Black as He's Painted
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $13.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nadia May
-
By:
-
Ngaio Marsh
About this listen
Alleyn performs his mission so successfully that on the night of the Ng'ombwanan Embassy's reception, the house and grounds are stiff with police. However, an assassin does strike, and Alleyn discovers a wealth of suspects in a coterie of ex-colonials residing in the very shadow of the Embassy.
©1973, 1974 Ngaio Marsh (P)2000 Blackstone AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
A Man Lay Dead
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wealthy Sir Hubert Handesley's original and lively weekend house parties are deservedly famous. To amuse his guests, he has devised a new form of the fashionable Murder Game, in which a guest is secretly selected to commit a 'murder' in the dark, and everyone assembles to solve the crime. But when the lights go up this time, there is a real corpse....
-
-
Classic Upper Crust Mystery
- By Laurence G. Byrne on 02-25-16
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
I Can Find My Way Out
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 1 hr and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a famous theatre actor is found dead in his changing room, it is initially labelled a suicide. But Inspector Alleyn believes there is more to it, and soon the cast of the production find themselves under suspicion.
-
-
Great story, well performed
- By Elizabeth Hopkins on 01-16-24
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Chapter and Verse
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cryptic inscriptions in an antique Bible appear to record three gruesome deaths that took place in a quiet English village in 1779. Nearly 200 years later, a fourth person is found dead under similarly violent circumstances. As the investigation unfolds, suspicions are roused by the parallels with other events in the village’s history, and the book becomes key to unravelling a more than one mystery.
-
-
Excruciating awful narrator.
- By Mary G. on 12-08-23
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
The Josephine Tey Collection: 6 Alan Grant Novels; Brat Farrar; & Miss Pym Disposes
- The Man in the Queue; A Shilling for Candles; The Franchise Affair; To Love and Be Wise; The Daughter of Time; The Singing Sands; Miss Pym Disposes; Brat Farrar
- By: Josephine Tey
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 61 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Josephine Tey Collection includes unabridged recordings of Tey's 8 major novels in one audiobook, including all 6 of the novels in the Inspector Alan Grant series.
-
-
Thank you Audible - best spent credit ever
- By Lynn on 05-14-23
By: Josephine Tey
-
Death of an Author
- By: E. C. R. Lorac
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivian Lestrange - celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse - has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself looking for publicity, it appears that crime is afoot when Lestrange's housekeeper is also found to have disappeared. Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim.
-
-
Modern classic mystery
- By AlmanacJEA on 06-11-23
By: E. C. R. Lorac
-
The Wintringham Mystery
- Cicely Disappears
- By: Anthony Berkeley, Tony Medawar
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew—who recognises Stephen from his former life—decides that an after-dinner séance would be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!
-
-
Charming Light-hearted mystery
- By Carolyn on 10-04-21
By: Anthony Berkeley, and others
-
A Man Lay Dead
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wealthy Sir Hubert Handesley's original and lively weekend house parties are deservedly famous. To amuse his guests, he has devised a new form of the fashionable Murder Game, in which a guest is secretly selected to commit a 'murder' in the dark, and everyone assembles to solve the crime. But when the lights go up this time, there is a real corpse....
-
-
Classic Upper Crust Mystery
- By Laurence G. Byrne on 02-25-16
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
I Can Find My Way Out
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 1 hr and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a famous theatre actor is found dead in his changing room, it is initially labelled a suicide. But Inspector Alleyn believes there is more to it, and soon the cast of the production find themselves under suspicion.
-
-
Great story, well performed
- By Elizabeth Hopkins on 01-16-24
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Chapter and Verse
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cryptic inscriptions in an antique Bible appear to record three gruesome deaths that took place in a quiet English village in 1779. Nearly 200 years later, a fourth person is found dead under similarly violent circumstances. As the investigation unfolds, suspicions are roused by the parallels with other events in the village’s history, and the book becomes key to unravelling a more than one mystery.
-
-
Excruciating awful narrator.
- By Mary G. on 12-08-23
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
The Josephine Tey Collection: 6 Alan Grant Novels; Brat Farrar; & Miss Pym Disposes
- The Man in the Queue; A Shilling for Candles; The Franchise Affair; To Love and Be Wise; The Daughter of Time; The Singing Sands; Miss Pym Disposes; Brat Farrar
- By: Josephine Tey
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 61 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Josephine Tey Collection includes unabridged recordings of Tey's 8 major novels in one audiobook, including all 6 of the novels in the Inspector Alan Grant series.
