Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Shrine

  • By: James Herbert
  • Narrated by: Kris Dyer
  • Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (488 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Shrine

By: James Herbert
Narrated by: Kris Dyer
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Pay using card ending in
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.

Summary

Force for evil. A little girl called Alice, a deaf-mute. A vision. A lady in shimmering white who says she is the immaculate conception. And Alice can suddenly hear and speak. And she can perform miracles. Soon the site of the visitation, beneath the ancient oak tree, has become a shrine, a holy place for thousands of pilgrims. But Alice is no longer the guileless child overwhelmed by her new saintliness. She has become the agent of something corrupt, a vile force that is centuries-old. Innocence and evil have become one.

James Herbert was one of Britain’s greatest popular novelists and our #1 best-selling writer of chiller fiction. Widely imitated and hugely influential, he wrote 23 novels which have collectively sold over 54 million copies worldwide and been translated into 34 languages. Born in London in the forties, James Herbert was art director of an advertising agency before turning to writing fiction in 1975.

His first novel, The Rats, was an instant bestseller and is now recognised as a classic of popular contemporary fiction. Herbert went on to publish a new top ten best-seller every year until 1988. He wrote six more bestselling novels in the 1990s and three more since: Once, Nobody True and The Secret of Crickley Hall. Herbert died in March 2013 at the age of 69.

©1984 James Herbert (P)2013 Audible Ltd
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Rats cover art
The Survivor cover art
‘48 cover art
The Dark cover art
Fluke cover art
Sepulchre cover art
The Jonah cover art
Others cover art
Haunted cover art
Creed cover art
Portent cover art
The Fog cover art
Nobody True cover art
The Magic Cottage cover art
The Spear cover art
The Secret of Crickley Hall cover art

Editor reviews

For all his fascination with the occult, supernatural, and morbidly fantastic, James Herbert is nevertheless capable of endowing his characters with qualities that are all too real, staining them with human imperfections and tragic shortcomings. Accordingly, Shrine offers listeners an adulterous journalist and a portentous priest, bound together through their mutual curiosity regarding a deaf mute girl able to miraculously heal the sick. Eloquent Brit Kris Dyer portrays all three characters, imbuing them with a raw narcissism and tragic heedlessness that matches the urgency and immediacy of Herbert’s storytelling. The young miracle-worker’s good deeds are compelled by an underlying evil that threatens Herbert’s anti-heroes, and only by setting aside their self-serving presumptions can they hope to escape a gruesome fate.

Critic reviews

"Herbert was by no means literary, but his work had a raw urgency. His best novels, The Rats and The Fog, had the effect of Mike Tyson in his championship days: no finesse, all crude power. Those books were best sellers because many readers (including me) were too horrified to put them down." (Stephen King)
"There are few things I would like to do less than lie under a cloudy night sky while someone read aloud the more vivid passages of Moon. In the thriller genre, do recommendations come any higher?" (Andrew Postman, The New York Times Book Review)
"Herbert goes out in a blaze of glory." (Daily Mail)

What listeners say about Shrine

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    268
  • 4 Stars
    139
  • 3 Stars
    57
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    11
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    263
  • 4 Stars
    110
  • 3 Stars
    46
  • 2 Stars
    12
  • 1 Stars
    21
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    264
  • 4 Stars
    115
  • 3 Stars
    54
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    9

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Chilling tale

JH at his best, gripping from start to finish. Definitely one of his best books.j

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping

Loved this book. Hooked from the beginning. This was my Favourite JH book so far. Narration was excellent too.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

spine chilling story exquisitely read

loved this title, unsurprisingly due to it being by James Herbert . Brilliantly written and wonderfully orated!

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

I had read the book, started listening then realised that the narrator is Neil gayman so made listening even better

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A classic nearly ruined.

Classic Herbert, but really awful narration. No 'weight'. Silly stereotype voices and accents. Needs to be re-done.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

brilliant 👏

well read thet change of voice of the characters was brilliant to say the least

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I just love James Herbert's books

having read most of his work when I was young, it's great to now listen to them 👍

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story but way too long

Loved the story but was way too long for me.
Shame really as parts of it were quite boring

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Odd and enjoyable

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes - great character development and a wonderful story. Slightly let down by a poorly crafted ending.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The narrator played most of the characters well, with the exception of the lead character 'Fen' who was at times over-egged.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Great book from a horror master. James Herbert as always enthralls the reader. Excellent book

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!