The Empty House [AUDIO/2012.9.6]

★★★☆☆

  These BBC Audio (formerly AudioGo) audiobooks can be really good, provided they commit to making an authentic soundscape. My gripe with some of their audios is taht they don't seem to try with the sound design bit and commit to being recorded narrations; it's of some consolation to me that The Empty House by Simon Guerrier is anything but. You've got whirling wind, a stifling atmosphere within an empty house, giant donut-shaped spaceships also with no one about, and a mysteriously uncontrollable gramophone. Guerrier, a Big Finish old hand, knows how good an audio story can be with some genuinely spooky atmosphere cooked up, and he gets to work with a sufficiently intriguing adventure that (for my money) utilises the Eleventh Doctor and Amy pretty well. Sure, it may pull the oldest trick out of the book for the added Pond family drama -- by getting Rory out of the picture and presenting him in danger -- but it still works. The Empty House was always something I was intending to listen to for its intriguing premise alone, and it works in satisfying the horror mystery nut that I am.

  Raquel Cassidy's impression of Rory really must be heard to be believed. Get on it.