-
-
Thank you Audible - best spent credit ever
- By Lynn on 05-14-23
By: Josephine Tey
-
Death of an Author
- By: E. C. R. Lorac
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivian Lestrange - celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse - has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself looking for publicity, it appears that crime is afoot when Lestrange's housekeeper is also found to have disappeared. Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim.
-
-
Modern classic mystery
- By AlmanacJEA on 06-11-23
By: E. C. R. Lorac
-
The Wintringham Mystery
- Cicely Disappears
- By: Anthony Berkeley, Tony Medawar
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew—who recognises Stephen from his former life—decides that an after-dinner séance would be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!
-
-
Charming Light-hearted mystery
- By Carolyn on 10-04-21
By: Anthony Berkeley, and others
-
A Quiet Life in the Country
- A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 1
- By: T E Kinsey
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they've just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life. But it is not long before Lady Hardcastle is forced out of her self-imposed retirement. There's a dead body in the woods, and the police are on the wrong scent. Lady Hardcastle makes some enquiries of her own, and it seems she knows a surprising amount about crime investigation...
-
-
excellent!
- By J.L. on 02-27-17
By: T E Kinsey
-
Murder on Thames
- Cherringham. A Cosy Crime Series - Mystery Shorts 1
- By: Neil Richards, Matthew Costello
- Narrated by: Neil Dudgeon
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cherringham - a quiet town in the Cotswolds. Nothing ever happens there, or so it seems - until one morning a woman's body is found in the river. A terrible accident, according to the police. But is this true? Sarah believes there must be more to it. In Jack, a former NYPD homicide detective, she finds a partner who is willing to start investigating with her. They soon find out that things are not as clear as the police want them to be ... This first - of many cases brings Sarah and Jack together in an unlikely partnership.
-
-
Easy listen
- By Teddie on 06-08-19
By: Neil Richards, and others
-
Masked Ball at Broxley Manor
- A Royal Spyness Novella
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 1 hr and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.
-
-
Fun, light prequel
- By CMMV on 01-01-15
By: Rhys Bowen
-
The Theft of the Iron Dogs
- By: E. C. R. Lorac
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While hot on the heels of serial coupon-racketeer Gordon Ginner, Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard receives word of an intriguing incident up in Lancashire – the summer cottage of local farmer Giles Hoggett has been broken into, with an assortment of seemingly random items missing which include a complete reel of salmon line, a large sack, and two iron dogs from his fireplace. What first appears as a simple break-in quickly spirals into a mystery of contested land grabs for fishing between farmers, made all the more enticing to MacDonald when a body is then found in the river.
-
-
Well written but Unexciting
- By Geoffrey on 10-23-24
By: E. C. R. Lorac
-
The Killings at Badger’s Drift
- Midsomer Murders Mystery, Book 1
- By: Caroline Graham
- Narrated by: John Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The village of Badger's Drift is the essence of tranquillity. But when resident and well-loved spinster Miss Simpson takes a stroll in the nearby woods, she stumbles across something she was never meant to see, and there's only one way to keep her quiet. Miss Simpson's death is not suspicious, say the villagers. But Miss Lucy Bellringer refuses to rest: her friend has been murdered. She is sure of it.
-
-
I wanted to love this series but I just don't
- By Lynch on 11-09-22
By: Caroline Graham
-
Lord Peter Wimsey: Novels 1-3
- By: Dorothy L. Sayers
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 26 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first three mysteries for Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic sleuth: first, a body is discovered in a Battersea bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez, on the same night that financier Sir Reuben Levy disappears from his Park Lane home. Then, Wimsey returns to England when his brother, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murdering the fiance of their sister, Lady Mary, and a trial in the House of Lords looms; and finally, an overheard conversation in a restaurant begins an investigation of the strangely premature death of wealthy and terminally ill old lady Miss Agatha Dawson.
