable Fiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story had good pace, with some twists and turns. I enjoyed the plot. But the characters are poor. The protagonist isn’t compelling and the women are such awful cliches. There’s a hint that Philip Kerr is a good writer but the endless football trivia is clumsy.

Good story, poor characters

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

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A believable story

What was most disappointing about Philip Kerr’s story?

A less than engaging hero, card board cutout women,boring clumpety clump plot and the author failed to mention one of Alex Ferguson's other triumphs in extra time the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup Final and of yes - a real turn off was the mention of the author of the book in the body of a novel.

How could the performance have been better?

putting the the final draft of the book in the circular file

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from January Window?

Did this book even have an editor? So much boring repeated stuff.

Any additional comments?

I gave up just before the end and have no idea nor do I now care who murdered the Portuguese manager. By the time the author was to tell us the answer to the question, this reader/listener had certainly lost interest in the answer. And to think he created Bernie Gunther. I could weap!

Say it isn't so Joe

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