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Surfeit of Suspects

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Surfeit of Suspects

By: George Bellairs
Narrated by: David Thorpe
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About this listen

Following a mysterious explosion, the offices of Excelsior Joinery Company are no more; the three directors are killed and the peace of a quiet town in Surrey lies in ruins. When the supposed cause of an ignited gas leak is dismissed and the presence of dynamite revealed, Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is summoned to the scene. But beneath the sleepy veneer of Evingden lies a hotbed of deep-seated grievances. Confounding Littlejohn's investigation is an impressive cast of suspicious persons, each concealing their own ax to grind.

©1964 George Bellairs (P)2019 Soundings Classics Mystery Traditional Detectives Fiction Detective

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All stars
Most relevant  
I enjoyed the story even though it isn't the best and was fairly predicable - I do like classic old detective stories but this one is a bit hackneyed. But it was an easy confortable listen which is what I like just before bed. However, making it more insipid than it needed to be was some of the stilted mannerisms/accents that the narrator chose to give to some of the key characters. Which was a bit irratating.

An ok listen

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Another really good story, with great characters - am working my way through the books, Such a joy when compared with some of the detectives stories of today.

Brilliant series.

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Whoever dug these old classics out is a genius. Live the old type who done its. Good listen, well read.

British Crime Library

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There were so many twists and turns that I had to listen three times and each time I enjoyed it more.
Brilliant plots and excellent characters. Great story.

Enjoyed this book each time I listened to it!

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George Bellairs is not to everyone's taste, but if you enjoy his stories, as I do, the this is well worth a listen. Set in small-town England the story quickly gets to grips with setting the scene for the crime and defines a closed set of suspects for Inspector Littlejohn to sort through in order to identify the criminal. Of course each suspect has a back story and each of these sheds light on the central crime and, eventually, the person who committed it. As with all Bellairs stories the characters are slightly exaggerated to emphasise their strong or conversely weak personalities and this provides for a degree of humour throughout. David Thorpe's narration was excellent and he made it easy to tell the different characters apart. However, for me, one question remained unanswered, "How did the villain manage to set off the dynamite without detonators and a timing clock?" Maybe my attention wandered for a moment.

Classic Bellairs

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This is a murder mystery with a slightly different twist, with the underlying motivation being surprisingly current for a book written sixty years ago.

The plot is unremarkable, though sufficient to hold the book together; but the real charm is in the combination of the writer's deft way of evoking a character with a brief description, and the narrator's absolutely superb ability to give every character a distinctive 'voice', complete with accent and intonation, that is entirely recognisable and believable. The combination makes the book a delightful ramble through a time populated with the kind of characters I can dimly remember from my early childhood. (The book is set in the 1950's or early 1960's.)

I have seldom heard such skilled narration: the book is worth getting just for the pleasure of hearing this panoply of characters march past. Bravo David Thorpe!

Really superb narration

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I always enjoy a Belairs book and this is a good one. Interesting plot, good scene setting and some nice humour. The reading is a bit melodramatic

Enjoyable Belairs yarn

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Narration and story boring... managed to get to the end .. just .. what a waste of a credit

Boring

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Read this book a few years ago and enjoyed it very much. The audiobook is so disappointing. The narration is awful, makes the characters sound moronic or manic. The accents are abysmal and the narrator shouts the characters’ parts as if he were reading a pantomime. Persevered for a couple of hours but had to give up as the narration was so bad. What a waste of a credit. Note for Amazon - the audible samples should be the book narrator not Martin Edwards reading the introduction.

Awful Narrator

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