-
-
Love Lord Peter
- By Mav's mom on 10-16-24
-
Bunburry 1-3
- A Cosy Mystery Compilation
- By: Helena Marchmont
- Narrated by: Nathaniel Parker
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In "Murder at the Mousetrap," the first Bunburry book, fudge-making and quaffing real ale in the local pub are matched by an undercurrent of passion, jealousy, hatred and murder - laced with a welcome dose of humour. Alfie McAlister has retreated from London to the peace and quiet of the country to recover from a personal tragedy. But an accidental death - which may have been no accident - reveals that the heart of England is far from the tranquil backwater he imagined.
-
-
Lovely, sweet story and superb narration
- By Laura Stone on 01-19-20
By: Helena Marchmont
-
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
- A Miss Marple Collection
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Marple: The Complete Story Collection gathers together in one magnificent volume all of Agatha Christie’s short stories featuring her beloved intrepid investigator, Miss Marple. It’s an unparalleled compendium of murder, mayhem, mystery, and detection that represents some of the finest short form fiction in the crime fiction field, and is an essential omnibus for Christie fans.
-
-
Classic Miss Marple - uneven narration
- By Lyric G. Eads on 11-09-22
By: Agatha Christie
-
The Secret of Chimneys
- In an American Voice
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Deaver Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A combination of a thriller, romance, and mystery, introducing the stolid, immovable Inspector Battle.
-
-
Sound like narrator is in a box
- By Susan on 07-31-21
By: Agatha Christie
-
Alison Larkin Presents: The Secret Adversary, Murder on the Links, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin, James Warwick
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three critically acclaimed recordings are joined together in this dazzling Agatha Christie Triple Bill, read by award-winning narrators Alison Larkin and James Warwick, star of the Partners in Crime TV series on Masterpiece Theater.
-
-
Pitch perfect narration of Agatha Christie!
- By Mary Katherine Worth on 10-18-19
By: Agatha Christie
-
These Names Make Clues
- By: E. C.R. Lorac
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of the Graham Coombe, the celebrated publisher of Murder by Mesmerism. The clues of the hunt have been devised by Coombe's thriller-writer friends, disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms. The fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when 'Samuel Pepys' is found murdered in the telephone room in bizarre circumstances.
-
-
Fun story.
- By peter on 03-12-22
By: E. C.R. Lorac
-
Heathcliff Lennox - France 1918
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst -Phillips
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spring, 1918. The Great War is at a crucial stage, the Germans are making one last push into France, and the Allies are struggling to hold them back. Battle lines are shifting, and men, and their machines, are being sent up and down the front to shore up defenses. Major Heathcliff Lennox, and his batman Greggs, are told to report to their new HQ. They set off on a sunlit day to fly the distance, but the enemy is never far away, and disaster strikes. They're sent crashing to the ground behind enemy lines, where life, death, and love await.
-
-
Another great Heathcliff Lennox
- By Katydid65 on 06-04-21
Critic reviews
"Nadia May is nothing short of extraordinary in this complicated mystery....Every character's eccentricity is explored and appropriately interpreted, adding spice, humor, and authenticity to a proper British mystery." (AudioFile)
"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." (New York)
"The finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunit. Among the crime queens, Ngaio Marsh stands out as an Empress." (The Sun)
Related to this topic
-
A Man Lay Dead
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wealthy Sir Hubert Handesley's original and lively weekend house parties are deservedly famous. To amuse his guests, he has devised a new form of the fashionable Murder Game, in which a guest is secretly selected to commit a 'murder' in the dark, and everyone assembles to solve the crime. But when the lights go up this time, there is a real corpse....
-
-
Classic Upper Crust Mystery
- By Laurence G. Byrne on 02-25-16
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy
- By: James Anderson
- Narrated by: Cornelius Garrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Alderley, a magnificent mansion in the heart of the West Country where a grand house party is taking place. The preparations have been made, the guests have been invited, and the staff are on hand. What could possibly go wrong? Let the entertainment begin. The theft of the diamond necklace and the antique pistols might all be explained, but the body in the lake - that really was a puzzle. 'Don't expect me to solve anything,' Inspector Wilkens announced modestly when he arrived to sort out the unpleasantness.
-
-
the title says it all
- By connie on 05-03-13
By: James Anderson
-
Grey Mask
- Miss Silver, Book 1
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Diana Bishop
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring. Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime.
-
-
The shaky first of a long, strong series
- By Phebe on 07-21-15
-
Pietr the Latvian
- Inspector Maigret, Book 1
- By: Georges Simenon, David Bellos - translator
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first audiobook which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.Inevitably Maigret was a hostile presence in the Majestic. He constituted a kind of foreign body that the hotel's atmosphere could not assimilate. Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands. But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man.
-
-
Long live Maigret
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-19-14
By: Georges Simenon, and others
-
Lord Peter Wimsey: Novels 1-3
- By: Dorothy L. Sayers
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 26 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first three mysteries for Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic sleuth: first, a body is discovered in a Battersea bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez, on the same night that financier Sir Reuben Levy disappears from his Park Lane home. Then, Wimsey returns to England when his brother, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murdering the fiance of their sister, Lady Mary, and a trial in the House of Lords looms; and finally, an overheard conversation in a restaurant begins an investigation of the strangely premature death of wealthy and terminally ill old lady Miss Agatha Dawson.
-
-
Love Lord Peter
- By Mav's mom on 10-16-24
-
Meet the Tiger
- A Simon “The Saint” Templar Novel
- By: Leslie Charteris
- Narrated by: John Rayburn
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fiction world of today needs a “Saint” more than it ever did. For years now that scene has been dominated by the “anti-heroes"—those grim gray operators in a sunless sub-culture where global issues are worked out with totally unemotional pragmatism, those hapless uninspired puppets manipulated and expended by ruthlessly dedicated little brothers of Big Brother. It made morbidly fascinating narrative, but it never gave anyone a lift until it climaxed in the hyper-gadgeted parodies of 007 extravaganzas.
-
-
droning
- By Kindle Customer on 04-27-24
By: Leslie Charteris
-
A Man Lay Dead
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wealthy Sir Hubert Handesley's original and lively weekend house parties are deservedly famous. To amuse his guests, he has devised a new form of the fashionable Murder Game, in which a guest is secretly selected to commit a 'murder' in the dark, and everyone assembles to solve the crime. But when the lights go up this time, there is a real corpse....
-
-
Classic Upper Crust Mystery
- By Laurence G. Byrne on 02-25-16
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy
- By: James Anderson
- Narrated by: Cornelius Garrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Alderley, a magnificent mansion in the heart of the West Country where a grand house party is taking place. The preparations have been made, the guests have been invited, and the staff are on hand. What could possibly go wrong? Let the entertainment begin. The theft of the diamond necklace and the antique pistols might all be explained, but the body in the lake - that really was a puzzle. 'Don't expect me to solve anything,' Inspector Wilkens announced modestly when he arrived to sort out the unpleasantness.
-
-
the title says it all
- By connie on 05-03-13
By: James Anderson
-
Grey Mask
- Miss Silver, Book 1
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Diana Bishop
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring. Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime.
-
-
The shaky first of a long, strong series
- By Phebe on 07-21-15
-
Pietr the Latvian
- Inspector Maigret, Book 1
- By: Georges Simenon, David Bellos - translator
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first audiobook which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.Inevitably Maigret was a hostile presence in the Majestic. He constituted a kind of foreign body that the hotel's atmosphere could not assimilate. Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands. But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man.
-
-
Long live Maigret
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-19-14
By: Georges Simenon, and others
-
Lord Peter Wimsey: Novels 1-3
- By: Dorothy L. Sayers
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 26 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first three mysteries for Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic sleuth: first, a body is discovered in a Battersea bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez, on the same night that financier Sir Reuben Levy disappears from his Park Lane home. Then, Wimsey returns to England when his brother, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murdering the fiance of their sister, Lady Mary, and a trial in the House of Lords looms; and finally, an overheard conversation in a restaurant begins an investigation of the strangely premature death of wealthy and terminally ill old lady Miss Agatha Dawson.
-
-
Love Lord Peter
- By Mav's mom on 10-16-24
-
Meet the Tiger
- A Simon “The Saint” Templar Novel
- By: Leslie Charteris
- Narrated by: John Rayburn
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fiction world of today needs a “Saint” more than it ever did. For years now that scene has been dominated by the “anti-heroes"—those grim gray operators in a sunless sub-culture where global issues are worked out with totally unemotional pragmatism, those hapless uninspired puppets manipulated and expended by ruthlessly dedicated little brothers of Big Brother. It made morbidly fascinating narrative, but it never gave anyone a lift until it climaxed in the hyper-gadgeted parodies of 007 extravaganzas.
-
-
droning
- By Kindle Customer on 04-27-24
By: Leslie Charteris
-
Alison Larkin Presents: The Secret Adversary, Murder on the Links, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin, James Warwick
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three critically acclaimed recordings are joined together in this dazzling Agatha Christie Triple Bill, read by award-winning narrators Alison Larkin and James Warwick, star of the Partners in Crime TV series on Masterpiece Theater.
-
-
Pitch perfect narration of Agatha Christie!
- By Mary Katherine Worth on 10-18-19
By: Agatha Christie
-
The Secret Adversary & N or M?
- Two Bestselling Agatha Christie Novels in One Great Audiobook
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Hugh Fraser
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the brilliant pen of Agatha Christie comes two novels featuring the beloved sleuthing duo: In the The Secret Adversary, Tommy and Tuppence decide to embark on a daring business scheme: Young Adventurers Ltd. But they get more than they bargained for when their first assignment for the sinister Mr. Whittington draws them into a diabolical conspiracy. Set during the dark days of World War II, Agatha Christie’s N or M? puts two most unlikely espionage agents, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, on the trail of a pair of Nazi spies who have murdered Britain’s top agent.
-
-
Hugh Fraser is great!
- By Cheryl McInerney on 09-06-22
By: Agatha Christie
-
The P.G. Wodehouse Collection
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This title includes not only the entire audiobook of Right Ho, Jeeves, but also all of the P.G. Wodehouse titles in the current Classic Tales library. It also includes a Jeeves short story only available in the collection: "Extricating Young Gussie". The complete running time is over 15 hours. All titles have been remastered, and have never sounded better!
-
-
Don't buy this version of the wonderful Wodehouse stories
- By K Bell on 11-05-16
By: P. G. Wodehouse
-
Bulldog Drummond
- By: Sapper
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Demobilised officer, finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate if possible; excitement essential. When Captain Hugh Drummond, DSO, MC placed that advertisement, he was looking for adventure. What he finds is an international plot headed by the greatest criminal mastermind in the world.
-
-
Fantastic Narration
- By nooch85 on 07-21-18
By: Sapper
-
The House of Silk
- A Sherlock Holmes Novel
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sherlock Holmes is the greatest detective in literary history. For the first time since the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a new Holmes story has been sanctioned by his estate, whetting the appetites of fans everywhere. Information about the book will be revealed as deliberately as Holmes himself would unravel a knotty case, but bestselling novelist and Holmes expert Anthony Horowitz is sure to bring a compelling, atmospheric story to life.
-
-
A disapointment
- By GP on 05-05-12
By: Anthony Horowitz
-
A Gentleman's Murder
- By: Christopher Huang
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1924. Only a few years removed from the trenches of Flanders, Lieutenant Eric Peterkin has just been granted membership in the most prestigious soldiers-only club in London: the Britannia. But when a gentleman's wager ends with a member stabbed to death, the victim's last words echo in the lieutenant's head: that he would "Soon right a great wrong from the past". Eric is certain one of his fellow members is the murderer. But who?
-
-
Ignore the indiscriminate ire. It’s great!
- By Denise Dalrymple on 05-15-20
-
Dying in the Wool
- A Kate Shackleton Mystery, Book 1
- By: Frances Brody
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bridgestead is a peaceful spot: a babbling brook, rolling hills, and a working mill at its heart. Pretty and remote, nothing exceptional happens...until the day that Master of the Mill Joshua Braithwaite goes missing under dramatic circumstances, never to be heard of again. Now Joshua's daughter is getting married and wants to make one last attempt at finding her father. Kate Shackleton has always loved solving puzzles. So who better to get to the bottom of Joshua's mysterious disappearance?
-
-
Fluff & Nonsense
- By Sara on 01-03-15
By: Frances Brody
-
The Jewel in the Crown
- The Raj Quartet, Book 1
- By: Paul Scott
- Narrated by: Richard Brown
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first volume in Paul Scott's historical tour-de-force opens in 1942 as the British fear both Japanese invasion and Indian demands for self-rule. In the Mayapore gardens, Daphne Manners, daughter of the provincial governor, leaves her Indian lover, who will soon be arrested for her alleged rape.
-
-
Superb writing, subverted by spiritless narration
- By mgale on 10-13-10
By: Paul Scott
-
Babylon Berlin
- Gereon Rath, Book 1
- By: Volker Kutscher
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath was a successful career officer in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the vice squad in Berlin, a job he detests even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is seething unrest in the city, and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the vice squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations.
-
-
It's no Bernie Gunther Mystery ...
- By Brian English on 01-28-18
By: Volker Kutscher
-
Fallen Into the Pit
- An Inspector Felse Mystery
- By: Ellis Peters
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helmut Schauffler, a young Nazi working in the small English village of Comerford, sets out to play upon the post-war sensibilities and fears by terrorizing his new neighbors.
-
-
A peek into an earlier time.
- By ShySusan on 11-28-11
By: Ellis Peters
-
Death in Berlin
- By: M. M. Kaye
- Narrated by: Kate Udall
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda Brand is visiting Germany for what is supposed to be a month's vacation. But from the moment that Brigadier Brindley relates the story about a fortune in lost diamonds - a story in which Miranda herself figures in an unusual way - the vacation atmosphere becomes transformed into something more ominous. And when murder strikes on the night train to Berlin, Miranda finds herself unwillingly involved in a complex chain of events that will soon throw her own life into peril.
-
-
Why these narrators
- By Rhian on 09-01-13
By: M. M. Kaye
-
Ask Me No Questions
- A Lady Dunbridge Mystery
- By: Shelley Noble
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A modern woman in 1907, Lady Dunbridge is not about to let a little thing like the death of her husband ruin her social life. She's ready to take the dazzling world of Gilded Age Manhattan by storm. From the decadence of high society balls to the underbelly of Belmont horse racing, romance, murder, and scandals abound. Someone simply must do something. And Lady Dunbridge is happy to oblige.
-
-
A Creative Mystery
- By Victoria J. Mejia-Gewe on 02-28-19
By: Shelley Noble
What listeners say about Black as He's Painted
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Victoria J. Mejia-Gewe
- 05-15-18
One of the best Marsh books ever!
Ngaio Marsh came back strong with her 28th book, 1974's <strong>Black as He's Painted</strong>. The president of Ng'ombwana, a newly emerging African nation (in other words, a former colony of England, finally allowed to have its own government), is scheduled to make a state visit to England, and Special Branch is highly concerned. In a recent visit to Mozambique, the president barely escaped a shot at him, and they are afraid someone will try to kill him in England, breaking its record as an assassination- free zone. So Special Branch sends Detective Superintendent Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard to Ng'ombwana to meet with his old school friend, known to his friends as "The Boomer."
The president greets Alleyn with joy, constantly referencing Davidson's, the house where the pair lived in college and were best friends. Alleyn tries to reason with the Boomer to avoid pulling any tricks like he has pulled elsewhere in sneaking off away from his security. But the Boomer has a strong belief in his own invincibility. However, he tacitly agrees not to go off on his own without protection while in London.
The evening of the president's reception for all people with any connection to Ng'ombwana arrives, and Agatha Troy Alleyn, the greatest painter known to England and the wife of Det. Superintendent Alleyn, gets excited upon meeting the president's great presence and begs Rory to arrange for her to paint him. Other guests at the reception involve Mr. Whipplestone, a recent retiree from the diplomatic office who spent his early years in Ng'ombwana; Colonel Cockburn-Montfort, the man who started up the Ng'ombwanan military and is unhappy that he was not kept to run the military despite his being a drunk; the Sanskit brother and sister, the ugly, fat, and noxious pair who make pottery pigs; and Chubb, the man who "does for" Mr. Whipplestone and who is filling in as ab extra server at the function. All live within a couple blocks of each other in the Capricorn neighborhood, where Mr. Whipplestone has recently lived and is horrified to see the odious people related to Ng'ombwana meeting with his basement neighbor. But what does Chubb have to do with the other members?
The main activities take place, and the president has attended arranged for himself and 10 of his most important guests, including the Alleyns and Rory's older brother, who has worked as an ambassador in several countries, to be seated with him in a fancy well-lit gazebo while everyone else sits in the dark. Then Ng'ombwana's great opera singer, Carbo, lets out an amazing long note when they all hear a gunshot and the lights go off everywhere. Alleyn grabs the president abd keeps him down to safety. By the time the lights go on, the Boomer sits straight up in his chair, but the ambassador has been run through with the spear of the Boomer's Mlingi, his native bodyguard, who lies in the corner clutching his arm as if attacked himself.
The rest of <strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> continues with the investigation, which poses challenges because anything that happens in the Ng'ombwanan embassy takes place on Ng'ombwanan soil, and thus is out of the jurisdiction of Scotland Yard and Special Branch, led by the poor, exhausted Fred Gibson. And the president insists that his Mlinsi is without reproach so couldn't have committed the crime. But Alleyn doesn't expect to get his greatest help from a special little cat with a white tail rescued by Mr. Whipplestone and which he named Lucy Locket.
<strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> has a strong, unique plot and creative characters, especially the Boomer and Lucy Locket. The action of the murder is performed with creativity, and the solution came as a surprise to me. I enjoyed seeing the process by which Alleyn solved the case and especially the way Lucy Locket Audrey's assists him.
The characters in this book come across very uniquely. It is great fun to see Troy appear throughout, as the president commissioned her to paint his official portrait, which his country was sponsoring. Alleyn doesn't prevent her from doing so even when he thinks there is a safety risk to both of them because of continuing death threats against the Boomer. But Alleyn realizes that it would be a crime against art for him to put a stop to the greatest painting she has ever made. The other characters in the book add a lot to the fun flavor of the book.
The book is sometimes criticized for its depiction of the Africans as primitive. It is true that the language to describe the Africans is sometimes very negative, but most of those slurs are performed by white supremacists, in particular ones who hate people from Ng'ombwana. Marsh shows that such attitudes are inappropriate and ridiculous in showing such language.
Nadia May performs the audio edition of <strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> in her usually effective manner. I love her clever portrayal of the book, with tremendous expression that makes the book all the more fun and enjoyable. Her voices for all the characters, especially the Boomer, adds to the joy of listening to this great book.
<strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> is one of my very favorite Ngaio Marsh books, being a fun, clever book with a unique ending and fun characters, both good and bad. I highly recommend this book to anyone and give it five stars.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Eduarda
- 01-15-07
always charming
is Miss Marsh. Good character development... sure it's full of stero types but this is lush 1930's who done it stuff and pure entertainment.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sires
- 01-23-24
1970s African and English Murder Mystery
This is an embarrassing book but I found some entertaining parts in the Alleyn story. I remembered what I learned in the US in school and other events. Listening to this story did not make it as bad as it could be to consider ambassadoral characters. Ngaio Marsh seems to have some early work about the protection of these African politicians.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous
- 07-31-22
Nadia May does it again
Ngaio Marsh is my favorite mystery writer and Nadia May the best reader I’ve heard. Thanks to both of them for a series of wonderful adventures!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marily
- 06-11-15
At the very end..You understand!
Love the Author, she never disappoints! Fabulous reader, just a nuance of change and walla a different person speaks. The story is moving toward the climax with never a bump, and...what was not clearly understood... is a marvelous play on words!! Loved it!
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- annc
- 10-01-20
Long time fan of Ngaio Marsh
Love the mystery, however narrator made everyone sound the same. Couldn't see the characters in my mind. Have read all the books and own the DVD 's so I have a picture in my head what they look like and how they sound.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jess
- 12-31-22
Loved it!
Excellent plot. Superior character development. Inviting and realistic setting. Loved the cat. Very clearly and well read!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marion
- 06-18-21
Interesting storyline
Very interesting storyline of that time period
The narration was very good. I enjoyed this book.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Stark
- 02-02-19
Extremely Dated Content
This book could be triggering and upsetting. There is a lot of racial prejudice in it. I'm re-listening to a lot of Ngaio Marsh work that I read decades ago.
In addition, there is fat phobic nastiness. I don't really recommend the book.
The reader was great.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- aishajc
- 07-19-21
Featuring lots of colonialism - as well as both casual and virulent racism -
I wish audible had chosen a different book from this series to include in the plus catalog. I guessed that a story about an African ambassador set in this time period would be problematic but I (foolishly) wasn’t expecting it to be so relentlessly cringe inducing. I had a higher opinion of the author before sitting through this story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful